[toc]Every so often a sports betting site comes up with an innovation that really is a game changer. In recent times livestreaming and in-play betting are two such features. Both changed how people like to bet on sites like Betway and Bet365 Sport. However, Betway now has an innovation all its own. Moreover, it promises to be one of the most exciting and useful additions to the site for punters ever.
It is called the 12th Man, and here is how it works.
Betway’s 12th Man feature
Research is a key part of betting
In the past, when you wanted to place a bet on a sporting market or event, you would often try and do a little research. Serious punters would head to the statistics section of the site. There, they would check through the data for the competitor or competitors.
Through this, they would try to isolate which markets would be the most likely to see some degree of success. Of course, those markets still needed good value as a betting option.
Of course, researching is time consuming. Wouldn’t it be extremely useful for punters if there was an option on a site that scans through the main statistics of a sports bet for them? Then it comes up with suggestions based on cold, hard evidence as to what the best bets for this game are.
Well, welcome to Betway’s 12th Man feature. That is precisely what this small but hugely useful tool does for punters on the site.
How the 12th Man researches for you
When you select a betting market that has access to relevant statistics, the 12th Man feature, which is located in the top right corner of the page, will update with the selected market. Let’s take, for example, the Europa League semifinal match up between Lyon and Ajax.
What the 12th Man feature then does is scan through the statistics for the two teams competing in the competition to look for patterns in matches involving them. In the case of the example, the 12th Man has highlighted two potentially lucrative bets. Both Teams to Score Yes and Total Goals 1.5 – Over.
In addition to suggesting these bets, the feature also explains underneath why it suggested each of these bets. For example in for the Both Teams to Score Yes bet, it states that in Lyon’s last eight group stage matches, both teams have found the net. Similarly, there have been over 1.5 goals in the last five group stage games involving Ajax.
Furthermore, underneath this box is a box which compares the two teams head to head, outlining their performances over the last ten games in the league. You can use this again to further refine your bets.
For a typical punter, this is hugely useful. It saves a lot of time and it allows punters to back markets that, statistically at least, suggest that they have a good chance of turning into a winning bet.
Recommended 12th Man bets
In addition to the 12th Man feature being able to guide you on your selected markets, the feature also lists some of the most popular and potentially successful bets of the day. It then puts them together into a number of different bets.
To see the three different types of bets on offer here, simply load up the home screen of Betway Sports. From there, check the 12th Man column before you click on any sporting market. What you will have now is a list of different bets shown. There are directional arrows each side of the bet. You can scroll through the bets by clicking on these arrows.
The three types of bets you’ll tend to find available on the 12th Man feature are:
Popular bets
These are the bets which have been most popularly backed by other punters on the site. So, rather than cold, hard statistics about the game being the main factor here, what you have is the knowledge and experience of other punters backing these markets more than other markets available.
Top bets
This is arguably my favourite feature of the 12th Man section. In this section, you have a list of what the statistics tend to show are the most likely bets to be successful. There is even a probability scale which will suggest how likely that bet is to be successful based on past data.
If you hover the cursor over this, the software will explain why the percentage rating is what it is. The markets shown here are a mix of popular betting markets. Some of the types of bets include Over/Under goals, to win, and Both Teams to Score.
Banker acca
This is the accumulator that the 12th Man feature puts together. It comprises of five selections which it feels have the best chance of success. Again, these may not necessarily be on the outright winner market. It can also include bets on the Over/Under 2.5 goals, or Both Teams to Score markets.
With all three of these types of bets, you are free to select each bet singly. Or, in a nice touch, 12th Man puts the five selections together into an accumulator bet for you. It also outlines how much a unit stake (the default setting being £10) would return if the bet is successful. To place any of the bets as an acca, simply add all the selections to your bet slip by clicking on the odds.
At the moment, the 12th Man feature is only available for football betting. As a result, it is only of interest to punters who regularly bet on soccer. However this is a significant proportion of Betway’s target audience. There is absolutely no doubt that it is a well-used feature and one that proves especially useful to punters who want to quickly put bets with a higher chance of success.
