How To Be Better At Sports Betting

How To Be Better At Sports Betting 4,0/5 464 votes

You must bet $110 to win $100, $220 to win $200, and so on. If you win 52.4% of the time, you are something that around 97% of sports bettors are not and that is a long term winner. It will take you 10,000 bets of $110 to win $400 at a success rate of 52.4%. Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basketball, baseball, hockey, track cycling, auto racing, mixed martial arts, and boxing at both the amateur and professional levels. You have to be able to tell the difference between the two if you are going to succeed in sports betting. If you are constantly researching these pointless stats, you might be great for conversation, but you’re going to be a lousy sports bettor. Additionally, make sure your. Betting on sports games is a hobby for many, and most people just consider it to be a fun and friendly past time. But there are ways to consistently make money on sports betting, and the tricks are understanding betting strategy and the different types of bets you can make, understanding the odds, making smart bets, and walking away from bad bets.

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By having access at three different sportsbooks, bettors will frequently get lines that are at least 0.5-point better than the market average. Simply adding that additional half point can increase your long-term winning percentage by 2%. Betting Against the Public.

If you feel like your life is in dire need of a constant, mentally exhausting challenge, perhaps betting sports professionally will satisfy your needs. First, you need to understand a few numbers. One, the top sports bettors in the world don’t win even 60% of the time. They top out around 58 or 59. So right off the bat, you already know that this is going to incur quite a bit of failure, and failure leads to stress. Loss of money leads to stress. In this case, one happens because of the other. It cannot be emphasized enough that this is a very, very stressful job. Betting sports full time is not as easy, fun, or glamorous as it may seem.

Work Required and Success Rates

The standard vig (fee for the house booking your action) is 10% of whatever you bet. You must bet $110 to win $100, $220 to win $200, and so on. If you win 52.4% of the time, you are something that around 97% of sports bettors are not and that is a long term winner. It will take you 10,000 bets of $110 to win $400 at a success rate of 52.4%. Not exactly golden, but hey, it is better than being down $200,000 and losing your job because of it. There are too many stories that end up this way. So how much do you want to make? If you want to make $40,000, you’ll have to make 1,000 bets a year, averaging $110,000 a bet, and succeed 52.4% of the time. You don’t want to be risking more than 2-3% of your bankroll on each bet. And that’s playing it hard.

Really, 1% is the safe way to go. But even if you do 3% each bet, you still need over $3.3 million to do this prudently. Yes I’m obviously taking this to quite an extreme. But it’s important, so let’s recap. If you want to make $40,000 a year, you need to do something that 97% of the people trying, can’t, and you must do it 1,000 times a year, and you must risk $110,000 every time. That is nearly 2.75 bets a day every day. That means you have to pretty much be an expert in every sport. May I remind you that this is if you are exclusively playing the games where the vig is -110. If you’re ever laying more or less than -110, then this will affect how often you need to succeed.

55% seems to be the going win rate that will put you in the clear to make money you can live off of. We were talking millions before as a sufficient bankroll on the extreme sides, but you are going to need a lot of money either way. I would say at least $100,000. You are going to have to be able to weather the storm for a lot of failure. You are too likely to just go broke if you can’t cover a long stretch of losing that wasn’t necessarily your fault. Even if you lower your bet sizes, you run the risk of not being able to win enough to live off of even if you’re winning. If you had $220,000 and won 55% of the time placing 300 bets a year of $2,200, you will win $33,000, or about $635 a week. The $2,200 bet is considered 1 unit of your bankroll. $635 is less than 29% of what you’re risking on each individual bet. And your net goal per week should be 1 unit.

It takes many hours of regular research, to find where edges possibly exist. I just told you that 52.4% is what you need to do to barely break above even. What happens if you bet on a game where the true odds were one team was going to win 51% of the time and the other was 49%? That means long term, this is a losing play. The sportsbooks make their lines so that this is how things will result as often as they can. But they are human so they are not perfect, that is why edges exist.

There are so many different elements to be aware of. Things like who is injured, what the weather is like, how the side you like has been doing lately against what schedule don’t even scratch the surface of the kinds of intricate and very mathematically complex things you need to always be researching. The said bits of information make up a couple grains of sand on the bench in the sports handicapping scene. Sports betting is a moving target of a game of being able to understand which elements are relevant and it varies on a game by game basis. It is never the same thing over and over again. How could it be? Almost everybody is losing!

Illusions

I know it must sound like I’m completely against sports betting and presenting arguments as to why you shouldn’t do it, but the truth is I’m just talking about what actually goes on. If you think you can take on all of these things and still prevail, go for it. But there are reasons barely anyone can turn even the slightest profit at it. There are hazards everywhere. It’s not just the vig you have to overcome.

