Professional Sports Betting Strategy

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The best sports betting strategies you can learn is bankroll management. Managing an online account is essential if you don’t want to go broke. Planning a schedule of bets is important so you have enough cash left for a big tournament or event. Create a Bankroll for Sports Betting and Stick to It. One of the very first things you should do when.

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There’s a lot of information on the internet claiming to offer “foolproof” methods to instant sports betting success. Unfortunately, there is no such thing. Becoming a successful sports bettor requires hard work, determination, knowledge, and experience.

Part of gaining these necessary skills is to learn which strategies to apply and when to implement them. In this article, we’ve compiled 10 quick betting tips and strategies that will move you towards being a stronger, more successful bettor over time.

Like anything worth doing, achieving a better sports betting winning percentage takes both time and perseverance. Sports betting is not tantamount to gambling, so we advocate betting with skill, measure, and precision. Don’t leave everything up to luck!

1. Manage Your Bankroll and Create a Unit Size

It’s integral that, as a sports bettor, you decide how much money you’re going to dedicate towards betting on sports. Of course, this hinges on your individual financial situation. It’s never wise to bet money that you can’t afford to lose.

Now that you’ve established a pre-ordained bankroll, decide on unit size. We recommend that beginner bettors stake 1-5% of their bankroll on every bet they make.

This is undoubtedly thecrucial first step in becoming a more successful sport better. Every single “sharp” scrutinizes both their bankroll and unit size regularly. For more information, we’ve written a whole guide on sports betting money management.

2. Understand Your Risk Tolerance and Goals as a Bettor

Different types of bettors like to make different bets. The sooner you decide which types of bets you prefer making, the sooner you can perfect your strategy and start winning.

Some people like to bet on significant underdogs or highly improbable events. They’re attracted to the longest of long odds. These are the same bettors who are more inclined to create huge parlays and bet on games like the Browns beating the Patriots on Monday night.

Others have a preference for smaller profits, but more likely outcomes. Betting on heavy favorites and welcoming short odds may not pay out as big, but these bettors are likely to win more often.

Some bettors think strategically, with a long-term view of players or teams. These bettors spend a lot of their time and bankroll in the futures marketplace.

You may bet once a week or stay active in sportsbook live betting, placing many bets every day (or even multiple bets on the same event).

Of course, none of these types of bets are mutually exclusive. Seasoned sharps are highly active in every single kind of wager, no matter whether it’s got long or short odds attached to it.

Focusing on one particular kind of bet is a wise move if you’re looking to improve quickly.

3. Develop Realistic Expectations

A successful “sharp” wins 54% of the time. A historically great “sharp” wins at around a 60% clip. These are the best sports bettors in the entire world.

Wanting to achieve these numbers at the jump or even over an extended period of time is a tall order. We can’t stress this point enough.

Even if you win your first 10 bets (which is not unheard of), the law of averages suggests that unfortunately, you’ll come crashing back to the earth at some point. Knowing this and setting realistic expectations can help prevent you from doing anything rash.

Don’t deviate from the strategy and methods that made you win 10 in a row in the first place.

4. Keep a Record of Your Bets and Review Them Periodically

This strategy might seem unsexy, but it’s nevertheless incredibly important.

It isn’t fun to revisit losses, but if you do, you might prevent yourself from making the same types of mistakes twice. Sometimes, you’ll lose bets even if you’ve done everything right. Other times, you knew you were reaching, but made a bet anyway. Correcting misguided reasoning will benefit your bets in the long run.

An occasional retrospective on your successes and failures will doubtless provide a long-term boost to your bankroll.

5. Bet with Your Head, Not Your Heart

The majority of sports bettors began betting because they were sports fans. As such, they probably had allegiance to one or more teams. If this applies to you, we’d recommend from abstaining on betting on any event related to your favorite team (or teams).

Loyalty can cloud our judgment, and we recommend being rational and measured in your sports betting. Bias can affect us in both conscious and unconscious ways. For this reason, we recommend skipping lines that you have a personal interest or an emotional investment in.

6. Avoid “Sunk Cost Fallacy”

For this tip, we’re going to borrow a standard term from behavioral economics. The “sunk cost fallacy” means that the more time or money one invests in something, that harder it becomes to abandon. This encompasses everything from business investment to a bad relationship.

Decisions are colored and tainted by accumulated emotional attachments related to the investment. People engaging in the “sunk cost fallacy” will throw more money at a project or venture that’s doomed, just because they’ve invested so much time in it already. They simply don’t know when to cut their losses.

This applies to sports betting just as much as it pertains to investments. If you’re having a bad day, cut your losses. And whatever you do, don’t keep upping the size of your bankroll to cover a nasty losing streak.

7. Bet on One Sport

As Warren Buffet says, invest in what you know. The same applies to sports betting.

If you’re new to sports betting, it’s worth it to stick to the one sport you know the most about. You’ll already be ahead in the methods you need to get an edge in over the bookmakers, just based on your pre-existing knowledge of how the game is played.

You’ll already know how to evaluate players and teams, and where to gather information about the sport. This is integral to finding the smartest wagers.

8. Line Shop

Line-shopping is all about taking advantage of pricing discrepancies between the same event at different sportsbooks. Finding the best odds possible is guaranteed to have a significant positive effect on your sports betting ROI.

Line shopping is the closest thing to a foolproof, sure-thing strategy in sports betting. It’s guaranteed to net you bigger profits and long-term success in sports betting. The sooner you start doing it, the better.

We’ve written a full guide on all things line shopping, and why it’s essential.

9. Hedge Your Bets When It’s Appropriate

At its core, hedging is a risk management technique that can be applied to sports betting. It’s a way to either reduce your bankroll exposure or lock in a profit on bets.

