Tips To Become a Professional Sports Bettor

Have you ever wanted to become a professional sports bettor? Well, we have a number of pro handicappers here at Sports Hub. We will be sharing with you the top tips in order to beat the bookies and become a professional bettor. 

It’s a sports fan’s dream to quit their daytime job and become a full-time bettor. However, casual punters know just how difficult it can be to turn regular profits. Even the best handicappers out there will struggle from time-to-time.

However, if you follow a number of our best tips below, you can get one step closer to achieving your dream of becoming a professional sports bettor. So, get a pen and paper out and start taking notes! 

A Professional Sports Bettor Will Prioritize Value

One of the key principles that the pros follow is finding value with their wagers. Sure, you may find some winners by backing heavy favorites and earn a little bit of money from that. But, the professionals will be focusing on the value of their bets. 

If a favorite is as short as -500, for example, it doesn’t offer bettors the best value odds. You would need to stake $500 just to win $100. That’s a big risk to take and will more than likely result in losses in the long-term. 

A professional sports bettor will dive deeper to find the best prices for their picks. They find the best value underdogs or even the favorites that the oddsmakers have underrated. Of course, handicappers will always be analyzing the key trends and statistics behind their wagers. However, pros will always check the prices of their bets as well before placing them. 

A good price to start is around even money. The typical price of a spread bet is -110 as the handicap is balancing the odds. If you are placing the majority of your wagers on or around even money, you only need to win just over 50% of your bets to break even. 

The Difference Between Gambling And Betting

Many people outside of the sports betting world believe that gambling is a bad idea. Obviously, if you are placing bets without any sort of plan or bankroll management, and you are wagering far more money than you can afford to lose, then we understand that it isn’t the smartest of ideas. 

However, there is a difference between gambling and betting. I tend to think that gambling is a random wager without much planning, thought or research. In my mind, betting is a well-researched process that has been carefully calculated. That is what a professional sports bettor will do.

If you’re a casual bettor and want to place a bet for a bit of fun because you have a gut feeling, or just because it’s the Super Bowl, then sure, go for it. As long as you can afford to potentially lose the money you stake, then there is no issue. 

But, if you are betting on a daily or weekly basis without too much planning, then that is when you are set up to lose. That’s when gambling gets a bad rep. Because, at the end of the day, you are taking a big risk without much rhyme or reason. 

Focus On The Long-Term 

A popular method of betting in recent times is parlays. Parlays are when bettors add two or more wagers to one particular bet. This will massively increase the payout of the bet, but all of the selections will have to come in for you to win. 

Parlays can be extremely lucrative and can give bettors excellent profits. However, it’s hard enough to win just one bet, let alone multiple wagers. Therefore, we suggest that you ignore the juicy payouts and focus on one bet at a time. 

Bigger stakes on lower-odds bets will usually result in better long-term profits. It will take longer to increase your bankroll this way, but it is far more calculated and less of a risk than staking huge amounts on crazy parlays. 

Social media is always full of insane parlays that bettors have won. And sure, it does happen, you may strike lucky. But overall, it is extremely rare that this happens and is unlikely to happen to most bettors. A professional sports bettor will usually ignore the temptations of gigantic payouts.

You can easily get carried away if you have a good month. Cappers will go on insane hot streaks sometimes and turn big profits. However, how have they performed over the last three months? How have they performed over the last year? 

Even if you have profited say $1000 over the last 30 days, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are a good bettor. If you earned $1000 in January, but lost $2000 in February, then you are down $1000. Always look at the bigger picture, and don’t get too cocky when you are on a hot streak. 

Don’t chase losses

You need to accept that you will lose. Losing bets is all a part of being a professional sports bettor. Where casual bettors go wrong is when they chase their losses, and that can lead to unhealthy habits. 

Let’s set the scene. You’ve researched your bet and you feel really confident that you’ll win. Therefore, you wager $100 on it. However, your pick loses and now you’re down $100. Pros accept this loss, and will continue to look at the long-term picture. They may even not place another bet for a couple of days. 

However, a lot of bettors will feel the need to continue to bet until they make their $100 back. With the pressure of trying to instantly win your money back, it can lead to clouded decisions. As a result, instead of just being $100 down, you may end up losing $500. 

The best way is to take a step back, accept the loss, and come back when you have a clear mind. By following this, you are at less of a risk of losing money in the long run, and more likely to turn profits. 

Research Is The Cornerstone 

Sports are full of biases. It’s tough to ignore your heart and go with your head, especially when it involves your favorite teams. You may even like a particular player on a team and back them for this reason. Conversely, you may go against a team just because they’re a rival or you simply don’t like them. 

However, a professional sports bettor will ignore their allegiances and look at the stats. In some ways, the less you know about a sport, the easier it is to find winners. If you follow the principles of betting and research all the stats, you can avoid biases easier. 

A top professional sports bettor will continue to pick out the key betting trends. Although there are always anomalies, and results will go against trends sometimes, they’re trends for a reason. The pros will decide whether to ride a particular trend in order to profit in the long-term. 

Subconsciously, many factors can sway your decisions. It’s harder to go against a historically stronger team if you have grown up watching them at their best, even if they aren’t anywhere near the top anymore. The top professional handicappers will focus solely on what the research and the data is telling them. 

Manage Your Bankroll 

Building on similar concepts above, managing your bankroll is one of the fundamentals if you want to become a professional sports bettor. 

Let’s say you start with a bankroll of $5000. The main aim is to build on your bankroll in the long run. You may place a $500 wager and lose. But, if you have set a bankroll, then it’s no big deal. You may be down $500 in the short-term but you’re not focusing on that. 

You may then place another two or three $500 wagers and they all win. This way, you have then canceled out your loss and increased your bankroll. By looking at betting this way, it can allow you to accept losses better and focus on the bigger picture. 

Equally, if you continue to place $500 wagers and you are on a bad streak, then it may be a good idea to reduce your stakes. All professional cappers will go on losing streaks now and then. In order to minimize losses, the best will then limit their stakes until they start seeing more winners again. This way, you can continue to manage your bankroll properly. 

Sports Hub Can Help You Become A Professional Sports Bettor

Here at Sports Hub, we pride ourselves on being transparent. Our software allows you to see all of our guys’ winners and losers. We aren’t a scamming social media page that only shows winners. 

Our leaderboards will always show the profit and loss of our cappers. This can be filtered across different time frames too. If you are regularly looking at what we offer here at Sports Hub, it can aid you significantly in becoming a professional sports bettor. 

That’s because we have industry-leading experts who have gained a lot of experience over the years as sports bettors. They’ve gone through the highs and the lows, and have learnt from their mistakes. 

Don’t be afraid of leaning on our experts’ top advice. It’s their job to provide you with the best picks and analysis. If you don’t have the time to put in the research yourself, then it could be a good idea to buy sports handicapper picks. 

Our content is always full of the top betting strategies across a multitude of sports such as football, basketball, hockey, golf, soccer and much, much more. By using tools such as Sports Hub to help you, you can learn all there is to know about professional sports betting.