One hazard is just being able to ignore your passion to watch. People really love sports. They love it so much it gives them false beliefs they are able to predict the outcome, and just love to have action at all. How much you are entertained by a game has nothing to do with matching up what will happen with the spread, and if it’s even worth the payout. You may think you really see what’s going on, but how can you know you do? You are already aware that if hardly anyone is winning, then how can sports betting be as easy as it seems? It takes a lot of success over a large sample of time to determine you have in fact developed the ability to find edges.

Winning is such a monstrous thrill. You feel the emotions with the players and anyone else who has been sweating it out with you. You can get a little heater going and win 7 or 8 bets in a row. You think, okay I got this. Except that is almost like saying if you successfully ran a red light without getting pulled over a bunch of times in a row, then you are now a wizard on knowing which red lights to run and which ones to stop at. Betting sports blindly is like trying to run a red light. You are not aware of the oncoming traffic from the left or the right. You are not aware if a cop is nearby watching. This is simply an ill-advised unsafe decision. That’s why we have red lights in the first place, to protect us from getting hurt. That’s why you use caution and put lots of time and thought into each bet, to protect yourself from burning money.

How To Be Good At Sports Betting Reddit

It is a hidden illusion for many bettors that you have put your work in, but really you have not. You went into the sportsbook and saw a line that looked appealing to you, for whatever reason. You text your friend you like it. He says he likes it too. You go to the window and bet. If it was that easy, why is it that 97% of the bettors lose? Many bets take place just like this example.

Maybe you did put in a lot of research. What if it was the wrong research and you lose anyway? People love to rationalize and say they were unlucky. Doesn’t matter if it’s because they have a problem or if it is just their ego insisting they really knew what they were doing. Either way it makes things very easy to continue. After all, you know that even the top bettors are going to have to incur a losing. You convince yourself it is too hard to see if you’re making inaccurate picks, or if you really are just getting unlucky. These illusions keeps people going for a long time. Sooner or later, they just have to, and you finally realize it was them all along.

Then there’s The Sure Thing. I capitalized it because people think this is also a possibility. A lock. A can’t miss. The thing about professional or college sports is the difference between the two teams is so small. It is very underrated as to how small it is. If you are watching the best team in the NFL play the worst team, you feel like there’s no way they can lose. If the superior team plays the way they can play football, yeah they’ll probably win a huge percentage of the time. What if they play badly? If you play badly against another team full of freak athletes, all of whom are also professional football players, the supposed dominant team is at a high risk of getting beat. You will not just show up and win because you are better. You still have to do your job right, and not everybody always does this. You can’t completely prevent the other team from just having a great game either. That happens too. That is why there is upsets. And that is why when you play the moneyline in games that have a huge favorite, you are going to have to lay a lot of odds on them just to be the victor.

Betting $800 to win $100 doesn’t sound very appealing. When you win 6 of those in a row then finally the upset hits, you’ll understand why. The edges are not found easily. Think of it as being a detective. You can’t just show up to the crime scene and know who the culprits are based on what’s on the surface. You have to look well beneath to understand what’s really going on, and it just takes time.

I wish you the best if you take this on as a full time career. I can only imagine it first developed as hey, what could be better than making a living from my hobby? It’s doable. People do it. Humans have shown themselves to be capable of nearly anything. Just understand at all times this requires a near infinite amount of discipline and diligence.

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How To Be Better At Sports BettingHow To Be Better At Sports Betting

Successful sports bettors are a very rare breed. Statistically, it is very
uncommon to find an individual that is profitable over the long haul on sports
betting. Unfortunately, luck and basic sports knowledge will only get you so
far. These successful bettors tend to possess some common traits that aid them
in being better at sports betting than the rest of the pack.

Below, we’ll go into detail on some of the common traits of successful sports
bettors. After reviewing this list, you might decide to work on some of these
areas in an attempt to be more like them. By fine-tuning some of these skills
yourself, you might be able to become a more successful sports bettor.

Better

Common Traits of Successful Sports Bettors

We’ve compiled a list of some of the most common traits of successful sports
bettors. While not a complete list by any means, this list encompasses the vast
majority of important traits held by these bettors. It’s important to note that
a successful bettor doesn’t necessarily need to have all of these traits, but
they will possess most of them. With that said, let’s get into it!

Knowledge of Sports

This common trait of sports bettors should be pretty obvious, but we wanted
to make sure that we stated it regardless. In order to be successful, sports
bettors need to have a solid knowledge of sports. Without this trait, it is
honestly near impossible to become good at sports betting.

Having a good knowledge of sports allows successful sports bettors to
understand better things that might impact their wagers. Using their knowledge
of sports, these successful bettors have a good understanding of the many
different things that can impact the outcome of sporting events. This allows
them the chance to make better-educated wagers than someone that is not as
knowledgeable about sports.

