18 October 2025

295 thoughts on “True Odds & Value Detector: League Games with H2H History

    1. Hi Sergiu, league games only.

      Cup games are something totally different. Most teams don’t know each other, they play against other division teams. It’s just complicated.

  1. Hi, I purchased your value bet calculator awhile ago and had a question regarding the head to head games. I noticed that there is a minimum of 6 and max or 10 games. So wouldn’t 6 games give a weight to the formula by 25% and 10 games give a weight to 40%. So with 6 being the minimum wouldn’t this make the results inaccurate since there is a variation of 4? I hope im making sense. Best regards, Amy

  2. Seasons greetings from Malaysia. I have a question pertaining to the Value Detector if you don’t mind.

    I’ve just a completed 5-year study of the Japanese leagues using the value detector sheet. I used Pinnacle Sports’ closing odds instead of using the highest to be more realistic and League 2’s yield was a loss of 5%. Pinnacle Sports’ average over-round was 3.9% so quite a reasonable over-round.

    So are there some leagues that are either too random, or possibly too predictable, that it’s not possible to make a profit? Or do they all make a profit in the long run and this is just an anomaly?

    Cheers!

    1. Hello again Mark,

      Thanks for taking the trouble to write.

      You will find that most divisions outside the top tier league in any country will return negative figures across the board.

      The overround is usually so large on these leagues that the odds are simply not high enough to justify committing money to.

      The reason for this is that the bookmakers have a real problem trying to balance their book when demand for the bets is not high.

      With any fringe division, such as J-League 2, the amount of money turned over and the frequency of the bets struck mean that any bookie will drop odds across the board, making it more expensive for you to buy the bet (in terms of value). When demand is low, the price is low.

      I would wholly recommend sticking with the premier leagues in any country you wish to analyse. In fact, any league where demand for bets is high. Prices will be higher, there will be more bookmakers to choose from, and there will be more ‘value’ opportunities because of these.

      In answer to your last question, every league is different but patterns can be detected. No league is too predictable! 🙂 It is possible to make a profit from any league where historical statistics (results and odds) can be filtered to show the inflection points in that league (i.e. the point where profits turn to losses or losses turn to profits).

      In terms of making an overall profit, you will need numerous systems to support each other and an expected bet count of at least 500 in total per season, although more is preferable. (The Law of Large Numbers).

      Hope this helps and thanks again for your contribution.

  3. I have enjoyed using your value bet detector and compliment you on a well thought out and intelligent spreadsheet.

    I do however have some recommendations to maybe improve your product.

    1. You mention in the notes that column T shows the likelihood of success. Column T is blank.
    2. You say that column R shows potential bet candidates. Column R is actually the custom column where the user inputs their own recommendation?
    3. Could you explain the criteria that makes a back or lay appear in column S? I have seen on occasion a bet that looks real value but doesn’t trigger this condition.
    4. On the home sheet, the home team name is brought in from the main sheet via a function. If you had this as a column where you entered the value it would save cutting and pasting twice to enter data values from the results information that has been acquired. The same could be said with the HTHG/HTAG etc. Columns could be placed in an order so you could enter data in one go instead of several copy and pastes. This also applies to the away sheet.
    5. The H2H should be in the same format as the away/home tabs for ease of data entry too.

    I have found a way of quickly getting the data together that may work for others. It takes a while to set up but once done gets the information easily and in the format that your tabs are in.
    1. download the last 10 years results for each league from football-data as recommended by you.
    2. Put the last ten years results in one excel sheet in date order.
    3. Look at a site like soccerstand to see the H2H data. This is the quickest filter for a bet recommendation. If there isn’t 6 matches in 10 years go no further.
    4. Check both teams home results to see if they are both from the same league. This filters out relegated/promoted teams.
    4. When a possible fixture is identified use the data tab and the filter in your 10 years of results spreadsheet to request the info relevant to the home and away teams and copy and paste into the value spreadsheet.
    5. in the data tab use the sort facility and sort the home and away teams in two levels to show previous meetings for the H2H.
    6. Add other meetings ie, cup/different league etc into the H2H.
    7. Your sheet then does the calculations.

    regards

    timmyp

  4. Hi SoccerWidow,

    I purchased your valuebet dector, however, on some match I cannot have the H2H minimum of 6 matches. For example, there were only 1 H2H during the past 10 years, how should I proceed without the H2H data?

    Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

    Looking forward to your response!

    Best regards,
    XNX

    1. Hi XNX,

      the VC is ONLY for league games with H2H history! This is a very important correction factor.

      If you don’t have H2H data, i.e. the teams have not played against each other in the last 10 years, then leave it. The calculations are totally different, and much more complicated.

  5. Hi, for domestic cup matches which spreadsheet would be best to use would it be the domestic one with head to head or the international club competition without head to head? I was just confused because for example tommorow Middlesbrough who play in the championship are playing Burton Albion who are in league 1 but both teams are in really good form in there respective leauges so it may confuse the true odds.

  6. Hi, if I can’t get the odds I desire before kick off is it ok to wait for in-play for the odds to reach what i need? for instance say i want to lay the away team but their odds are too low, could I wait and see if the home side scores or if the match remains a draw then lay the away side once my odds target has been reached?

  7. Hi soccerwidow,

    Shouldn’t we include an element of Home Field Advantage in our calculations ?

    I wonder your views on that !

    1. Hi Socrates,

      the “Home Field Advantage” is factored in by including the H2H history in the calculations as a correction factor. The more often the home team won against their opponent in the past the stronger the factor.

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