How Can I be Successful in Betting?

1. Learn the Fundamentals of Betting First

Sports betting is not difficult. It’s actually quite simple. Riding a bike is simple too, but everyone has to learn how before they can do it. Likewise, you need to understand all the basic fundamentals of betting before you begin.

Here are two great pages we highly recommend you read. The first page covers all the main types of bets (moneylines, spreads, totals, etc.), and other useful information for beginners. Even if you’ve been betting for a while, there’s probably some valuable material you could benefit from. The second one will guide you through the process of placing your first wager.

• Sports Betting Primer: 10 Things You Need to Know
• 5 Step Guide to Placing Your First Bet

2. Get Accustom to the Lingo

Understanding the English language will get you through about 95% of the sports betting experience. The other 5% revolves around terms and phrases that may seem like a whole different dialect to the inexperienced gambler. When they talk about “juice”, it’s not because they’re thirsty. A “beard” has nothing to do with facial hair, and a “nap” won’t make you feel rested.

Fortunately, our editors have written a compendium of sports betting lingo that defines every word or phrase you might come across. Be sure to bookmark it for reference.

• Sports Betting Glossary of Terms

3. Join a Forum for Sports Bettors

This website has a lot of information to help you grow and be successful in betting, but it should not be your only source of advice and education. Sometimes, you’ll have a question you need answered, or a topic you’d like to discuss with others in the moment. Sports betting forums are the perfect medium for such occasions. Try to find one that is moderately active, and that focuses largely on your personal sports and wagers of interest.

4. Understand What Constitutes Value (+EV)

If your goal is to make money betting on sports – and who’s isn’t? – finding value in odds and lines is paramount. Value is a term that relates to the profitability of any wager, based on the odds presented, and the probability of an outcome happening.

Every professional bettor spends the majority of their time looking for “positive expected value”, or +EV. Good bets don’t come along very often, but when they do, these are the bets you need to be placing.

The following page will teach you all about calculating implied odds and expected values, so that you can find the +EV bets when they come along.

• Calculating Win/Loss Probability from Implied Odds

5. Be Selective in Your Wagers

It’s game day. You’ve got snacks, beverages, and a few friends on the way. It’s time to get all your bets on the table… STOP!

A successful bettor does not place wagers on every game of the day. They don’t choose bets based on which games are airing on television, or who their favorite team is up against. You have to be more selective, and only place bets you truly believe will win. Quality over quantity, my friend. It all goes back to looking for +EV, as well as some other factors we’ll discuss later in this guide.

6. Never Bet with Bias

This should go without saying, but it’s one of the most common mistakes sports fans make. Never ever bet on a game, team, or athlete, just because they’re your favorite. Our passion for our favorite teams tends to blind us to their realistic prowess. If you’re a die-hard Pacers fan, the last thing you should do is bet on the Pacers to win all their games. Sure, you could drop $10 on them to win the Finals, and hope for the best as the season plays out, but never let favoritism cloud your better judgment.

7. Set a Responsible Betting & Staking Budget

Proper bankroll management is the foundation for any successful betting strategy. It’s a combination of knowing what you can afford to lose, and divvying that up into enough increments to last a reasonable amount of time.

Let’s say you have $500 to work with. That’s $500 that has no other purpose. Nothing but extra cash to play with. If you lose this $500, it will not put the tiniest dent in your finances. This extra money that you can afford to lose makes up your bankroll.

Now, ask yourself when you’ll be able to restock this bankroll, should it run out. Maybe you get paid again in two weeks, and will have another $500 to work with then. That means you need to divide up this $500 into as many bets as you want to be able to place over the next two weeks. For sake of ease, we’ll say 10 bets.

[$500 / $10 = $50]

This means you can comfortably place 10 bets of $50 each over the next two weeks. Or, if you want to place more bets, divide it further. You could place 20 wagers at $25 each, or 25 wagers at $20. You get the idea.

