Sports betting is bigger than it has ever been. This is a result of it being more easily accessible and more widely advertised.

Two decades ago, punters would either go to a betting shop to place a bet or do it over the phone. Nowadays, this can be done online or on your mobile phone at the swipe of a button.

The advantage of betting on your phone means you can make in-play bets whilst watching the event of your choice.

Take, for example, a Premier League football match. A number of teams are sponsored by a bookmaker, a number of the advertising boards at Premier League grounds advertise bookmakers, and a number of the television adverts during the game are by bookmakers.

This leads to numerous fans signing up and placing a bet on the game they are watching — thinking it’s much easier to predict the correct result, next goalscorer, and so on.

Those who should not bet on football though are the footballers themselves. Recently Frome Town manager Nick Bunyard was banned after betting on team to lose — a serious offense.

On top of this, numerous footballers have lost all of their money as a result of their gambling.

Paul Merson, Keith Gillespie and Kerry Dixon are three famous examples of this. All have since released an autobiography to try make some money back, detailing their serious addictions.

You’d think that those who play the game would know it better than most. However, that’s not the case. Whilst the average punter has the opportunity to watch many live games, highlights, and do research before making an astute bet, the footballers themselves are playing in the games or preparing for the games and therefore simply don’t pick up the level of knowledge of a punter.

On top of that, players may favour certain teams or players they have played with and show a bias towards them, thinking that betting with the heart instead of the head is healthy. When top flight footballers are earning the wages they do, do they really need to make more money through betting anyway?

The average punter certainly doesn’t need to go down the path of a footballer and lose money at gambling.  Today, it’s easier than ever to bet on football and make a profit with betting odds services like SmartBets and bookmaker reviews sites like BettingExpert have made it incredibly easy for even the novice punter to get a head start when placing an informed bet.

And if you end up playing professional football, you’re living the dream. Leave the fantasy (i.e. gambling) to the rest of us.