Online gambling is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and in Ireland, at the moment. More and more operators are springing up all the time, and while this gives the consumer more choice, it can become an increasingly confusing field to get into. Knowing where to bet, what to look out for, and how to best use your time and money becomes harder and harder.
Today, we’re going to give you our best tips for gambling online in Ireland. From getting started to the nuts and bolts of your betting career, these are the things you really need to know if you want to make a success out of betting online.
Let’s get started.
Licensing
First and foremost, before you do anything, you need to understand licensing. Any casino that is legally operating in Ireland will be licensed by the Revenue Commissioners. Any that does not carry such a license is operating illegally, and will likely not be safe to use.
The Commission has issued licenses to as many as 2,000 different operators, offering a variety of different services. If you can’t find a particular site in their directory, then the site is not safe and you should steer clear.
No matter how lucrative an offer they may have, it is never safe to bet with unlicensed betting sites.
Odds
Next, you can start shoring up your knowledge of how betting actually works. The key thing to understand is odds. Odds are the house’s determination of the likelihood of a particular outcome, and thus also of how much you will win for a bet.
Take, for example, horse racing—one of the most popular ways to bet in Ireland. If you bet on a horse in a race to win, then there will be odds of that happening provided by the betting site. If those odds were 5/1, then your winnings would be five times your original stake, plus the stake back.
So, if you bet €1 on that horse and it won, you would receive €5 plus your original stake.
Understanding this is vital for virtually any kind of betting, so be sure you understand this before getting started.
Research
Depending on what you are planning to bet on, research is also going to be a key part of your online betting career. Sticking with the example of horse racing, having a good idea of which horses stand a chance of winning must come from a certain amount of knowledge of those horses.
The same applies to virtually any sport or casino game. You must research that a particular online casino is legitimate, and this should start with a comparison site like Topbettingsites casino or another other that you can find when you Google “best casinos”. These sites usually compare licensed sites backed up with customer reviews.
But you will also need to do some research into table game betting, too. Poker, for example, is a highly complex game, and it can be difficult to just pick it up. Research is a key part of learning how the game works before you’re putting any real money at risk.
Strategy
Following on from that, your strategy is always going to be a key part of any betting. Maximising your winnings is usually done by sticking with one or two forms of betting and really getting to know them.
Most, if not all, career bettors have their own strategy which they follow and believe works. This is obviously going to mean very different things if it’s sports betting or table games, or whatever it may be, but it’s always a good idea to have one.
If nothing else, it’s really important to keep your betting consistent, and to keep track over time of what works and what doesn’t.
Budgeting
Finally, it’s really vitally important that you budget for your online betting. Never spend more than you can afford to lose, and never chase your losses—these are the leading causes of gambling debt.
Statistics show that as many as half of all problem gamblers do not seek help until they are, on average, around €10,000 in debt.
Set yourself an exact amount of money that you can spend each week on betting, and never exceed that. You may make a small loss, but you can turn that loss around in a shorter time. If you chase those losses and they build up, you will have a harder time recouping them.
Online betting isn’t always easy, and there can seem to be a lot to get to grips with—even if you are familiar with betting in general. There is always more to learn as you go on, but the fact is that making money betting isn’t really easy. The most important things are that you protect yourself from debt and spiralling losses. Make sure to budget, most importantly, and to have a solid strategy to follow.
