Underdog Betting Strategy

In the sports world, the underdog always seems to draw a bit of a cult following. Whether it be in boxing, horse racing, football, or quite literally any other sport, fans are always excited at the prospect of a major upset.

Some enjoy this idea to the point where they want to place a bet and put some money on the underdog in the hope that one of these upsets occurs. This isn’t always the worst idea, and can very easily turn into a big payday.

When it comes to major upsets, there have obviously been a few in the world of boxing. Muhammed Ali beating George Foreman, Evander Holyfield beating Mike Tyson, Andy Ruiz Jr beating Anthony Joshua, to name but a few.

Underdog upsets happen across the sporting spectrum, but they do seem to be more common in individual sports. This is what you should know about betting on the underdog, and how to maybe improve your chances of winning.

The idea of an individual or team being the “favorite” or being the “underdog” is very straightforward, the favorite is at the top of their game, the underdog isn’t, or is an unknown.

What to remember when placing a bet, is that the favorite is a favorite for a reason. They have the best record, they are consistently successful, and they are almost always stronger. The underdog is usually none of these things.

If you have decided that you want to bet on the underdog, there are a number of factors you need to take into consideration. The first one being, it isn’t always as risky as you may think. Football is a great sport to see this in action.

Massive teams go through slumps, patches with a lot of injuries and whatnot, and a team much lower on the table, that has the ability to score, can very easily score a goal and take home the victory.

This logic also applies to individual sports, maybe a boxer has had some drama and disruption in their camp or they have a slight niggly injury. This all benefits their opponent, and turns the complete underdog with no chance, into an underdog with a real shot at victory.

The point is, you need to do your research. You need to find out what has been happening with the individual or team, and see if there is a weakness that has come to the surface, a weakness that an underdog opponent can possibly take advantage of.

Once again, using football as an example, a team in two or three leagues below their stronger opponent can easily cause an upset simply because the bigger team doesn’t field their strongest 11, or view it as a throwaway match. The result may be irrelevant, but all of a sudden the underdog looks like they could steal a victory. Just look at Cadiz’s victory over Barcelona.

You also have to consider the odds and how much you are willing to spend. You often see stories of a guy at the horse races, drunkenly putting 10 bucks on a horse that is 5000/1 and somehow winning. Yes, this is amazing, but it also rarely happens.

Sometimes an underdog has such astronomical odds for a reason, and you shouldn’t always be tempted by them. It is important to keep perspective and to make smart bets, weighing up risk and reward should always be at the forefront of your mind.

If you have money to play with, however, you may want to bet on only underdogs, and why wouldn’t you? They always give the best odds for a massive payout. This strategy requires patience though, as like what’s been discussed already, they’re the underdogs, they aren’t meant to win.

You will have to accept this, and quickly. Your bets are going to fail far more than they will succeed, but the point is, if you don’t get greedy, if you don’t think “this is the one” and stake far more on it than you should, success will eventually come.

Underdogs win, the favorites lose, this happens in sport, but it isn’t common, and that’s why you need to stay patient and consistent. Betting on the underdog isn’t a waste of money if you can afford it, and the windfall from a win can be enormous.

Take Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson in 1990. Tyson was unstoppable at this point in his career and went into the fight as the favorite with odds of 1/42. However, Douglas somehow not only managed to drop him, but Tyson couldn’t make the 10 count.

This is proof that even the best in the world can be beaten, everyone knows this. No one is invincible and they will lose at some point. The question is when, and no one has the answer to that.

In the end, betting on the underdog is a bold strategy, a strategy that more often than not won’t pan out. But, on that rare occasion when the stars align, the spirits are on your side, or whatever divine magic you want to believe in, the underdog wins, and you’ll roll in the cash.

Just remember, be patient, do your research, be prepared to lose, but also keep an eye on your money and make sure you can afford to lose. There are better betting strategies out there, but who knows, you may get lucky one day.