When the football friendlies start you know the new season is not that far off. In fact, it’s only four weeks away and while punters are looking at value bets for the upcoming seasons, others are scouring the friendlies for good bets. There’s a danger in betting on football friendlies – while there’s no doubt teams are trying to win these games, managers are more interested in testing combinations, set plays, their young and upcoming players and trying to fit new signings into those combinations. When it comes to football friendlies, form often counts for nothing, and punters with smart football betting strategies can really clean up.

With that in mind, you’d be surprised at how often well credentialed clubs are beaten in club friendlies, especially at this time of the year. Today, Bolton are in the U.S. and they take on FC Tampa Bay. Bolton at 8/13 don’t appear to be good value. Tampa at 6/1 are well worth a small wager since the returns are going to be good – at those odds, you only need to hit one winner in five bets to make a profit, and that profit would be slightly better than having Bolton win at 8/13 – if they lose, that’s a decent loss.

There’s an interesting game tomorrow between Liverpool and the Malaysian Allstars. Liverpool are 1/8 and should win, but you never know – the Allstars at 14/1 would be a nice collect as would a draw at 13/2, however, Liverpool should manage a win here.

A game that could be interesting is the Chelsea – Portsmouth match. Portsmouth had a reputation for knocking off some of the big clubs several seasons ago. They have been through their agony in recent years with threatened closure, loss of competition points, and relegation. A win against Chelsea would be great for their rebuilding efforts. At 6/1, Portsmouth are good value against a Chelsea outfit that has seen some changes. I am not sure I would want to back them at 1/2 in club friendly.

The real action gets underway on August 13. That’s only a month for clubs to fine tune their lineups, practice their set plays, and to prepare themselves for what could be a very interesting season.