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tips for sports betting

8 Essential Tips for Sports Betting

VWB Blog 2 years ago 7

Every day, more Americans are discovering the thrill of sports betting. With online sports betting legal in a handful of states, sports fans have found a new way to participate in their favorite games.

Not only do they get to enjoy watching their favorite teams, but once they have some skin in the game by placing a wager, they are emotionally and financially attached to a particular result.

This makes it much more engaging. But it’s a lot more fun when you actually win your bets.

Need some tips for sports betting, so that you aren’t blindly throwing away money every week? By following a few basic sports betting tips and tricks, you can separate yourself from the crowd of uneducated bettors and actually start winning.

Keep reading below for the most important sports betting tips.

1. Understand Betting Odds

You’d be surprised at how many people place wagers every single week without actually understanding betting odds. They can be a bit confusing for newcomers.

But if you aren’t reading the odds and placing a bet accordingly, you are playing a slot machine, which requires zero knowledge and skill.

Sports betting isn’t blind gambling. There are so many factors you can consider in order to skew a bet in your favor. There are actually odds available to help you win more often than you lose.

Most American sports will use the American odds format. Learn how this works so that you can read the odds in a second.

If betting on other sports, like English soccer, you’ll need to understand different betting odds formats.

2. Bet Small

One of the most important tips on sports betting is to start small. Any reasonable person will have a certain budget they are working with.

Never risk your entire pot on one wager. Don’t even risk half of it.

Think like a day trader, who wants to ensure they’re in the game for the long haul. Risk only a small portion of your portfolio on any single bet. Some say 1% while others say 5% or even 10% is acceptable.

Choose a starting point and stick with it.

3. Choose One Sport

Most people enjoy watching multiple sports. But just because you like watching multiple sports doesn’t mean you should bet on multiple sports.

If you spread your bets across different sports, you are spreading yourself thin. You are likely betting blind. And you won’t get any better by doing that.

Rather, choose just one sport to focus on. Learn everything there is to know about that sport and what factors affect the odds of the outcome.

4. Stay Up to Date on Sports News

When betting on which team will win an event, there are far more factors than most people realize. It’s not just about which team is better.

It’s about which team has injured players and which team has a full lineup. You also need to consider travel times. Did one team have to travel across the country to reach this game?

Look at the team’s schedule. One team may have played twice as many games as the other in recent weeks, and fatigue can play a real role in the outcome of the game.

Part of the fun of sports betting is that it encourages you to go all-in on your favorite sport and pay attention to all of these factors.

5. Bet on the Home Team

Need some free sports betting tips? Here’s one you can take with you.

Teams win at home more often than they do when playing away. This can be seen across every sport. Home-field advantage is real.

Depending on the sport, the margins may be slim. But technically, the odds say that home teams win more than visiting teams.

6. Betting Picks

Everyone wants sport betting predictions tips. Luckily, these are widely available.

Most bettors will have a particular website from which they get their betting information. Many rely on the people behind Dimers sports bets, but there are other platforms to consider.

These platforms have people who provide weekly picks of likely outcomes.

As a new bettor, it’s important to have people you can trust. Follow along with their picks to see how often they win. While you shouldn’t follow these picks blindly, they are likely going to perform much better than your random guessing.

7. Know Key Positions

Every sport will have key positions you need to pay attention to. In baseball, your starting pitcher is essential to the outcome of the game.

In soccer, who’s coming onto the field as the captain? Who is your midfielder that is going to control the pace of the game?  And who is the striker and where will the goals likely come from?

Knowing these positions and how they affect the game is crucial. You can often tell by a starting lineup whether a coach is playing to score as much as possible, or playing to defend and hopefully get a draw.

8. Stop Betting on Your Favorite Team

If you are new to sports betting, then you are likely betting on your favorite team. You probably hope that betting on your favorite team will increase the chances of them winning.

But betting isn’t about a particular team lifting a trophy. It’s about being unbiased and betting on the team most likely to win.

If you want to make money in sports betting, you need to move away from emotional attachments. Especially if you’re a Detroit Lions fan. No amount of hopeful betting is going to help you out there.

If you want to bet on your favorite team, then put that money in a separate bankroll. You need to treat your main bankroll like a business, not a prayer request.

Tips for Sports Betting Success

Anyone can learn to be successful in the sports betting world. Just like anything, it takes practice and experience. You’ll lose a lot.

But once you start following tips for sports betting and developing solid strategies, you can eventually start to win more than you lose.

Looking for more ideas like this? Visit our blog now to keep reading.

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