Making money wagering on sports is not as difficult as you may fear and many bettors win more often than they lose! They would all agree, however, that the key to doing so is being consistent and having a good strategy in place that guides you every step of the way.
Avoid Buying Points
When you buy points, you get to choose to move the Point Spread for teams or totals in your favour. So, if you’re wagering on a Favourite, buying points would see you able to shave off half a point, one full one, or even one and a half points.
We advise against it for the simple fact that bookmakers are charging juice. This means that mathematically it’s not in your interest to do this.
Do Your Research
This is probably the single most important element of a good sports betting strategy. Don’t ever go into a wagering situation blind, and while we don’t recommend you ignore your hunches, make sure they’re being backed up by facts.
When it comes to consistently profiting from sports betting, you need to commit to homework, research, and study for every pick you make. Look at statistics, find trends, create a system around your wagering, keep a record of your wins, gut feelings, and losses, and analyse past games. This is the only way to ensure that you get value when you eventually put your money down.
Line Shopping
This is another very important part of any good sports betting strategy. Essentially, Line Betting means that you have accounts at several different bookmakers and when you want to bet on a team, athlete, or outcome, you compare the lines at each.
For example, if you are interested in wagering on F.C. Barcelona on a seven-point spread, you should double-check a few different sportsbooks to see if any of them can give you Barça at six points. Or, at the very least, find the best price you can get at seven points at. It’s plain to see that, over the course of even a single season, you could see a lot of extra money just from shopping the lines.
Money Management
When you make a habit of betting on sports, the first thing that you need to decide is how much you can safely spend. We strongly advise that you take this seriously and go so far as setting aside a specific amount of money, whether in a separate account or just written down and kept track of.
You need to decide how much you can afford to lose, basically, and will also need to determine whether your winnings will be added back into your allowance or if they will go somewhere else.
We suggest you create totals for the day, week, month, and season so that you’re covered no matter what your position, what mood you’re in, or what unpredictable sporting event comes up! Once you’ve decided on your total, a good rule of thumb is to only wager with between 1% and 5% of your bankroll per bet.
