Taking advantage of the “if” and reverse “if” bets
In sports betting, there are many subtleties that will impact your win/loss rate in a pretty radical way. Regardless of how big or small an edge you can secure through these factors, it is your obligation as a sports bettor who wants to make money, to take full advantage of them. Placing reverse if bets (also simply known as reverse) is one subtle way to control your losses. In order to understand how these reverse if bets work, you first need to take a look at the simple if bets.
The if bets consist of two straight bets at normal vig. You basically wager a set amount of money on a team and if your team wins, the same amount of money will automatically be wagered on another team in a different game. The if bet is structurally the equivalent of placing two straight bets of an equal size on two different games. In the case of an if bet though, once you’ve placed your wagers, you cannot cancel the second one regardless of what happens (if your first bet loses, you won’t have to anyway). This rule is valid even if the second game in your if bet setup hasn’t started yet. What that means is that two straight bets offer you better control over your betting than an if bet. If the two games you’re looking to bet on overlap though, the only way you can place a bet on both using the if structure, is through an if bet.
Here’s how an if bet goes: you tell the bookmaker you want to wager $100 on Team A if Team B. In this case, you wager $110 to win $100 on the first match-up. In case your team wins, you then wager $110 on team B to win $100 on the second match-up. If your first team loses, your total losses will amount to $110. If your first team wins and your second team loses, you’ll only drop the $10 vig. If both your teams win, you book a $200 win. The problem with this setup is that every time your first team loses, you drop the $110, regardless of what the second team does. This means that in some split cases, you drop $110, while in others, you only lose $10. You need to correct the imbalance somehow.
Enter the reverse if bet. In a reverse, what you do is that you split the money you want to wager, and place a $55 if bet on team A and team B as specified above. Then you go and place another $55 if bet on team B and team A. This way, you’ll get rid of the disadvantage that team A losing splits hit you with. Basically, the reverse consists of two separate if bets. You do not need to specify this for your bookmaker. All you have to do is ask for a reverse on the two teams.
In the case of the reverse, if both your teams win, you walk away with the $200. If both teams lose, you’ll drop $110, the same amount you’d drop in the case of a simple if bet.
If the teams split though, you lose $55 on your first if bet and in the second if bet you win $50 then drop $5 (50-55 on the second bet) altogether (the vig) for a total loss of $60. The same goes regardless of the order in which the teams win or lose. This will get the $110 burden off your back. I realize it’s not a huge edge, but exploiting such small edges over and over works. Online poker rakeback is such a small edge too, yet it works wonderfully. By signing up to a rakeback or a poker prop deal, you’ll pocket a handsome sum of money at the end of the month, because you get <a href=”http://www.rakemeback.com”>rake rebate</a> on pretty much every single real money hand that you play, not to mention the tournament fees.