Strong Math Skills

Betting on sports involves a ton of numbers. From historical performance data
to bookmaker odds, there are lots of numbers to look at and analyze. If you’re
not good at math, it can be tough to understand what all of these numbers mean
to you and your sports betting wagers.

Successful sports bettors tend to have very strong math skills. Using this
skill set, they are able to quickly understand what the data they have access to
means. Often, these types of bettors will then crunch some serious numbers to
help them determine what wagers they want to place. At the end of the day, these
bettors use their strong math skills to quickly analyze and interpret data for
the sake of making quick and educated betting decisions.

Excellent Money Management

Something else that successful sports bettors do well is manage their money.
Without excellent money management skills, it’s hard to make a long and
successful run in sports betting. If you end up betting too much of your
bankroll on single games, it could be detrimental to your bankroll balance. This
is a common mistake that recreational bettors make.

A successful sports bettor will have established strict money management
guidelines for themselves, and they will stick to these no matter what. These
money management lines will determine how much of their total bankroll will be
placed on each wager. Instead of swinging for the fence on each bet, the goal of
a successful sports bettor will be to make money over the long haul.

Evaluation of All Game Factors

A recreational sports bettor will often just look at a handful of factors,
such as which team is favored, when making their betting decision. Even though
there is much more information that could be evaluated, your average sports
bettor tends to stop right there. However, successful sports bettors make an
evaluation of all game factors, not just the basics.

When it comes to successful sports bettors, they are peeling back as many
layers of the onion as possible. While basic stats are great, these bettors go
much deeper in an attempt to evaluate all game factors.

Example

Successful
bettors will consider the health of all players, not just the quarterback and
wide receivers. As well, they’ll often consider things such as team grudges and
teams coming off of big losses and how that might impact the game.

For you to be more of a successful sports bettor, you’ll want to do your best
to evaluate everything you possibly can. It can take a bit to train yourself to
think outside of the box, but this is how you can work to get a leg up like the
professionals do. By thinking differently and looking at all aspects of the
game, you’re more likely to catch something that many others will miss.

Emotional Control

One of the biggest things that separates professional gamblers from
recreational gamblers is that professionals can control their emotions.
Unfortunately, this is not something that too many recreational bettors
understand. Like some other things on our traits of successful sports bettors,
emotional control is something that is easier said than done.

Often, recreational sports bettors let their emotions get the best of them.
If a recreational sports bettor grew up in a diehard Green Bay Packers family,
he’d probably have a hard time not betting on the Packers, regardless of what
the odds or data says. However, a successful sports bettor that also grew up in
a diehard Green Bay Packers family will know when to toss his love for the
Packers aside to make a smart betting decision.

Emotional control is a tough habit to master. However, it will be impossible
to become a successful sports bettor if you can’t set your emotions aside.
Emotions all too often get in the way of making sound betting decisions based
solely on data. If you’d like to become more of a successful bettor, you’ll have
to learn emotional control so that you begin to make decisions based on data as
opposed to your emotions.

Line Shopping

Another common trait of successful sports bettors is that they shop their
lines. Unlike recreational sports bettors that typically rely on just one
sportsbook, these bettors will usually shop their lines across multiple
sportsbooks. By shopping around, the successful bettors can make sure that they
are getting the best bang for their buck.

In many cases, lines tend to be pretty close from one sportsbook to the next.
However, this is not always the case.

If a successful sports bettor is able to
find a sportsbook offering a wager at 0.5 points better than the market average,
they’ll be coming out ahead if they win the bet.

What’s nice about line shopping
is that it allows you to get the maximum value from your winning wager.

If you’re not currently line shopping, you should definitely consider it. At
a minimum, we’d suggest that you sign up with at least two different
sportsbooks. When you’re ready to make a wager, be sure to shop the lines
between the two sportsbooks. Your goal should be to find the one offering you
the best pricing. While it might not seem like much on an individual bet basis,
line shopping can add some serious growth to your bottom line as you become
better at sports betting. By not line shopping, you’ll end up leaving money on
the table, and that’s no fun!

Strong Discipline

When it comes to successful sports bettors, another common trait that they
have is a strong discipline. Using this strong discipline, these bettors are
able to stick to a plan and remain focused on the overall long-term goal.
Unfortunately, this is not a trait that the majority of recreational bettors
have.

Strong discipline is key in the grand scheme of things if you want to become
successful at sports betting. Successful sports bettors will utilize strong
discipline in areas such as staking plans, bankroll management, and the overall
wager plan of attack. Emotions can play into making poor discipline decisions,
which is why these bettors tend to have emotional control and a strong
discipline. Without them, it’s too easy to get off track.

