What Does Tailing Mean in Betting? – How to Tail a Bet Explained

When you tail a bet, this refers to situations where a bettor follows the pick of someone else, such as a professional handicapper or sports pundit. We’re going to fully explore the question of what does tailing mean in betting, so that you understand everything that you need to know about the topic.

How Does Tailing a Bet Work?

So that you comprehend the tailing meaning in betting fully, let’s show  you how it is done. This is a step-by-step guide to the process:

Find a Sporting Event That Interests You

Though you can tail with a bet on an event that you have no interest or knowledge in, we think it’s better to choose something that you’re enthusiastic and knowledgeable about.

Ideally, you should buy into and believe in the bet that you’re tailing and that is more likely if you have an insight into the event yourself.

Get a Pick From a Trusted Source

Now it’s time to find a trusted source of betting advice. You can find such figures in all sorts of different places.

They might be sports pundits in the media, talented bettors sharing their advice on social channels, or pro tipsters that earn a living from giving their betting insights. Many offshore sportsbooks have their own blog sites giving betting advice, including MyBookie.

Place the Bet

Find a piece of betting advice from a trusted expert, that you agree with and think is a good bet. You are then ready to place a wager.

Find the bet in question at your sportsbook of choice and complete your tailing sports betting experience.

Why Bettors Use Tailing in Sports Betting

There are a number of reason why bettors utilize tailing at online sportsbooks. Chiefly, following the advice of someone with a track record of betting success, just makes sense.

If there is demonstrable proof that someone can regularly pick winners and deliver a profit, then it stands to reason that you could benefit from following their advice, if you follow it consistently. You can also benefit from their breadth of knowledge.

Perhaps there’s a big event that you’d like to place a be on, but don’t know too much about, where an expert pick would be extremely useful. Or maybe you normally stick to moneyline wagers and would benefit from betting advice regarding a different market.

Pro bettors put in the sort of research that most people struggle to find the time for. They will pick out relatively obscure wagers such as prop bets, as they deeply research team and player statistics.

Perhaps the biggest long-term advantage of tailing is that you get an insight into the methods of successful bettors. Their picks will include an accompanying explanation.

You will therefore get to understand why the experts are making their picks, which will help you to identify value bets in the same way.

Tailing is not just a short-term fix that allows you to tap into profits. It is also has long-term benefits and can help you to become a better bettor.

The Most Popular Tail Sports Betting Events

In this part of our exploration of what does tailing mean in betting, we’re going to look at some of the biggest events which inspire bettors to tail wagers.

These huge events create a lot of media interest and that includes betting experts giving their opinions and picks.

Super Bowl

The NFL season builds to the Super Bowl every year. This football game is the finale to the campaign and held annually in February. The regular season starts in September and is followed by the playoffs in January.

These different stages of the season ensure that there are a regular flow of Super Bowl picks available. It starts in pre-season, with pro sports bettors and pundits giving their advice on which teams have the potential to win the Super Bowl.

As the first part of the season develops, such experts can deliver more insight and fresh picks. This is even truer during the playoffs, as the number of contenders narrows.

Finally we reach a stage where the identity of the Super Bowl are known, when there is betting advice available on the many lines available, including various props and exotic bets.

Kentucky Derby

The biggest event of the US horse racing calendar is the Kentucky Derby. It is a race that is the highlight of the Kentucky Derby Festival, which takes place each year at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

The Kentucky Derby serves as the first-leg of the Triple Crown, along with the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, so the result of this race has great significance.

Horses can book their place at this event through the Road to the Kentucky Derby, in which they can earn points from a series of races, to qualify.

These start in the September of the previous year, so both oddsmakers and tipsters can start forming their opinions around the big race, months before it takes place.

Moneyline odds are therefore available long in advance of the Kentucky Derby, so there is a wealth of betting advice available in the run-up, which intensifies as May comes closer.

NBA Finals

No basketball game on the planet is bigger than those which make up the NBA Finals. The culmination of the NBA season sees the two remaining teams play a best-of-seven series of games, to decide who will be champions.

Speculation as to who that team will be begins in pre-season, with NBA futures bets available during the summer period.

With each team playing 82 games over six months before the playoffs, tipsters have a long time to assess their picks, which can change as the odds fluctuate.

