Many of us enjoy the thought of a good nap – there are few joys in life quite like stealing a bit of sleep of an afternoon.
But you won’t want to sleep on a nap when it comes to your betting, where the word has an altogether different meaning.
And if you can find a reliable source for these ‘naps’, you may find that your betting improves markedly – you may not too of course, but some people are certainly better at predicting outcomes than others.
What Does Nap Mean in Betting?
You may, on your punting journey, have come across betting tips provided by respected pundits and/or mysterious, anonymous individuals on social media.
When advocating a particular horse or team to bet on, the tipster may describe the pick as their ‘NAP’ – which is basically defined as their best bet of the day.
The nap is, in theory, the selection that they believe has the best chance of prevailing given the information available to them. It’s not necessarily about value or beating the closing line – a nap is a pure, unadulterated best shot at a winning bet on any given day.
Many tipsters will publish a ‘nap of the day’, and if you have a keen mind and access to a search engine you will find websites that actually collate all of the naps in one place – saving you the legwork of tracking them down individually.
The term is thought to come from an old card game called Napoleon. If a player thought they had the winning hand in-running, they would shout ‘Napoleon’ and show their cards. The belief is that bets placed by individuals who think they’re sure to win became known as a ‘nap’ accordingly.
Do Naps Always Win?
It goes without saying that not all bets win – it doesn’t matter how knowledgeable the tipster is, sport is unpredictable and favourites in betting markets often lose.
The success rate of a tipster will also be determined by their relative ability as a ‘judge’. Anyone can set up a Twitter account and start pumping out daily tips and naps – they may only have a quick scan of a league table or a racecard before doing so. If they publish enough tips, some of them will win – you can bet your bottom dollar it’s those that the tipster will be promoting, not the many losing selections they make.
There’s a clear difference between a tipster and a pundit who knows their sport inside and out. For example, Ruby Walsh was an outstanding jockey and has since gone on to enjoy a fine media career too. He knows racing, understands what to look for in quality horses and also benefits from having many old friends as jockeys, trainers, owners etc.
So Ruby is a fountain of information, and if he gives out tips and naps for the Cheltenham Festival and the like, it pays to listen. But does that mean that you are surely onto a win if you back them? Of course not. If everybody knew how a horse race or football match would pan out, nobody would watch them.
There’s another potential downside to betting on naps. These selections may be published on the morning of a race – or, worse still – the day before, and therefore they pay no heed to changing conditions, such as when there’s a heavy downpour or the official going is altered.
In these situations, a nap can be rendered useless. Also, a tipster might try to ‘guess’ how the weather will impact upon a race, but what if the predicted rainclouds pass by the course – and therefore the going is not affected as expected?
Naps and any betting tips should only be used as guidance for your punts. Doing your own homework is key.
How to Use a Nap When Betting
When a tipster publishes a nap, it’s worth taking a note of their track record before blindly following them in on a selection.
As mentioned, any Tom, Dick or Harry can label themselves as a ‘tipster’ or ‘pundit’, but if it’s not backed by provable evidence of a track record for success, then following said tipsters could be a poor decision.
Thankfully, there are some guardians at the gate. Independent services like Secret Betting Club verify the picks given out by tipsters, tracking them over a long-term period so that readers get an idea about their win-loss ratio, ability to beat the closing line, ROI and the like.
It is, therefore, possible to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to tipsters – those with a tangible, measured skill when it comes to tipping horses can be trusted more readily than somebody using selection criteria as advanced as those of Paul the Octopus.
When you have found a tipster or two that has been successful (i.e. won money) over a period of time, you can start to back their selections – it’s worth keeping a running tally of your own to confirm how often (or not) they win.
If you find multiple tipsters that deliver quality results, you can start backing their tips in doubles, trebles, accumulators and cover bets – you can find out more about each of those bet types on this very site.
Remember, no pundit or tipster has a magic wand that gives them winners all the time – but some do have a clear and tracked knack for yielding positive returns on their bets in the long run.
What Does NB Mean in Betting?
So we know what ‘nap’ or ‘nap of the day’ means, but what about NB?
Let’s imagine that a tipster has given out a small handful of bets to follow on a given day. We know that their nap is the one that they believe to have the best chance of winning, but they may also mark up another selection as their NB – Next Best.
In short, their nap is their pick of the day and their NB is the selection that they have designated as their next most likely to win.
As ever, it’s important to remember that naps, NBs and any other tips given are not going to be successful every time – in fact, you could lose on every tip you follow in.
But tipsters that are verified and have a lengthy record of coming out on the right side of things might just be worth a second look as you embark on your betting research.