Ability to Understand Value

A successful sports bettor will have a good ability to understand value. When
it comes to recreational bettors, they don’t usually analyze the value of a bet.
For them, they’ll just pick a winner and call it a day. Successful bettors,
however, will look at a bet’s overall value to determine if it is worth the
risk.

What successful sports bettors look for are wagers that have a high value. An
ideal wager will have a big potential payout with a relatively small risk. The
goal of these bettors is to not risk a huge amount of cash for a relatively
small overall return.

By understanding value, successful sports bettors work to get more bang for
their buck. Unlike recreational bettors that don’t look for value, successful
bettors will come out ahead in the long run by searching for this extra value.
If you’d like to learn more about value, check out our article about
probabilities and value.

Strong Analytical Capabilities

Something else that successful sports bettors typically possess is strong
analytical capabilities. When it comes to sports betting, there is a ton of data
that needs to be analyzed. To be successful, you need to be able to review and
interpret historical data, bookmaker odds, and much more. Without these skills,
it is tough to become successful over the long haul.

Often, successful sports bettors will have created their own systems to help
them analyze all of the data that is important to them. In some cases, they use
programs like Microsoft Excel or other proprietary software that they have
created. The goal of these bettors is to review and analyze as much data as
possible to make the best informed decision they can.

Unfortunately, analyzing data is not something that comes naturally to many
people. Unless you’re a financial analyst or banker, then the odds are that
you’ve not had any formal training in data analysis. What’s nice is that you can
learn to be better at data analysis if you’re willing to take the time to study.
If data analysis is not currently a strong suit, you can find lots of good tips
and research on the internet to help you begin to sharpen your analytical
capabilities.

Ability to Take a Long-Term View

Patience is a key trait of successful sports bettors. Many sports bettors
quickly become unmotivated after having a few bad losses in a row. What
differentiates successful bettors is that they are able to step back and take a
long-term view.

How To Do Sports Betting

Successful sports bettors know that they won’t win every bet. However, sports
bettors set a goal for themselves that they want to win more often than not.
Even in runs of losses, successful bettors understand that there are highs and
lows in what they do.

Overall, a successful sports bettor on average will win somewhere between 50%
and 60% of their wagers.

It’s important to note that this means that they are
still losing plenty. To keep their head in the game, these bettors will learn
from losses and realize that losing sometimes is still part of the process.

It is important for you to be able to take a long-term view if you’d like to
become a better sports bettor. Along the way, there will be setbacks. However,
you need to not get discouraged by these setbacks, and continue to hone your
skills. If you give up too quickly and easily, you might be missing out on
something much larger. The sooner that you can train yourself to take a
long-term view when it comes to sports betting, the sooner you’ll be more in
line with successful sports bettors.

Strong Organizational Skills

Another key trait of successful sports bettors tends to be strong
organizational skills. As we’ve discussed previously, there is a ton of data
when it comes to sports betting. These bettors will be able to properly organize
and sort this information so that they can make sense of it. It doesn’t matter
how much data you have access to if you’re not able to sort it and make educated
guesses about it.

Strong organizational skills also come in handy with tracking the bets that
you have placed. Tracking your bets is an important part of bankroll management.
If you’re not able to keep this organized, you might quickly find your bankroll
in trouble. A successful bettor will keep meticulous records of bets placed,
along with tracking any associated wins and losses.

If organizational skills are not a strong suit of yours, you can definitely
work to improve them. We’d suggest that you start by tracking your bets. You can
use something as easy as pen and paper, but we’d recommend using something
computer-based, such as Microsoft Excel. Your ultimate goal should be to record
a history of your sports betting wagers. Using this organized data, you can then
refer to it to review your historical trends to see what worked for you and what
didn’t. As an added bonus, you’ll have a better view of the health of your
sports betting bankroll.

How To Get Good At Sports Betting Reddit

Flexible, Adaptable, Resilient

To be successful, sports bettors need to be flexible, adaptable, and
resilient. A successful sports bettor will know that things change over time,
and that in turn means that their plans and strategies must also change. Being
flexible and adaptable is key. Those unwilling to change their ways are less
likely to be successful over time.

Resilience is another key trait of successful sports bettors. Sometimes
you’ll feel like the king of the world, and other times you’ll feel like an
elephant has just trampled you. A successful bettor will remain resilient even
in the down times, knowing that you have to take the good with the bad.

If your goal is to become a more successful sports bettor, you should work to
be all three of these things. It’s much easier said than done, but you should
work to become more flexible, adaptable, and resilient over time. By adopting
these qualities, you’ll better align yourself with some of the traits of
successful sports bettors.