After graduating from university in 2014, I started writing for free for various online publications, primarily as a hobby. After a few months I was offered paid work by the likes of FourFourTwo and Goal.com, and I guess journalism became an actual job at some point in 2015.
I’ve regularly written betting previews throughout my time in the industry. It’s hard to say! I remember starting to take an interest when I was probably five or six, and I soon caught the bug. I started playing after that and my dad took me to watch our local team every other week.
My specialism is the Premier League, but I also preview matches in the Champions League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1. When writing tips and predictions, I think it’s vital to offer something the reader they might not already know. You have to put a fair amount of research in, as well as watching numerous games every week.
It’s important to follow every managerial press conference for team news, since players are often ruled in or out at that stage. For form and other factors, there are plenty of excellent research facilities available online. Where possible, I like to watch the team’s previous game too.
Overall it’s a blend of a qualitative and quantitative approach. Football is a low-scoring sport, so you have to learn to look beyond the scoreline as that alone does not tell you very much. Statistics and analytics are not the be-all and end-all, but when used correctly they can be really useful to.