Lots of people make money from sports betting. But, even more lose money, and this is what keeps the bookies going strong. If you are new to betting, one strategy is to simply pick your favorite teams, or choose random bets without any necessarily doing any research. However, a different approach can offer much more profitable results.
As a newcomer to betting, your first decision is which sport(s) to bet on. Football is the most popular betting sport, but there are many more options, from cricket to boxing. Tennis is a great choice, and it is quickly gaining popularity as mainstream sites like BetStars increase your options for making wagers on the sport. There is nearly always a tennis game to bet on, from the ATP tour and the ITF to grand-slam tournaments like Wimbledon.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter which sports you choose to bet on, but the golden rule is you have to know the sport inside out, be willing to track every movement, and learn everything you can to help you to make the right bet. That is why games like tennis and football tend to be the best. There is plenty of available news and information on players’ form, conditions and other factors affecting match outcomes.
Taking a statistical approach to betting is the best way to go. For example, you can use online statistics from sites like whoscored.com to find out which teams have been playing well and scoring in the first half, and then use this information to make a bet on the halftime result in an upcoming game. Information is key to your success, and you must be willing to do the research if you want to make money sports betting.
You should also reduce risk by employing proper bankroll management strategy. This is something that professional gamers and betters do in order to smooth out bad variance and gradually build a bankroll. At the end of the day, you can’t know the outcome of any game for sure, so there will be times when you lose. Your job is to win more than you lose in the long term, but in order to achieve the long term, you need to be able to make small and sustainable bets.
Try to use no more than 2-5% of your total bankroll for any one game. So, if you have $1000 to bet with, never bet more than $50 per game. You can break this $50 into several smaller bets to further enhance your strategy. For example, you could use $30 towards the overall outcome of the match while also taking 2 x $10 side-bets on other outcomes.
Now it’s time to get to the actual betting itself. There are many different types of bets you can take on many sports. We recommend taking a conservative approach using bets that are easy to understand and manage, such as full-time win/lose and half-time win/lose, rather than complicated “first scorer” or “final score” bets that you can easily lose.
You can balance this low-risk approach by occasionally indulging in well-thought-out accumulators. You have to win every bet of your accumulator to get paid, which makes it risky, but the payouts can be enormous.
The way to make profit on sports betting is to find “value bets”. These are bets that you believe to be offering odds that are more generous than your own prediction. For example, based on your research, you might predict that Manchester City has a 1/2 chance of winning a game, but the bookies have only given them a 1/3 chance. You would therefore be paid at a higher rate than expected and can take the value bet. Once you think you have found a profitable opportunity, look for online bookies who offer the best odds for your bets.
Have fun, and always play at stakes that you can afford to lose.
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