Three Must-Know Sports Betting Tips

Is There a Trick to Sports Betting?

I’ve been asked this question more times than I can count, and the short answer is, “Yes”. We’re not talking about tricks, like how to win a virtually-impossible carnival game trick. More like the tricks you can do with a yoyo. Virtually anyone can use a yoyo, making it go up and down. Then there are yoyo masters, who know how to do really cool tricks. That’s the kind of betting tricks we’re talking about.

Just like the yoyo analogy above, it usually takes a lot of experience to get good at sports betting. Anyone can pick a team – usually their favorite team, or the team with the better record – and place a bet. Sometimes they’ll win, and sometimes they’ll lose. The experienced bettor is the one who digs deeper into their knowledge of the sport, the teams, the athletes, recent and historic performance data, and any other viable information to make the best decision. That bettor is far more likely to have a winning average above (if not well above) 50%.

Three Things You Need to Know

I could write a much longer list of all the intricate things you could do, and research you could conduct, to increase your sports betting knowledge and, hopefully, increase your win average. But if you’re reading this, you’re probably still new to it, just looking for some useful tips to help get you started on the right track. With that being said, I’ll give you the three most important things you need to keep in mind before placing any sports bet.

#1 Knowledge Really is Power

The more you know, the more likely you are to make a smart decision. Never bet on any sport or game you’re not familiar with. Likewise, don’t bet on a sport just because you like one of the teams or athletes. In fact, I wouldn’t even recommend betting on a sport that you don’t follow and watch regularly. Here’s a quick example of when to bet, and when not to.

George: “This team won the Super Bowl last year. They’re really good. I’m betting on them.”

Henry: “The Bills are only 5-8, but they’ve won all of their home games against division rivals and compete really well in cold weather. I’m betting they’ll breeze past the 7-7 Dolphins at home this week, especially with Miami’s #2 receiver on the bench.

Based on knowledge alone, Henry is far more likely to win his bet than George. He knows that it’s already week 15 (including the bye) of the NFL season, which means we’re already into December – a guaranteed cold weather game in Buffalo, New York – against their division rival Miami Dolphins (from the hot weather climate of Florida). George, on the other hand, is basing his pick off nothing more than news highlights from the previous season.

Sure, George could get lucky and win, just as the Dolphins could surge back to defeat the Bills. But statistically speaking, Henry’s odds are far better, all because he has a great deal of knowledge about the teams and their performance. He is making a smart bet. George isn’t even taking into account who his pick is playing against.

#2 Less is More – Avoid Parlays

Parlays are to sports betting what side bets are to blackjack – sucker bets. Sure, those high payouts look nice, but your odds of winning are so bad, you might as well just throw your money away.

Think of it this way. Someone says you can risk $100 to win $50 (payout $150, equal to odds of -200), with a 66.7% chance of winning. Someone else says you can risk $100 to win $500 (payout $600, equal to odds of 500), with a 16.7% chance of winning. What would you do?

The smart bettor follows the first example, taking the 200 odds in hopes of clearing a $50 profit; especially if they’ve followed rule #1 above, in which case their odds are probably closer to 80% or more. The second example is the type of scenario parlay bettors face all the time. With or without great knowledge of a sport, winning a multi-leg parlay is never easy.

#3 Due Diligence Pays Off

If you’re taking the time to look up tricks to betting on sports, chances are you’ve already dabbled in it. That means you probably have at least one active sportsbook account. That’s good, but it’s only a start. You should be comparing the lines at multiple sports betting sites for the games you want to bet on.

Maybe you’re like Henry, and you want to take the Bills against the Dolphins. Your current bookmaker has the Bills at -110 (i.e. bet $110 to win $100). You could take those odds, or you could shop around at other sportsbooks for something better.

While most sportsbooks will offer the same opening lines, the closer it gets to game time, the more likely those lines are to shift in one direction or another. The more people bet on one side, the more bookies shift them to encourage betting on the other side. Maybe one of your other bookies is taking a lot of action on Miami, forcing them to slide the odds on the Bills to +110. Now you can bet $100 to win $110, instead of the other way around.

Line shopping isn’t just a handy tool for beginners. It’s something every professional sports bettor does every time they look to place a bet. If you aren’t shopping around for the best lines, you’re definitely missing out.