Where Talent Fits In To Sports Betting

Talented sports bettors are few and far between. Possibly people are hiding their true profession but even after two years working behind the desk at a well-known bookmakers I only knew of one gambler who made their living from betting and he focused on horses. During all of his bets (before he was asked not to place anymore bets due to large wins) he never placed a bet on sports. To me, this says a lot about the difficulty of it.

This professional gambler probably had top rated information on gambles that were primed possibly months in advance. I’m no expert on horse racing but I imagine that this is the only real method where big profits can be made. Sports betting does provide more secure ways of punting but knowledge of a “gamble” does not really exist in sports. We have seen attempts in Snooker for example to manipulate odds, but on the whole Sports betting is quite straight forward in the matches playing themselves out quite fairly.

This means it is generally easier to calculate odds as a compiler making it really hard for punters to beat the over rounds and make sports betting profitable long term. Many have tried and few have managed to do it. So what does it take to win, is it even possible?

Neil “Bad Beat” Channing is a profitable staker of poker players these days and he tells of a time when he basically locked himself away in his bedroom everyday and made a living for two years paying off various debts by betting on sports. He says that he made £5000 per week and sent £4500 to his creditors and kept £500 for himself. Alas he did not go into detail about his methods to those profits, but it shows winning long term and winning well is certainly possible. As a reputable member of the gambling community, he was candid about his losses in other forms of gambling so we can assume he is honest about his wins.

You must have a keen eye for value. This is the key to good sports betting. Picking winners is fine but without value you are picking the winners out at the price favourable to the bookmakers. For instance, betting constantly on a heavy favourite in order to show a profit you need a long winning streak and the bookmakers have a knack of pricing the odds in their favour. Value allows you to win more than you should from the bet, giving you that winning edge over time. A talented sports bettor can spot value a mile away.

Spotting this value means considering all factors that contribute to pricing. This needs a solid understanding of the key components of the sport they are assessing and correct weighting of these factors against the odds of the outcome. For example, a football match involving Liverpool without Gerrard or Torres is a large factor in determining value. If Gerrard and Torres play, but Lucas is injured, their chances of winning probably remain the same as Lucas does not have the same impact on each game as the star players. This is an obvious example but the talented sports bettor will spot value based on far more subtle factors in a variety of sports.

True sports betting success means selecting a certain bet and knowing how value allows a profit over time. They will be able to handle the emotion of wins and losses and know that over time they are proven winners. Not many can, but big profits are on offer for those that learn and master the techniques. The talented sports bettor will know and utilise the betting exchanges, the bookmakers on the high street and be a keen statistician and follower of sports. Then they turn that into healthy profit. The encouraging thing for everyone is that all the information is out there, how it is used separates the winners from the losers and the big winners from the break even punters.

By Malcolm Clarke