Sports Betting 201 - How to Profit

This article attempts to explain of how to profit at sports betting. This is a starting point, but far from the ending… There is a lot to learn that is not covered by this lesson. But if you stay focused and keep learning, and you could end up a winner.

The first thing to know (and follow) is never to bet over your head (or more than you can afford to lose). Money management is cover elsewhere, but just like every form of gambling, betting your rent is too much to risk and it will come back to haunt you. By doing it once, it's easier to do it twice, and you will eventually get burned.

Following that train of thought, the most important point for new sports bettors to know is to never chase losses. Chasing losses is the act of increasing your bet size when you are on a losing streak in order to try to break even. Doing this causes many sports bettors to go bust before they can even get going and often leads people into betting over their head. See the trend?

Examples of chasing loses happens every weekend during football season. Every weekend, some guy bets 3 football games and loses all three. Let's say he bets $500 on each which is a decent amount of money for him. This same guy will then drop $1,500 on the money night game trying to get back to even. Half the time, this guy will lose and be out $3,000 instead of just $1,500. Avoiding this pitfall will save you a lot of stress and money.

Now that we mentioned losing, lets talk about winning. In order to win money in sports betting (assuming that your bets are $110 to win $100), you will have to win 52.4% of your bets. For you math geniuses out there, it is calculated as 110/(110+100). This is the win rate needed when you bet on football sides and over/unders.

These odds vary between sports and even games. If for example you bet just baseball, the percentage of games that you will need to win in order to profit will vary depending on the odds that you are betting. If you bet mostly underdogs, you will need a lesser win percentage than if you bet most favorites. Because of this, it's possible to be a long-term winner while winning less than 50% of your bets by betting underdogs.

A great public misconception is that professional sports bettors win between 60% to 70% of their bets. This is just false. Professional sports bettors lose almost as much as they win, but because of the volume and size of their bets, they can make a nice living cashing anywhere between 54% to 57% of their tickets.

So take it slow, protect your money and don't expect to win every game. Hot and cold streak happen to everyone, but by staying focused and perfecting your techniques, you can become a winner in the long run.