The playoffs run from April through to June, with the contenders being whittled down to two. There are a huge amount of markets available for tipsters to assess, with player props being particularly popular in basketball.

Stanley Cup Finals

Another Major League that employs an extremely similar season schedule to what we see in basketball, is the NHL. The seven-hockey game finale to the NHL season is known as the Stanley Cup.

In the first part of the season each team plays 82 games, between October and April. Some 16 teams then move into the playoffs, contesting a four-round tournament to determine the ultimate champion, which is decided in June.

Again like basketball, this is a truly international sport played all over the globe, so there is worldwide interest in the Stanley Cup, which represents the highest standard of hockey on the planet.

A long campaign gives pundits and betting experts scope to pick out the Stanley Cup winner throughout the entire season, before the excitement and betting opportunities of best-of-seven showdown.

World Series

A third league that culminates in a best-of-seven final is the MLB. The season provides even more sporting action than the NBA and NHL. Each of the 30 teams plays 162 baseball games per-season between April and October, when the playoffs start.

Twelve teams contest the playoffs, with the winners of the American League Championship Series and the National League Championship Series meeting in the World Series.

Baseball is a sport rich in statistics, so experts have a lot of prop bets to choose from when making their World Series picks. These are a bit of fun, but there’s also serious betting with the games.

There is also lots of scope for future wagers, with betting odds on the World Series being available as soon as the previous season ends.

Pros & Cons of Tailing Bets

No examination of what does tailing mean in betting would be complete without looking at both the benefits and disadvantages. Here are the pros and cons of this type of bet.

What Does Tail Mean in Betting Strategy?

By now you could be ready to try out some tail sports betting yourself. Before you jump into it, here are some strategies that will aid your future success.

The Opposite to Tailing in Betting

With tailing, you follow the advice of an expert in the hope of enjoying some similar success. Yet there is also a popular strategy based on the exact opposite course of action.

Known as ‘fading the public‘, with this strategy, you oppose popular opinion. If the money is going in one direction, yours goes the opposite way.

This is not a strategy that you just follow blindly. It’s one to employ in certain specific circumstances. The weight of money placed on an outcome may shorten the odds, meaning that the value lies elsewhere.

Or if the odds suggest that the moneyline favorites have an 80% chance of winning, but you think the real chance is more like 40%, then it will make sense to fade.

Having both tailing and fading in your locker, increases your options and opportunities to being profitable with your betting.

Other Names for a Tail in Betting

We’re almost at the end of our explanation of what does tailing mean in betting. Before we go, here are some alternative words and phrases in betting parlance, that essentially mean the same as tailing.

Times When You Shouldn’t Tail a Bet

We’ve discussed the reasons why you should tail. There are also some moments when it doesn’t make sense.

Be careful about any changes that could impact the chances of the pick winning. Say a tipster gives perfectly legitimate advice on a moneyline bet a couple of days before a football game. What if there’s an injury to an important player? Or a change in weather conditions?

Sometimes an expert’s tip can lead to a lot of people betting on that selection. This can make the price drop and if it goes to a level where you no longer feel that it represents value, then you should resist the temptation to follow the bet.

Or perhaps you just really disagree with the advice. Even if a tipster has a strong record and you generally follow them, you should perhaps trust your instincts if you disagree with their pick.

If you tail and then discover that you were right all along, you will be annoyed at yourself. Just sit that bet out, see what occurs and treat it as a learning exercise.

FAQs

What is tailing in betting?

Tailing is a type of sports bet strategy. You follow the advice of a pro bettor, tipster or pundit.

Is tailing a bet profitable?

It can be a profitable way to bet. If you follow the betting advice of someone with a consistent record of delivering profits, logic says that you are likely to make profit yourself. 

What does tailing mean in sports betting and how is it different from fading?

Tailing is when you follow the advice of a handicapper or sports pundit. Fading is when you go against received opinion with your bet. So if the public are heavily backing one outcome, fading would see you bet against that outcome. 

Does tailing in betting provide value?

You can find value from tailing. If you can find a betting expert that consistently gives advice that delivers profits, then you can expect to see value from following their picks. If other bettors follow these en masse, however, then the expected value may no longer be there.

What are the risks associated with tailing a bet?

Even the most consistent tipster will occasionally have losing bets. That said, if you regularly follow the advice of such a handicapper, you should be in profit before long, even if you do suffer the odd loss.