Many amateur handicappers approach this game with the attitude that they’re going to make tons of money because they know a lot about sports. While a guy may have a good concept of a sport or follow team(s) closely, that’s only a small part of the battle as evidenced by the fact that 97% of sports bettors lose long term. Yes, you read that correctly. Ninety-Seven-Percent will succumb to the odds over the long term. Don’t let this discourage you though! You may be one of the 3% that can beat the books! However, in order to pull this off, you will have to become a handicapper, not a gambler and do your homework.
The homework that we speak of consists of betting at the best prices, getting educated about odds and who they work, key numbers in football betting, proper money management, being disciplined and figuring out which information is important when it comes to beating the point spread. There is also an advanced version of all these variables in which we have written hundreds of articles that you can find in the left menus of each sport on the Lootmeister site.
Make sure that you’re getting the best price! Not all bookies and online sportsbooks are created equal! Some offer discounted pricing while some gouge their clients by inflating prices when they know you’re betting tendencies. It’s common for a bet to be -105 at one book and -120 at another. Why pay $15 more for the same bet? If you’re not placing your football, baseball and basketball bets at BetAnySports Sportsbook, you are overpaying!
Learn odds and how to spot sucker lines: A MLB bet with odds of -250 may look like a “lock”, but there really isn’t such thing. Even worse, if this play loses, you now have to win 2.5x just to break even! This is the worst way to bet on games and you will find yourself busted our in short order playing this way. There is no such thing as a lock! That’s why they play the game! Sharp sports bettors often times stick with moneyline underdogs as they can hit less than 50% of their wagers and still come out ahead. A much smarter way to play!
Know your key numbers! This is a fancy term for common final score margins. In a study of over 4000 games, it was found that 15.1% of all NFL games land on a final score margin of 3. The next most common margin is 7, which came in at 7.1%. 6 point margins came in 3rd place at 6 percent. The other two most popular margins were 10 and 4, both which landed a hair under 6%. When you add those up, you see that these (5) margins make up over 40% of all final scores. Don’t find yourself on the wrong side of these! Note: College football key numbers are completely different than NFL key numbers due to less parity in the NCAA game.
Exercise proper money management: All too often a bettor deposits a few hundred bucks in his account and dumps it all on one game. This “maniac” style of betting is the sure way to the poorhouse. Even worse, this style of bettor often times doubles up on his next bet! You can’t win every game so this is a recipe for disaster. The proper way to play is to wager no more than 2% of your bankroll on any single game and never have more than 10% of your roll in action at any one time. This allows you to sustain the highs and lows that betting on sports will throw you.
Stay disciplined! Sticking with the money management theme, stick to your guns. Don’t go crazy if you get on a hot streak and surely don’t chase losses when you’re cold. Scared money never wins. When you’re hot, don’t skimp on your homework with the false impression that everything you touch is turning to gold. Things turn to crap just a fast, especially when you get derailed from what made you successful in the first place!
Know which stats and variables matter. This isn’t something I can hand you a magical potion and it’ll work. I lost my butt for 10 years before I got any sort of sniff of winning, much less breaking even. Watch line moves, figure out which side the public and the sharps are on, check weather, check lineups, look at how a player does in certain environments, certain ballparks/fields, how he does vs. certain opponents, how teams do vs. certain opponents, how they play at home, how they play on the road, who is hot, who is cold and more. The list is endless.
Summary: It’s not easy to beat 52.38% (the breakeven point at -110 odds). Many hop into this battle thinking they’re going to get RICH. The more likely scenario is that sports betting is a grind that will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t get educated and do your homework. As noted above, check out the left menu in each sports section and you’ll find HUNDREDS of articles on how to beat the sportsbooks. And for those of you who don’t have the time to do so, we’ve got your back as our free picks located in the upper left menu of each sport win long term. Thanks for reading Lootmeister.com, we appreciate it!
