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How do I Make Money Betting on Sports?

by Chris Vasile - 4/11/2019

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady

Look, nobody said this sports betting gig would be easy. There are always ups and downs and it's pretty much impossible to win every single wager you make throughout the course of the season. There are going to be extreme heaters where you feel like you can't lose, and there are going to be times where you will struggle to pick a winner with tomorrow's newspaper. That's just how the sports betting world is. The key to this beautiful hobby (or way of life for some) is that it's meant to be a form of entertainment and it's meant to bring people together who share one common goal - to beat the sportsbooks and take their money.

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So then, the million-dollar question becomes "How do I make money betting on sports?". Well, the No. 1 answer I would tell us you is to win more than you lose, but that's too obvious. Did you know that in order to at least break even, you have to hit better than 52 percent of your wagers over the course of the season betting into the standard (-110) line? That puts a lot of pressure on a bettor to not only win but turn a profit.

With that said, turning a profit is only achievable if you have strong discipline within your betting game. There is nothing more frustrating than winning a big bet but having the profits cut in half because you also bet half the board for smaller amounts and lost. If you want to make money betting on sports, you are going to need to develop something called 'Bankroll Management'.

What is Bankroll Management?

Bankroll management is the ability to stay within yourself and not get carried away when betting on a Saturday that's filled with 50+ college football games. Bankroll management is the ability to set a unit amount you wish to bet per game, including a maximum bet, and then not exceeding or straying away from that outline. If you set a unit amount, you will be able to protect your bankroll because this gives you stability. You won't (or shouldn't) just bet on a whim and throw $50 or $147 or $217 on a team because that's the first number that came to your head. A unit can be any amount that you're comfortable with -- $1, $10, $100, or $1000. The general rule of thumb is to bet no more than two or three percent of your bankroll. It's also imperative for a bettor who his serious about making money to start keeping records of everything that is wagered upon. This will allow you to understand how much you are winning or losing and what kind of bets you have the most success at or fail miserably at.

The next crucial factor you need to consider when trying to make money betting on sports is having a game plan.

Why Do I Need a Game Plan to Bet on Sports?

Looking at the betting board is essentially like being a kid in a candy store. There are so many good-looking options to choose from, and you want to pick a little from each shelf. In sports betting, that's the quickest way to go broke. My suggestion to you would be to pick one sport you enjoy the most or know the most about and stick to that sport. Doesn't matter if that's the NFL, MLB, Golf or even the WNBA. The minute you start placing wagers on sports you know nothing about like Tennis or the French Basketball League, is the minute your bankroll goes from full to empty. Sticking to one sport will help you better your betting habits and it will allow you to focus in and find league quirks, profitable betting situations, solid ATS teams and everything in between. The more you know, the better educated your wager will be. This goes hand in hand with bankroll management .

Understand Your Strengths and Weaknesses

There is nothing worse than talking to someone about sports who thinks they know everything, when in fact everything that comes out of their mouth is flat out wrong. Not in an opinion sense, because everyone is entitled to their opinion, but in the sense that they have no idea about the pulse of the betting industry. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses will allow you to develop as a bettor and understand where you excel or where you are going wrong when placing wagers. This could mean that you consistently bet on public teams or with the public. That's generally a recipe for disaster considering that sportsbook know who the "public teams" are and typically inflate their lines knowing full well they will still be supported at the betting window. Fading the public is one of the best strategies you can deploy, as Las Vegas simply doesn't give out any free or easy winners.

Another way to understand your strengths and weaknesses is to create some sort of power rankings for a league that you enjoy watching/betting on. In order to do this, you must really be invested in the sport in order to have a better understanding of how each team is progressing through the season and having your power rankings turn out to be viable instead of useless. Power rankings can also be used as a reminder of what happened the week prior and why a team is suddenly favorite when they've been underdogs all year long.

And lastly, I would recommend generalizing in one sport or conference (if betting the NCAA). Nationally-televised games have the eye of the world on them, and sportsbook typically puts out the sharpest lines on these games because they know they are going to be heavily bet. If you do a little digging and find yourself a smaller conference (let's say the Sun Belt in college football), you can typically beat the line more often than not as not a lot of time is devoted to this conference because none of the games are typically televised and the average Joe just doesn't care about South Alabama or Coastal Carolina.

Nobody in the betting industry will ever say winning money is an easy thing to do. It takes times to hone your craft, and it takes discipline to respect your bankroll and stick to your game plan. If you follow these three steps, sports betting may turn into something you enjoy doing.

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