Most of the people you know would probably qualify to place wagers on sports events as part of gambling. But we’ve all heard stories about just a handful of people, that are making a good living just from betting on sports, didn’t we? If there is any truth to it, what are they doing that’s different from the rest of the market? Are they gambling away their life savings most of the time or is there something more to their winning approach? If you’re looking for more info about how to make money in sports, you should definitely click here.
The fact of the matter is that 99% of people are losing money when it comes to sports betting. Most of the time people get overwhelmed by the emotion of wanting their favorite team to win and are not considering other more probable outcomes. Most successful professional bettors are treating the betting markets as an investment, just like a stock trader would. They’re considering the stats, the price, and value of the pick, and everything is usually combined with a smart bankroll management system that is shielding them from blowing up or in other words, losing all their money.
What separates the winners from the losers
If you decide to follow the path of being a professional sports bettor, you will have to make some rules early on that you will have to follow no matter what. If we name just a few here:
- treat you betting as an investment and not as entertainment
- choose only sports that you know inside out
- pick a few teams/players and research them
- always follow your chosen betting strategy
- always follow a strict bankroll management set in advance
- record your bets and try to analyze them
- always be on the lookout for better value/better odds
These points won’t give you the full step-by-step on how to succeed in the sports betting industry, but it’s a start. Keep in mind professional sports betting is not for everybody and when you do feel frustrated you should always take breaks. Money management, emotional control, and strong analyzing skills are just a few traits you will need to have to beat the market. But once you set all the rules and find your advantage in the markets, capitalizing on your knowledge part starts to become much easier.
Choosing what to bet on
As we mentioned before you should decide on your markets before you start investing your funds. We don’t advise learning a new sport, just because it looks exciting. If you can find more info about the players, clubs, and games in your local language, then maybe you should focus on that and forget about the English Premier League, where the markets are very well positioned against you.
You have to understand that, the bigger and the more popular the sport is, the harder is to find good value plays in the longterm. Therefore your profit margins fade away much faster. But if you do decide to focus on a popular market, like let’s say the UEFA Champions League, we advise you focus just on a team or two and ignore the rest of the noise. This will increase your chances of profitability significantly.
Bankroll management is your Bible
There is nothing worse than a feeling of seeing a 0 balance on your betting account. That’s why we can’t stress enough how important setting up your bankroll management should be even before you start betting. You should never invest with your last rent money, so it’s very important that you put money aside, that you can afford to lose and which will not heavily influence your financial capabilities of living your normal life.
If your betting system involves betting single games, then the amount of your single bet should be closely correlated with the amount of your betting bankroll. There are a lot of opinions on how to approach setting up your bankroll system, but we believe that you can’t miss if you follow the 0.5 to 1% rule.
What that means is your bet amount should never be more than 1% of your total bankroll. So some examples:
- if your total bankroll is $10.000, your single bet amount should be between $50 – $100
- if your total bankroll is $5.000, your single bet amount should be between $25 – $50
- if your total bankroll is $1.000, your single bet amount should be between $5 – $10
I know this doesn’t sound very exciting. But professional sports betting is a long and hard grind and there are no overnight success stories. Smart bankroll management is the only way, you can protect your downside against down-swings and losing streaks, that will come for sure.
Choosing your bookmaker
When following a smart betting system, it’s always good to have options on different market providers either to hedge bets or to find better value and better odds. So you should definitely open accounts on more than just one bookmaker, but beware when choosing between bookmakers, it’s advised that you study and take into the account the following things:
- is the bookmaker available in your country
- which are the deposit/withdrawn options offered
- what markets are offered by the bookie
- what is the odd quality
- check for sign-up bonuses
- read about ratings and people’s experience of the bookie on independent websites
- if the bookie is known for limiting and closing accounts to players, don’t become its customer
Once you do your homework, you register and do all the KYC needed for the account to become active, you’re good to go. But always remember that sports betting is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. With good research and a smart system in place, you should slowly start to see your bankroll rising in a few months.
But don’t let the negative months ware you down, it’s all part of the business. Even the best sports bettors go through rough periods and down-swings. What matters is, how well you can maintain a positive mindset, when times get tough.
