In life we can prepare for something to the most minute detail, but it is often the case of being at the right place at the right time which is the difference between success and failure.

Likewise in Sports Betting doing the necessary due diligence should ensure your success in the long run, but along the way there are going to be times where you just get plain lucky or perhaps unlucky.

This past weekend my Best Bet was the Chiefs to score 26 points or more away at the Highlanders. I wrote a Friday morning newsletter where I put the bet up and then on Saturday morning I got further involved with a much bigger bet on the over 25.5.

The game itself wasn’t what I hoped it would be and an early Chiefs disallowed try sent me a clear message, “this was going to be a long and hard struggle”. The Chiefs reached 23 points meaning I just needed one more score. They missed what looked a relatively straight forward drop goal and then attempted an ambitious penalty which failed.

The score finished 23-23 and the teams were headed for overtime and this is where things get interesting. My initial bet was a loser as the Chiefs had failed to get to the 26 points, but the subsequent press bet that I placed was with a bookmaker who includes overtime in their quote, so in other words as long as the Chiefs won the game on the golden point rule my bet would win.

I had not considered this factor when taking the bet and as much as this went in my favour it could certainly have gone against anyone playing under 25.5 points in the same market.

The Chiefs weathered some early Highlanders pressure and a drop goal attempt before they finally managed to get some territory in extra time winning a penalty. Fullback, Damian Mckenzie stepped up and hit a kick right at the edge of his range, but thank goodness went flying through the uprights.

Had that bet lost I was ready to sit out the rest of the weekend and perhaps even a couple of weeks, but from those winnings I was able to go on a winning run including an 18/1 Cycling Winner and I managed to finish the weekend well up and full of confidence.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 15 April 2021.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register