Are you a wannabe sports betting fanatic?
Football, boxing, soccer, UFC; all sports are bettable these days and the average better might have trouble keeping up with all of the nuances of sports betting.
Fortunately for you, we’re here to help. There are tons of sports betting tips and strategies to keep you afloat in the dangerous world of gambling.
To avoid losing your life savings, it’s actually better to focus your gambling efforts on sports betting. There are measures you can take to keep losses to a minimum and also hit big parlaying several smaller bets.
Let’s take a look at the basics of sports betting.
Sports Betting Tips and Strategies
There are websites on every corner of the internet with advice on sports betting. Most of them say the same things but brush over the basics. It seems simple, but sports betting can be complicated once you dig in deep.
Here, we’ll look at some basic concepts to keep you on the right side of zero that allow you to continue having fun watching your favorite sports.
Managing Bankroll
Money management is arguably the most important thing for a sports bettor. If you don’t manage it properly, you’ll be down and out pretty quick.
Once you’ve figured out how much money your finances afford you to spend on sports betting, you need to decide on how much you’ll dedicate to each bet.
It’s recommended that each bet should only be about 1-5% of your total bankroll. This can be adjusted as you gain experience.
Do Your Research
Unlike regular gambling, you can control how successful you are in sports betting, to some degree. Doing some research and staying on top of trends will help you stay out of the hole. It doesn’t hurt to look at gambling websites to see what you’re dealing with. Check out this useful site to familiarize yourself.
Subscribe to a few competing sports gambling magazines, bookmark some websites, and familiarize yourself with statistics to gain a deeper knowledge of the sports you’re interested in.
Manage Expectations
Like regular gambling, you should always be realistic with your expectations of winning. Yes, there are benefits to being knowledgeable about the sports that you’re betting on, but it’s unreasonable to expect to win all the time.
You’ll always go through ups and downs, so make sure your confidence doesn’t turn into arrogance. Staying humble with your bets will keep you from losing big down the road.
Don’t Bet With Your Heart
Sports fans are usually insane. Often, the hearts of amateur sports bettors will get in the way of what their research has told them.
If you’re a huge Mavs fan and they get the 8th seed and play Golden State in the first round of the playoffs, you know they have a small chance of winning. While this can make you big bucks if it pays off, you shouldn’t let your love of Luka drain your retirement fund.
Keep Track of Your Bets
Another way to stay on top of your research and trends is to keep a record of what you’ve bet on in the past and how successful you were.
It’s not fun to look at all the money you’ve lost in the past but it could keep you from making the same mistake twice. Remember when you lost all that money betting on the Mavs over the Warriors? If you keep track of your failures, you can avoid being burnt again.
One Sport Betting
If you fancy yourself an expert in one sport but not another, maybe just stick to what you know.
This all goes back to doing your research. While you’re learning about the advanced analytics of cricket, keep your bets to American Football. Don’t place crazy bets on a sport you’re not familiar with until you can sit down and understand the sport when you watch it.
Middling
The idea of middling may seem risky. But basically, you just need to keep an eye on the lines to do it. A betting line is the number of points that one team is projected to beat another team by. These are set by bookies.
Middling involves betting on both outcomes of a sporting event as the betting line moves. A line will move, for example, during the week preceding a football game because there are many variables to consider when there’s a week between games.
Say the initial line for this year’s Superbowl is Patriots -4.5 over the Rams and then it moves to -2.5 because of an injury. You can pick the Rams to cover the 4.5 points and then take the Patriots at -2.5. If the Patriots win by 3, then you win both bets!
Middling is great because you’ll always win one of the bets, keeping it low risk.
Parlays
Parlaying is a good way to make a lot of money. It’s a bit more advanced and is a bit riskier but if you know your stuff, it’ll pay off.
Basically, parlaying is the act of combining two bets into one. If both don’t happen, you don’t win the bet, but if they both happen then they’ll pay out a lot more than if you only bet on one. It goes like this…
Sportsbooks will have odds specifically for parlays. A two-team parlay will be around +260 and a three-team will be around +600.
The act of parlaying is pretty simple. Instead of betting $50 on the Seahawks covering against the Cowboys and other $50 on the Packers covering against the Lions, you bet $100 for both outcomes to happen and win with the parlay odds if they do.
Same goes for three-team parlays. But if you go 2 for 3, you lose. So it’s a lot riskier.
Have Fun Out There
Now that you know basic sports betting tips and strategies, you can begin with your research. Remember to hedge your bets and stay away from your favorite team. You should be making big bucks in no time.
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