8. Read Up on Proven Betting Strategies

There are unlimited materials available, teaching sports bettors how to make smart decisions. We’ve written a plethora of articles aimed at just that. My advice would be to explore this website at your leisure. Use the Search bar up top to look for pages that deal with “Strategy”, or “How To” articles on things like betting on specific sports, or reading a bet slip.

9. Invest Time in Researching Matches

There are two forms of knowledge in the sports world. First is the knowledge every true fan should know, like win/loss prowess (the league’s best teams, versus league’s worst), and top performing athletes. Then there’s underlying knowledge. The stuff only die-hard fans who study the stats would know.

Take football for example. Expert bettors take into account things like who performs well in different types of weather; what quarterbacks struggle against specific corners; effective red zone defenses versus the league’s top kickers.

Anyone can pick the “favorite” to beat the “underdog”. Anyone can bet against a team plagued with injuries. It’s subtle information, however, that can give you an edge over the rest. The more time you spend researching athletes and teams – a method known as handicapping – the better your chance of success.

• Understand the Handicapper – Be the Handicapper

10. Place Your Wagers Online

Now that sports betting is 100% legal in Indiana, you have two options. You can place your bets in person at a live sportsbook, or do your betting online. I would strongly encourage you to take advantage of Indiana’s online and mobile sportsbooks. Not only will you have access to a bevy of promotional deals, you’ll benefit from our next tip (comparing odds and lines), without having to travel all over the state.

11. Take Time to Compare Odds & Lines

When bookies post original lines, they tend to look very similar across the boards. Every betting site is likely to have the same odds, on the same matches. This is because they all tend to get their information from the same oddsmakers, or at least oddsmakers that are crunching the same data. But as time goes on, and more bettors put their money down, those lines will begin to shift. This is when you swoop in to get the best odds.

• How Oddsmakers Determine Sports Lines
• Arbitrage is Real – Shop the Lines!

12. Set Reasonable Goals

The key word here is “reasonable”. To be honest, most new bettors don’t understand what that means. In gambling, a reasonable goal is to make a profit. It doesn’t need to be a big profit. Long-term sports gamblers – even the professional ones – rarely win more than 60-65% of their bets. So long as you’re doing better than breaking even, you’re doing better than the majority.

So, setting a reasonable goal would mean to aim for a win rate of about 55-60%. It’s enough to cover sportsbook commissions, and leave you with more cash than you started.

13. Keep a Record of All Bets, Wins and Losses

It’s crucial that you keep a log of all your bets. It doesn’t matter how you do it. Jot it all down with pen and paper, get a planner book, create a spreadsheet on your computer. Just make sure it’s complete and accurate. If you’re not keeping up with how much you’re betting, you’ll never know how much you’re really winning (or losing).

The best way to keep your betting behavior in check is to be constantly aware of how it’s really going. This will also help you identify leaks in your bankroll and make any necessary adjustments. If you’re winning most of your single-game bets, but losing more live bets, maybe you’re being too impulsive with in-play action.

14. Never Bet Under the Influence

Short and sweet – don’t gamble when you’re inebriated. One or two drinks may be fine, depending on your tolerance level, but use of drugs and alcohol can impair your judgment, resulting in bad decisions.

15. Keep Your Emotions in Check

Think back to the beginning of this page, when I said sports betting shouldn’t feel like a job. It should be fun, entertaining; something that brings you joy, and hopefully a little wealth, too. If you’re not having fun, don’t bet on sports. Because unlike a traditional job, you can lose money in this one. If you’re going to do a job you don’t like, it should at least guarantee money earned.

A healthy emotional response goes both ways. It’s not just about avoiding anger following a bad loss. At the same time, do not get cocky and overconfident when you experience a hot streak. Yes, you had a good day, or a good week, and that’s great, but overconfidence leads to over-betting, and the pendulum always swings both ways.

The key is to endure the good and bad streaks with the same degree of calm. Sure, you can celebrate a win, and you can be disappointed by a loss, but if wins and losses determine your dominating mood, so much so that it effects your mental state, and/or relationships with the people around you, that’s a problem.