Sports betting is among the most rewarding hobbies on the planet. And gamblers around the world enhance their enjoyment of sports by placing wagers on the contests.
Some of these gamblers take their sports betting to an entirely different plane. In fact, professional sports bettors are some of the most successful gamblers. I’m talking fortunes in the hundreds of millions!
Regardless of whether you’re trying to stretch your bankroll through the season or build an empire, here’s how to take your sports betting to the next level.
Embrace the Losses
Sports bettors must win over 52% of the time to make a profit in sports betting. This percentage doesn’t factor in any overhead or other expenses.
Still, if you are able to manage to work out a system that puts you on the winning side of bets 53% of the time, you’ll be rolling in the cash. No other form of gambling has the tremendous upside that sports betting offers.
Unfortunately, even the most astonishing sports bettors of all time are wrong approximately 45% of the time. That’s a lot of losing wagers to cope with for many.
We’ve been taught our entire lives that anything below a 70% success rate is a failure our whole lives. So, it can be difficult to accept such a tremendous failure rate.
Before you can fully take your sports betting to the next level, you need to embrace the losses. When you can merely shrug them off as inconsequential eventualities, you’ll be able to take the ride with impunity.
Believing in your system and your ability to pick games should never prevent you from taking risks necessary to be a sports betting success.
Focus on the Value, Not the Huge Score
Personal finances can show us a lot about how we should approach our sports betting bankroll.
If you’re spending more than you’re making, you will look for areas where you could save money. You could possibly make some cuts to your entertainment budget or reduce the number of times a week you eat out.
Too many times, sports bettors and gamblers take an opposite approach. Gamblers that are struggling tend to look at their successes as a way to fix their financial situation.
It’s common for gamblers to bet more on teams or sports that have been delivering a profit. The most egregious example of this is when a player goes after the considerable score on a game they see as a lock.
You must keep in mind that every dollar saved is as good as a dollar you’ve won. Instead of searching for ways to magically increase your wins, focus on trimming the fat.
Stop throwing money away in areas that aren’t delivering steady returns. When you begin to adopt this policy of not throwing money out the window, you’ll be prepared to take your sports betting to the next level.
Know When to Call It Quits
Before you can entirely realize the potential of what sports betting can be, you need to know when to get out. The saying “beating a dead horse” comes to mind, but gambling addiction can strike anyone.
One of the quickest ways to avoid problem gambling is by adhering to some strict bankroll management rules for yourself. Set a hard loss limit for yourself.
When you hit that number, you need to stop for that period—whether it’s a stop loss limit of a day, a week, a month, or an entire season is dependent upon your bankroll.
The same can be said for a win limit. When you’re starting out, there will be significant swings. You may experience huge wins one week, but the next could be a series of devastating losses. Banking those wins during a hot streak can help carry you during a downturn.
Skip the Tight Lines
The best sports bettors on the planet will often ignore the biggest games of the year. Why would an elite sports bettor bet on several NFL games week to week only to shut it down for the Super Bowl?
It’s because these events draw the betting public like no others. Having such a tremendous influx in betting activity means the sportsbooks must keep the lines tight. Otherwise, the betting action could lean too heavily one way or another.
If this happens, the sportsbook could stand to lose a significant amount of cash. The sportsbooks aren’t interested in who wins because if they can get equal money on both sides, they stand to bank a killing on the vig.
The vig is the percentage the sportsbook gets on all losing bets. The other difficulty in picking games with tight lines is that the teams are usually pretty evenly matched. That dramatically diminishes your odds of getting it right.
Skip the tight lines in favor of events where you get the most value for your dollar, and you’re taking things to the next level.
Shop Around for the Best Sportsbooks
At this point, you’ve probably been in the sports betting game for a little bit. The local sportsbook at your favorite casino or online service that you settled on may have initially carried you as far as possible.
Then again, you may have done hours of research and comparisons before even deciding where to place your money. Regardless, it’s now time to begin shopping for the best sportsbook. There were likely some features and services that you were unaware of initially that may not jump out like a sore thumb.
You should begin searching multiple online sportsbooks for the best lines when it comes to each bet you place. In fact, comparing a long list sportsbooks for the best lines, bonuses, and features is the next step in taking your sports betting to the next level.
Stop Buying Points
One of the biggest rackets in the sports betting industry is the points you can buy to shift the odds in your favor on a matchup. Earlier, I mentioned how every dollar you save is as good as one earned. Well, this is twice as true when it comes to buying points.
For Example:
Let’s suppose that you can’t find value in the lines offered by the sportsbooks. In that case, it’s a definite indicator that you should be doing more research or betting on a different game.
Allowing your slim margin of error to be eroded away by foolishly forking cash over to the sportsbook for points is a step in the wrong direction. I wouldn’t support even the most novice sports bettor buying points.
Ditch the Tout Service
Tout services are the largest scam in the history of the gambling period. These services claim to have a surefire system for picking games. Most of them even claim to have some ridiculous success rate. The numbers they claim would make them billionaires in under a year if they were true.
Tout Services Sell Picks to Gamblers
For a fee, the service will deliver selections every week. Sometimes, these picks will click, and other times, they won’t. You see, tout services have a very innovative business model. Not every customer gets the same picks. This ensures that not everyone is a loser. Unfortunately, they can’t all be winners either.
By splitting the picks in this manner, the tout service has a much smaller percentage of unhappy customers. And by enticing losers with free choices in the future, it keeps them around until a good week comes. At that point, they’re already hooked.
If you don’t have the time to do the research on your own, just flip a coin. You’ll have the same shot of winning as if you were paying a tout service to provide the picks.
To be clear, you’re better off finding another hobby completely than paying anybody to pick games for you.
Quit Chasing Losses
Chasing losses isn’t anything unique for gamblers. We’ve already discussed how important it is to embrace your failures in sports betting.
Whatever you do, you need to avoid going on full tilt and betting the farm chasing those losses. There’s not a faster way to sabotage a sports betting career than chasing losses.
Many online sportsbooks will allow you to set limits on the amount of money you put into play at a given time. If you have a tendency to go for broke when you’ve fallen behind, I highly encourage you to take full advantage of this feature.
Sports betting is a long game, and you’ll need a slow and steady approach to reach the next level.
Refuse to Lead With Your Heart
The single most critical step you should take if you wish to take your sports betting to the next level is to stop leading with your heart.
Every single betting decision you make should be made with your head. Making wagers based on allegiance to a team or going with a gut feeling will keep you in the losers bracket.
You’ll never turn a profit sports betting when you pick with your heart. So, do the meticulous research that many of your fellow sports bettors skip.
This will almost instantly take your sports betting to the next level.
Conclusion
Sports betting is going to be legal in most of the United States by 2023. Don’t wait until the craze is in full swing to begin honing your craft.
Use the steps for how to take your sports betting to the next level, and you’ll be miles ahead of your competition.
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens has been researching and writing topics involving the gambling industry for well over a decade now and is considered an expert on all things casino and sports betting. Michael has been writing for GamblingSites.org since early 2016. …
