You must do your homework and bet selectively.
Winning 60-65% of your sports bets is a realistic target.

Winning sports bets is all about skill. The challenge is to gather and analyze as much information as you can about a game, weigh the probabilities of each team winning, and subsequently compare your opinion to the oddsmaker's.

Sports Betting In Florida

While luck may be a deciding factor in the outcome of any single game, and will inevitably go against the bettor on occasion, it will balance out in the long run.

Sports betting spreads explained The world of sports betting can be confusing to beginners, especially when the words that sports bettors typically use have a tendency to complicate things even. 2 days ago  A push to teach gamblers which sport betting sites are legal. A gambling industry group wants to teach consumers how to tell if a particular sports betting or online casino site is legal or not.

Being a consistent winner in sports betting is not about luck but whether the bettor is prepared to invest the time and effort to become knowledgeable about the sports he bets on, whether he can weigh all the factors in a cool, objective fashion, and whether he adopts a consistent, disciplined, long-term approach to betting.

The bookmaker is simply a middle-man who operates on a small profit margin and, ideally likes to see half the money wagered on one team and half on the other, assuring a profit.

If too much of the money goes on one team, the bookmaker will move the line or point spread to encourage bets on the other team in an effort to balance his book.

The person the bettor is attempting to beat is the oddsmaker, and the oddsmaker's views on each team's chances.

Just by flipping a coin, bettors will be right 50% of the time. At odds of 10/11, only 52.4% of the bettor's bets have to win for him to overcome the bookmaker's profit and break even, so he only needs a very small edge to become a winner.

So bettors must do their homework and bet selectively.

Who Wins On A Push Bet

Winning 55% of your bets is definitely achievable, and 60-65% is a realistic target. At those levels, the sports bettor will have an extremely profitable and enjoyable hobby.

NBA MONEY LINES

NCAAM MONEY LINES

A Point Spread is the number of points added to or subtracted from a team's actual score for betting purposes.

The favorite is indicated by the minus sign '-' and the underdog is indicated by the plus sign '+'. To determine the winner for betting purposes, the Point Spread is added to the final score of the team you bet on. Point Spread rules are as follows:

• To win a point spread bet, the team the bettor wagered on must win by the given Point Spread.

• On certain events you can adjust the point spread by buying points.

• Games that tie when taking the point spread into consideration are no action which means the original bet amount will be refunded.

• The odds are $1.10 to win $1.00 (-110) unless otherwise indicated.

• The bettor cannot place a Point Spread bet on opposing teams.

• The bettor cannot place a Money Line and a Point Spread bet on the same team.

• The bettor can place a Point Spread bet on one team and a Money Line bet on the opposing team.

• The bettor can combine a Point Spread bet with a Totals bet.

• The Point Spread may change between the time the bettor places his bet and the time the event starts; regardless, his bet is subject to the point spread displayed at the time he placed his bet.

For example, the bettor wagers on Miami -7 to beat Buffalo +7. The following table shows possible wager results on three final scores.

The statement I’m about to make will most certainly shock any sports bettor who reads it. While most of us are under the impression that everyone betting sports wins long term, so long as they bet often enough, this isn’t actually true.

Wait you’re not surprised? Of course you’re not! Everyone knows the bookmaker has an advantage so more times than not sports bettors lose. However, what if there was a way that the rolls could be reversed; what if the sports bettor always had the advantage?

This is in fact possible.

Have you ever heard the term advantage player? This is a label gambling companies assign to players who only bet when the odds are in their favor.

Even though “on average” bookmakers have a 4.55% advantage on straight bets (2.38% @ -105), the key word is “average”; advantage players find bets where the bookmaker’s advantage is negative. Whether your goal is to be a sports betting pro, or just earn a little money on the side, the first step to winning is to stop making –EV bets.

If you understand what expected value, -EV, and +EV mean, go ahead and skip down to our advice on finding +EV bets. If you’re not familiar with this concept continue reading.

Expected Value (EV) Explained

Expected value is a term professional gamblers use on a regular basis. To explain what it means in simple terms I’ll use an example. Let’s say me and you decided to have a coin flipping contest. We flip coins and you give me $1 for each outcome of heads; I give you $1 for each outcome of tails. We could flip coins for all eternity and neither of us will ever have an advantage because on average half the time we lose $1 half the time we win $1. While there will be swings back and forth, as long as we flip the coin enough times eventually we’ll both break even. This particular bet has neutral expected value.

