Want to be the next Shohei Ohtani? If so, you gotta learn to gamble 😈 I've bet every single day for the past 5 years & have used 50+ sportsbooks as a bettor (FanDuel, DraftKings, etc) Here's the top 6 things you need to know to *actually* make money sports betting 👇
#1 - You want to use multiple sportsbooks I bet Haliburton over 10.5 Assists @ -125 odds for today on a book called Fliff. So I'm staking $250 to profit $200 ($250 x 100/125) Caesars has this exact same bet @ -145 odds. If you bet it on Caesars, then you're staking $250 to profit $172.40 ($250 x 100/145) It may not seem like a massive difference but it adds up BIG time.... Nobody wins every bet, nobody has a crystal ball & can see the future. Getting 10% to 20% better odds by using multiple sportsbooks literally turns people from losing sports bettors into winning sports bettors
Imagine in 1 month, you go 100-100 (100 Ws, 100 Ls) with a $100 bet size. That's about 7 bets placed a day, not super crazy... This is your net profit over the course of the month: 1) Betting @ -110 odds: -$909 (100 x $100 x 100/110 - 100 x $100), so you got killed 2) Betting @ +100 odds: $0 3) Betting @ +110 odds: $1000 profit (100 x $110 - 100 x $100) The crazy thing about sports betting is your usually betting on games that day, so your returns are daily. If you're getting an average of a 5% ROI on your wagers & betting, say, $500 a day, that's $500 x 5% x 30 days/month = $750 in profit per month If you're getting a -5% ROI, that means you're losing $750 per month Any "capper" who is giving out picks without mentioning the price (or odds) they're getting has 0 clue what they're doing... They may be fun/entertaining, but they're not gonna make you money. We're very lucky as sports bettors that all books set their own odds. That means we can "shop around" and get the best price.
#2 - Ignore irrelevant things like win-loss record There's only 1 thing that matters in sports betting - ROI. What's your profit & loss? People talk about so much irrelevant information, like "win-loss record." It doesn't matter. I saw this on my Twitter earlier this month & it's a good example. Guy gave out Florida moneyline & said his picks were 136-94 on the year. Basically every sportsbook had Florida @ -160 or -155 odds. Going 136-94 @ -155 odds (bet $155 to profit $100) = -$626 assuming you're betting $100 (136 x $100 x 100/155 - 94 x $100). So you "win" your bets more often than you "lose" but you're down money...
In 2023, I went 2150-4547 on my bets. I "lost" twice as many bets as I won & still ended up profiting because I was mainly betting on underdogs (e.g. odds above +100). It of course never feels good to lose a bet, but you shouldn't care about win-loss record because it means nothing The Hornets are +400 moneyline odds today. Let's say you place 3 bets today @ +400 odds & go 1-2 with a wager size of $100. You profit $400 on your winning wager, you lose $200 total on the other two. You're up $200 profit, that's what matters.
#3 - Track your bets If you're betting every day, you'll have winning days & losing days. It's really hard to keep track of performance & know how you're doing unless you're tracking your bets... When I started gambling, every day I lost money, I'd get angry & want to change my strategy. I'd feel "unlucky." But, realistically, I needed to look @ my bets over the course of months. Everybody has 'bad beats' & lucky wins. Today, I had Middleton over 24.5 P+R+A which won in Double OT. Lucky win... I also had Draymond u8.5 rebounds which lost in the last few minutes on a garbage time rebound when he had 5 fouls. Sucks, but that's just how it is. Need to be able to separate emotions from long-term results... I use a free bet tracker called @pikkitsports. It syncs with your sportsbooks & shows you tons of different analytics (profit & loss by book, etc). Highly recommend it
#4 - Look at sportsbook promos every day. A lot of them are free money... There's a lot of "low hanging" fruit in gambling. For example, most sportsbooks offer pretty lucrative sign-up bonuses. I used to travel to different states solely to take advantage of the sign up bonuses lol. Go to a new state -> take the free $3,000 in sign-up bonuses -> leave... All these books are in ruthless competition with one another for new customers, so they run promos to try to lure new people in... This YouTube video breaks down how there's over $18,000 in sign-up bonuses across sportsbooks in the United States: youtu.be/F5KRaIBTt7w?si… - it's actually insane... I said it earlier but, if you want to make money sports betting, you're going to need to have multiple sportsbooks anyways... All books set their own odds, and you never know where the value is going to be on a given day. Sometimes, the value (e.g. good lines) are on FanDuel. Other times, it's DraftKings. Both offer pretty lucrative sign-up bonuses, so take advantage of them
#5 - Start small & learn I started out betting $5. I tracked my bets & ROI so I could see how I was doing without having the risk of losing a lot of money. Everybody wants to make money sports betting, but (in my opinion) it makes sense to start out with low bet sizes. Learn what you're doing. Learn how the 'sharps' make money with strategies like arbitrage & Positive EV. Then you can ramp up your bet size once you see you have a positive ROI in the first place. There's a lot of good information online breaking down profitable betting strategies, like this article: oddsjam.com/betting-educat…. Feel free to DM me with any questions For example, one thing that's not "intuitive" is that sportsbooks are constantly moving around their odds. Lineup news, injuries, weather, etc - sportsbooks already factor all of that into the odds they're putting out. It's naive to think "Oh, Giannis is out, Lillard's over is a lock." Sportsbooks already know this... They have moved Lillard's line higher. Books also move their odds/lines based on where action is coming in from their sharp (e.g. profitable) customers. If all of the profitable customers on FanDuel start betting Durant's under in points for tomorrow, FanDuel will ultimately move his line down. That's just how markets work.
#6 - Manage your bankroll, don't force bets When I started betting, if I lost money in a day, then I'd want to bet more the following day to make up for it... Don't do that lol Learn how to manage your bankroll & don't get emotional. This YouTube video is a good intro to proper bankroll management: youtu.be/SK8iQul8Yb4?si…
@AlexMonahan100 Always great content. You're still pretty young, but I'd say you're on the path to achieving "Benter" status. In the meantime, Stay away from the drugs and whores. 😉