When you’re looking at betting on sport, it may seem like a fairly simple process. You pick something you think is going to happen, you put money down, you wait, you hopefully win. That can seem to be all there is to it, but for those who make more of a success of their betting, you’d be surprised to learn that there’s a much larger amount of groundwork that goes into ensuring that their efforts are as streamlined and as effective as possible.

If you want to bet and make at least a semi-serious pastime of it, then it is beneficial to treat it as something more than just a game. Of course it should always be enjoyable – if that element of the process goes away, it’s probably time to think about a different hobby. However, when you have fully researched the websites not on Gamstop where you can make sports bets, and picked the sites that work for you, then it is always a good idea to build a process that helps you keep things in order. Below, we’ll talk about a few kinds of app that can help you in this.

A score-tracking app

Most soccer fans have at least one app on their phone that helps them keep up with games in progress. With a single click, you can request push notifications that alert you when a goal is scored, if there is a player sent off, and also lets you know when team lineups are named as well as kick-off, half-time and full-time. Information like this can be genuinely beneficial; if a team you have backed takes a lead late on in a close match, you may prefer to cash out rather than wait and hope the opposition doesn’t equalise.

A bet calculator app

If you’re taking your betting seriously, you may be signed up at a number of sites which display their odds in different ways. Bookmakers may offer decimal, fractional or American-style moneyline odds, and each is calculated in a different way. While your winnings will be the same however the odds are displayed, it’s a good idea to be able to track what the end result will be when recording your wagers. A bet calculator takes the possibility of human error out of this process, and is a good way of double-checking you’ve got the right details from the betting site.

A spreadsheet app

The point about logging all of your bets is deadly serious. The reasons for this go beyond just having a document you can refer to for your own accounting. It also pays to have an additional record of bets you’ve made in case there is an error at the betting site and your payout is incorrect; for this reason you should take a screenshot of your completed bet slip and log it in the sheet. You should also make a note of your profit and loss at the end of each betting session, as this will allow you to see when you have the most success, and can be instructive for future betting decisions.