Now let’s say I’m tired of flipping coins, and want to quit, but while begging me to stay you offer me a better deal. This new deal pays me $1.10 for every heads, and I still pay you $1.00 for every tails. What happens now is half the time I win $1.10 and half the time I lose $1.00. If we flip 100 times I should average 50 wins of $1.10 ($55) and 50 losses of $1 ($50). Every flip of the coin I have a positive expectation (+EV) of 5 cents. As the one offering me this proposition you have the opposite, every flip of the coin is 5 cents –EV for you.

Every wager made in sports betting has either a positive expected value (+EV), negative expectation value (-EV) or in rare cases neutral expected value. Winning sports betting requires avoiding –EV and finding +EV bets.

Finding +EV Sports Bets

The reasons most sports bettors don’t spend time learning the tricks of advantage players is it’s slightly time consuming, most have no leads how to do it, are overwhelmed or when they do learn it’s not actually fun. If you’re looking for something fun we suggest paint balling, a trip to the amusement park, circus or what have you. If you’re looking to actually make money then you’ll need to know how to find +EV bets.

At TheSportsGeek.com we have several articles on this topic you’ll want to read:

Teaser Betting Strategy – This is perhaps the easiest method a sports bettor can use to find bets with a positive advantage. When you also read our article on the current betting market, you’ll realize just before game time the lines are efficient. Teasers are based off the current betting lines, so no longer do you need to go do any deep analysis to find out whether as straight bet is +EV. Here find spots where teasers increase the win rate by enough and you’ll have a +EV bet. This is all described in our article on teaser betting strategy.

Prop Betting Strategy – Prop bets are generally considered the easiest wagering opportunity for sports bettors to beat. In our article on prop betting strategy I give a full break down of the prop bet “which team will score first”. After reading that article you’ll have enough information to start finding +EV bets on this specific prop. In time, as you get experience you’ll be able to solve other prop bet on your own and then beat them using as similar method to the one I show in the example.

Must Read Sports Betting Books

If you’re new to advantage betting some books that will help you greatly with the basics are:

1) Sharp Sports Betting by Stanford Wong

2) Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting by King Yao

Once you’re much more experienced and ready to take things to the next level then I strongly Conquering Risk: Attacking Vegas and Wall Street by Elihu D. Feustel. This is a book for advanced sports bettors and not a good read for anyone not already winning. It is heavily math, statistic and handicapping intensive. If you eventually decided on a career as an advantage player at some point down the road you’ll want to work to understand what Elihu D. Feustel shares in this book.

No matter what methods you use to find +EV bets, the information contained in our article on finding maximum value is a must read. Next, if you’re thinking about purchasing picks, read our article on winning without a tout. In that article you’ll also find some information on getting free picks. Use that with the earlier mention getting max value article, and shopping the market and you’ll likely be turning an easy, yet slightly time consuming profit.

With this out of the way let me now cover the easiest way to get your bankroll started: “Bonus Whoring”.

A Free Lunch in Sports Betting

If you’ve heard the saying there is no such thing as a free lunch, well think again. Here are some bonuses that sports betting sites offer to players making their first deposit:

At the time of writing this Bookmaker is offering a massive holiday bonus of 25% up to $2,500 sports + 175% up to $1,000 poker + 100% up to $250 casino. If you don’t have an account, visit Bookmaker and register using Bonus Code THEGEEK on the sign up field. After logging in, head to the cashier where the available “deposit bonus codes” will be listed. Use this code and you’ll now have the added advantage of massive free play bonus.

Bovada offers 10% cash bonus on bettor’s first deposit. The best thing about this bonus is it is instant and it’s cash (as opposed to free play). Also no crazy strings such as rollover, hold period etc, simply roll your initial deposit and 10% bonus over a single time and it is free and clear your own money to keep.

Here you can get up to $1,000 in free bonus money. Getting the max bonus is a multi step process. First sign up, and be sure to leave the Promotion Code field empty. Next follow the steps on our BetOnline Bonus page to negotiate a massive bonus with their live support.

When you combine +EV bets with free bonus cash, winning at sports betting is a cinch. The only piece of the puzzle you have left is protecting and growing your bankroll. Our best advice here, never wager more than a few percent of what you have on hand on a single game.

Once you have this all down, while it takes other sports bettors a lot of luck to win, the opposite is true for you. A bookie beating an advantage player who uses responsible bet sizing, keeps his composure during downswings while making only +EV bets, is quite difficult. Follow this and the only ways you lose is horrible bad luck!

Once again don’t forget to take advantage of the bonus at www.Bovada.lv!

We wish you the best of luck and know soon enough you’ll be shacking your head confused the same at us, whenever you hear the statement “most sports bettors lose” and clearly you won’t be on of them.

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