Successful sports bettors are a very unique breed. Statistically speaking, A sports bettor, who is profitable over the long haul is not often seen. Unfortunately, luck and basic sports knowledge will only get you so far. These productive bettors tend to have some common traits which aid them in being better at sports betting as opposed to the rest of the pack.
Appreciate The Concept Of Value
This is critical. If you don’t have a concept of value, make sure that you walk away. Sure you could be certain that a 1.25 favourite is going to win, however are the odds being offered providing any value?
A lot of times we’ve heard where casual gamblers say, “There’s no way this team will lose this game.” Well there could be legitimate favourites, however is the probability of them winning better as opposed to the odds being offered? Betting with this mood is a little like saying an over-priced wide-screen TV was good value only as you really wanted it. It doesn’t work.
Value is a straightforward concept, however most of the betting public don’t understand this. Perhaps thankfully so as its this naive or ‘square’ money which can skew the market, leaving great opportunities for the elements of gamblers who do know how to understand value.
What Does Being Able To Spot Value Mean?
Having the ability to spot value means that you will have the ability to spot odds which are too high, consistently as well as systematically – and capitalise on those opportunities.
In principle this is not nothing like successful trading with stocks. It makes a lot of sense to purchase a particular stock when it is underestimated, as this means it probably will appreciate in value later. If you are more concentrated on sports betting as opposed to your job each match day is to look for the undervalued teams, and “purchase their stock”, in a manner of speaking.
Identifying value is in essence about judging probabilities more accurately than the market does. Of course it is challenging to do that for every game and every sport. However, that isn’t required. Your significant advantage over the bookmaker lies in the capability to skip matches with unfavourable odds – just like you don’t have to buy all stocks available. The bookmaker has to offer odds for nearly all games, at least in the most popular leagues.
Spotting value is the trickiest thing to do in this business. As a result, you will need a lot of practice in order to pull it off regularly. Only once you have established your ability to regularly identify value, you will have a systematic edge.
Superb Money Management
Something else which profitable sports bettors and anyone who plays at big dollar casino do well is to manage their money. With no excellent money management skills, it’s difficult to make a long and profitable run in sports betting. If you end up with betting too much of your bankroll on one single games, it could be harmful to your bankroll balance. This is a common mistake which recreational bettors make.
A successful sports bettor will have set up strict money management guidelines for themselves and they will keep to these no matter what. These money management lines will decide how much of their total bankroll will be put on each wager. As opposed to reaching for the fence on each bet, the aim of a profitable sports bettor will be to earn a lot of money over the long term.
Understand How The Bookmakers Determine The Odds
This is dependent on the popularity of the event, however in general, bookmaker odds will be more an indication of what they expect the general public to play, as opposed to the actual probabilities of either outcome. Of course, it’s not quite that straightforward, however in general, bookmakers will set their odds in order to attract betting on either side of the odds, so as to balance their liability as well as take their commission.
This leaves smart gamblers to look for great value opportunities where the general public’s attitude is just plain wrong. Also, it means that great value can be discovered on events where there is expected to be more interest than normal by the occasional or casual gambler, who let’s be honest, knows nothing or quite little in terms of lucrative betting strategy.
If you want to bet profitably, you need the correct bookmaker. You will required to find bookmakers who actually let you win. Unfortunately it’s an ugly truth which most bookmakers won’t and will limit their successful customers or may even immediately ban them.
Of course in this way you can’t possibly plan for success because your winning would always stay fictional. Happily there are certain bookmakers who do not limit or ban their successful customers. On the other hand, if you see yourself as being a casual betting type, going with well-established bookies is the ideal choice.
The business model which all of these bookmakers adopt is based on low margins as well as high volumes. This means they just would like to have as much action as possible, supported by a small bookmaker margin that translates into improved odds for the customer. These bookies accept winners not as they would like to make the world a better place (that’s just a side effect), however rather as they can use that information to their advantage, for instance by adjusting their betting lines.
Have The Ability To Fall In Love With The Ugly Duck
The longer that we have been betting, the more we have come to fall in love with the team which nobody likes. In truth, we feel better about a possible bet the uglier it looks on paper.
We know that it sounds counter intuitive however the less the general public loves a team, the more it is that we like the look of them in terms of value.
Particularly a team which may have performed well over a long period however may have had a bad run of perhaps four or five games. Just watch the public at large jump off them and then watch their value increase.