Football betting is hugely popular throughout the world, and more and more football bettors are placing wagers on their favourite teams. The popularity of football betting is such that it will not wane one bit despite the FA's recent disassociation with various gambling firms. At its core, the world of gambling is a zero sum game, implying that you would always have losers as well as winners in every game. Let's take you through the top five football betting mistakes you must constantly guard against to ensure that you do not lose more than what you can afford. Football betting mistakes you must always guard against Constantly avoiding these football betting mistakes, along with following some effective football betting tips, would ensure that you stay in the black all through your football betting journey. Avoid unknown sports betting websites Carry out a simple search on the internet and you would come across a great multitude of sports betting websites pitching themselves as the best in the business. The gambling world, especially online, is overflowing with such fraudulent entities trying to mislead and deceive people. You must bet only with the popular and well-known online bookmakers. Furthermore, whatever you do, never fall for any illegal betting markets and bookmakers. Bet very cautiously when it comes to accumulators Also commonly referred to as parlay bets, accumulators are two or more single bets connected to each other. You win such bets only when all the single bets included in the accumulator win. These bets are sold pretty aggressively to the newcomers as they promise huge returns from small stakes. However, if looked at closely, anyone confident about his/her analytical skills and odds would be far better off placing single bets instead. Sports betting is all about probability and whenever you include multiple bets under one umbrella, you are obviously incurring bigger risks. The chances of winning such bets are as good as winning a lottery. Football betting mistakes you must always guard against Constantly looking for 100% guaranteed returns Please note there is no such thing as a 100% guaranteed bet. You should never waste your precious money and time looking for such opportunities. Rather, your focus should be on hard work and creation of a good betting methodology, to score more consistent football betting returns. Being inconsistent Consistency in football betting is all about betting regularly in a way that you can confidently predict a long-term result for yourself. One of the biggest mistakes committed in sports betting is not using any methodology. People often bet based on their gut feelings and get frequently blinded by lucky guesses (which sometimes make them win too). Remember, you will always win some and lose some in football betting, but you would significantly improve your probability of winning if you use some solid methodology on a regular basis. Blindly following the concept of high probability and low odds It is a mistake commonly made by the majority of the novice football bettors. They start betting regularly on markets having high probability and low odds, often winning consistently too. Betting on outright winners and match total under 4.5 goals are couple of good examples of such bets. Although these may seem safe, their odds are often so low that you would end up on the losing side in the long term.