Mihai Blidareanu

In the summer of 2006, I was on my honeymoon in Rome. One day, my wife and I were walking through the city when we heard a loud noise, several voices speaking excitedly, and a man came out of a building slamming the door and gesturing nervously. When I realized it was a betting agency, I became even more curious. I admit I was shocked when I went inside, because the floor was covered with hundreds of crumpled tickets, and you didn’t need to know Italian to understand how people felt. The image of hose betting tickets scattered everywhere has remained etched in my memory, and the question that came to mind at the time was how come there were so many losers.

It took me many years to realize that most bettors are primarily looking for the adrenaline rush, a feeling similar to players of roulette or slot machines. I too went through this phase of my life as a bettor, until I started asking myself how I could improve my winning percentage.

Do you remember when you were at school as a child? If you didn’t do your homework, you often got low grades, and when you did your homework, you got high grades.

It’s the same in the world of betting. If you do your homework, that is, prepare the ground for success, it will come. What does homework mean in this field? It means not betting on a team just because you are a fan. It means looking for information about the match you are going to bet on and sitting quietly on the bench until it is your turn. It means waiting for the right moment to bet.

I worked for almost 10 years in a sports newsroom. There I experienced sports to the fullest: I watched every match, from table tennis to curling, read the news non-stop, and discussed betting daily. I learned a lot during that time. 

Handball is my favorite sport, and more than once I advised my friends to bet on certain results that were contrary to those offered by most tipsters. My greatest satisfaction in this regard was when Vipers won their first Women’s Handball Champions League in 2021. Although considered the outsiders from the teams in the Final Four, Vipers had the most valuable squad in my opinion, and I bet on them in both matches.

The idea for this book came about simply: over a beer with friends, while watching a game and talking about betting. That’s when I realized how much experience I had gained and how useful it would be for a live bettor to have all this information put together.

I believe that live betting—i.e., betting after an event has already started—offers even more opportunities to a bettor than classic, pre-match, betting. To take advantage of it, you need discipline, patience, and some specific information, which we will discuss in the following pages. This book does not promise miracles—for that, you must look elsewhere—but it does offer you everything you need to significantly increase your chances of winning and avoid mistakes that cost time and money.