Hedging is complicated and beyond the scope of this quick strategy guide, but every hedge you make will be done by betting on a result that’s different than your original wager.

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10. Do Your Research and Talk to Other Bettors

In the age of the internet, getting involved in the sports betting community has never been easier. Join sports betting forums, peruse sportsbook-related subreddits, and talk to anyone you know in real life who may be keen on sports betting.

Not only will you become more accustomed to sports betting lingo, but you can also exchange sports betting strategies with your friends.

Patience Is a Virtue

As we’ve mentioned, becoming a successful sports bettor takes time. As you develop more in-depth knowledge and comfort within the sports betting world, you’ll start to see a more significant ROI.

Remember, never become a gambler. Everyone has rough days sports betting, but betting responsibly and sticking to a plan will help you remain successful. Discipline is integral to keeping your cool, having fun, and staying successful.


I remember when I first started searching for a proven betting system googling the term “betting systems.”

There was all sorts of progressive staking systems, martingale systems, stop at a winner systems, progressive laying systems. The fact was though that none of these betting systems held up to any long term analysis and would normally blow your bank if you followed them for long enough.

But after researching a bit longer I found a few betting systems that did actually work.

Here are four betting systems that I have used over the years.

Which continue to be profitable in the year 2021.

Proven Betting System 1 – Arbitrage Betting

Sports Arbitrage betting is something that I still use on the occasion as part of my portfolio. Arbitrage betting involves covering every outcome of an event. In order to guarantee a profit no matter the outcome.

Here is an example of a number of arbitrage bets found using the software rebelbetting.

For example if we take one of the arbitrage bets above.

There is a 3.7% arbitrage bet between The New Saints and Bala in the Welsh division.

In the draw no bet market The New Saints could be backed at 1.53 with Marathonbet and Bala could be backed at 3.2 with William Hill.

For every £100 risked across both outcomes a profit of £3.7 could be guaranteed.

With arbitrage betting you can make several of these bets every day and gradually build up your bankroll with almost zero risk.

It is a system that once you understand can be used again and again.

Negatives of arbitrage betting?

The only issue with arbitrage betting is that it has a limited life cycle. Bookmakers will eventually limit arbitrage bettors accounts once they see that they are not going to be profitable customers.

Arbitrage betting is a great way to build up a betting or trading bankroll. Before you move on to betting or trading with exchanges and Asian bookmakers.

Proven Betting System 2 – Value Betting

Professional Sports Betting Strategy Strategies

Value betting is similar to arbitrage betting as it involves exploiting the soft bookmakers. A value bet involves looking for odds that are out of line with the sharp Asian Bookmakers or betting exchanges.

Given that the odds at sharp bookmakers and betting exchanges are quite efficient in big markets. The betting exchanges and sharp Asian bookmakers often offer close to the true odds of an event. Sometimes when there is odds movement on these events soft bookmakers will be slow to move their odds.

Consistently betting on odds above the Asian bookmakers and betting exchanges has proven to be profitable.

Image courtesy ofTrademate Sports.

The advantage that value betting has over arbitrage betting is that you generate a much higher turnover and use lower stakes which may make your accounts last longer then conventional arbitrage betting.

A lot of bookmakers will also offer value accumulators often on a weekly basis as part of odds boosts or special promotions.

Negatives of value betting?

Again the only downside to consistently taking value bets is that soft bookmakers will eventually see that you are able to make money from them and will limit or close your account.

However if you plan to make money from sports betting. Getting banned from soft bookmakers is going to happen whichever way you choose to make money from them.

Proven Betting System 3 – Matched Betting

The popularity of matched betting has exploded in the last few years and with good reason.

Matched betting is probably one the best and easiest ways to generate a good second income online. It involves taking advantage of bookmaker offers to guarantee a profit much like arbitrage.

The big advantage that matched betting has over arbitrage is that is a lot less obvious and harder for bookmaker’s employed traders to spot.

I have covered matched betting in a lot more detail in this article below.

Negatives of matched betting?

There isn’t many downsides to matched betting. Bookmakers will stop giving you promotions eventually. But as discussed before this is what happens when you become a profitable sports bettor.

So there you have 3 proven betting systems that are currently working in 2020. Which should also prove be profitable in the long term.

Each of these betting systems involve exploiting soft bookmakers.

This is really the best way to start making money from the sports betting markets and allows you to build up a nice trading bankroll or good second income.

Proven Betting System 4 – Betting On Team News

One proven betting strategy that you might not know is reacting quickly to team news.

Odds can rapidly change on the basis of team news.

If you have a good knowledge of the teams that are playing, then you will often be able to secure yourself a value bet.

Here is a good example of how odds can change when a teams lineup is announced.

In this example I have highlighted the point at which team news was announced.

This was a Europa League between Arsenal and Standard Liege.

Arsenal announced a weaker side then expected, from this news the odds on Arsenal drifted quite significantly before the game started.

If you were familiar with the teams and reacted to the information you would have been able to secure yourself a value bet on Standard Liege. Due to the fact that Arsenal’s odds were drifting so the odds on the draw and Standard Liege would have to shorten.

This is a really effective strategy and if you have access to betting exchanges you can secure yourself a profit before the game even starts.

Here are two videos which explain this strategy in more detail.


Watch this video on YouTube

Which betting systems have you found to work best?

Are there any that are missing from this list?

Let me know in the comments below.

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4 Proven Betting Systems That Work
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4 Proven betting systems that still work in 2020. Use these betting systems to make an income from the sports betting markets.
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Professional Sports Betting Strategy

Smart Sports Trader

Sports Betting Techniques

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