Tips for Sports Betting Starters in South Africa

Football is the most popular sport in South Africa. Cricket, rugby, tennis and basketball follow closely. Unsurprisingly, many sports bettors in the country wager on one of the sports we’ve mentioned above.

Speaking of betting, South Africans have a wide array of sportsbooks to use. What’s more, you can deposit and withdraw your money through cards, digital wallets, wire transfer and even crypto.

But what can you do to win sports bets regularly? Learn more about online sports betting for South African players below.

1—Choose a Sport you Love

The beauty of online betting in South Africa is that you can bet on just about anything. You can gamble on the popular sports. Or you can focus on minor sports like MMA, eSports and table tennis.

Regardless, choose a sport you love. The explanation is simple. It’s easier to learn more about football if you love the beautiful game. You can watch matches effortlessly, listen to podcasts and read blogs about your favorite leagues and tournaments.

To be clear, you can choose more than one sport. But try and specialize as much as you can. You can pick one sport with lots of daily games. And you can pick another for spicing up things once in a while.

2—Find a Trustworthy Betting Site

When you’re a beginner, it’s easy to think every good-looking betting website is legit. What’s more, you might not know much about what to look for in a sports book.

But that’s alright. The first thing you should check is safety measures like a valid license, a padlock sign on the address bar, password protection and a data protection policy.

Next check out the betting site to get a feel of its user interface. Look at the betting markets, payment options and contact methods. Importantly, compare its odds with competing bookie.

If you’re short on time, look for a sportsbook review website. You’ll find dozens of safe betting sites in South Africa. In many cases, you’ll also discover the best places to claim free bets and other betting bonuses.

3—Learn the Basics of Sports Betting

This might sound obvious but you can’t win at betting if you don’t understand the basics. Now, you probably know betting is all about predicting what happens in sports.

The most common prediction is to guess the winner of a match. But there’s more to that in betting. For example, you can also predict the total number of goals scored in a game.

You can predict whether both teams or only one side nets, the correct score, and the first player to score. Aside from bet types, learn how to read odds. You need it to separate good from terrible odds.

Another basic skill you need as a bettor knowing how to conduct research. You see, you must dig around to learn about teams and players involved in a game. You have to check recent histories, injuries, form and home advantage.

4—Start Slowly

One of the mistakes South African bettors make often is to bet aggressively. Some people spend too much money in betting despite being inexperienced. Others wager on risky games far too often.

In truth, success in betting takes time. Most people don’t record a profit in the first year. As such, start slowly by betting small amounts once in a while. Strive to gain confidence and consistency.

As you gain experience, increase your budget and betting schedule. If you’ve been betting once per week, progress to betting twice or thrice per week. If it doesn’t work out, revert to betting slowly.

Essentially, your goal should be to win consistently. And you achieve this by increasing your knowledge in a sport, league or team.

5—Keep Records

As stated, focus on long-term success. But while doing so, keep all your records. It will help you become a better punter by showing you the best strategies to use and mistakes to avoid in the future.

Imagine this. Your records show you have a 70% winning rate when betting on totals. By comparison, you have a 45% winning record on match winners. Your records could also show you win less in the weekends but have a good record while betting on mid-week games.

In light of that information, you could decide to focus more on total bets in the middle of the week. This way, you can save the money you usually lost by predicting match winners in the weekend.

6—Use Good Bonuses to Win

Let’s cut the chase. You’ve already come across a handful of bonus offers from betting sites in South Africa. But do you know how to turn the free bets to real cash?

The process starts by picking good bonuses. So, research around to discover bonuses that give you good value for your money. Look at the bonus amount, the sports you can bet on and the maximum you can cash out.

Importantly, learn about wager requirements. Most bonuses demand that you wager through your bonus amount 2x, 5x or 10x. Logically, pick a bonus with the lowest number of wager requirements.

Also, look at the odds you have to use to bet. Some bookies say you can only use their bonus on a game with 2.0 odds or more.

7—Checkout Free Tipster Sites

We know—it’s tempting to pay for sports betting tips. Think about it. You can pay someone R10 to receive three to 10 football picks. Of course, tipsters claim you’re bound to win through their tips.

But here’s the problem. Most paid tips are terrible. They’re picked by average sports fans who convince people out there to pay them for tips. As such, there’s no guarantee you’ll win.

Secondly, paying for tips makes you complacent to improve your skills. You’ll always lean towards paid tips and less on doing personal research.

As an alternative, learn to research on your own. Then compare your predictions with opinions from free tipsters. Read their thought processes to watch out for errors in your research. But don’t rely on paid tips to make betting decisions.