An Intro to Sports Betting: Spread Betting Tips

Spread Betting Tips for those of us who have been betting on sports for a long time, logging into our betting accounts and making our wagers for the day feels like second nature. The hard work, though, comes when deciding what games to wager on and what specific bets to make on any given day.

We are going to get into all of that in a moment, but we should start by saying that this is an article designed for those of you looking to dip your toe into sports betting for the first time. That said, hopefully we will also have tips that will help veteran bettors, too, so let’s get into it.

MyBookie’s Spread Betting Tips

How to Bet on Sports | If you looking to learn how to improve your spread online betting strategies, keenly read through the following laid-down tips for success.

How to Get Started with Spread Betting Tips

Like many people who routinely wager on sports, the idea of getting in on the action usually comes after building up knowledge of a specific sport. You may find yourself talking to friends about an upcoming game, making predictions, and finding out that you are correct more often than not.

It is that knowledge that leads a lot of people to decide to try their hand at sports betting, but you quickly find that when money is involved, you start to second guess yourself, especially if your wagers are failing to hit.

What you may not understand in the early going is that losing streaks in betting are common, even among those who are very successful bettors.

With that in mind, I think it’s a good idea to stick to one type of wager at the start, with spread betting a good way to go.

What is Spread Betting?

When you log in to your sports betting account and select the sport you want to wager on, you are going to see a list of upcoming games that are available to bet on, usually on the same day.

There are usually 3 different options for each game, which are moneyline, spread, and total. The moneyline is essentially a straight up pick where you are required to select the winner of said game, while the total is an OVER/UNDER wager on the total number of points or goals in that game.

The spread is the number of points or goals that a team needs to win by in order for you to win your bet.

An Example of Spread Betting Odds

Let’s look at an upcoming NBA game to get an idea of what the odds look like on a spread bet. We have a game where the Portland Trail Blazers are favored by 6 points (-6) over the Washington Wizards (+6). The odds are the same (-110) no matter which side of the fence you fall on.

If you pick the Trail Blazers to cover, they need to win by more than 6 points in order for you to cash your winning ticket. If you play the Wizards, they either need to win or lose by less than 6 points.

If Portland wins by 6, it is considered a PUSH, and your wager is returned to you. In terms of the money paid out on a winning bet, if you play $100 at odds of -110, you will see a return of $190.91, which is your original stake plus your winnings.

Spread Betting Tips: Learning How to Spread Bet

When it comes to wagering on sports, and spread betting in particular, there is not a particularly steep learning curve. The basic wagers all essentially boil down to a 50/50 bet, but you would be surprised at how difficult it is to actually win consistently.

The fact of the matter is that the bookies know how to set the lines so that they are tough to beat, but there is a way to do it if you are willing to put some time into researching the games that you wish to wager on.

Learn by Practicing Spread Betting

One of the bets ways to learn how to bet against the spread is to practice. This is the smart thing to do before you start dropping real money, which you could potentially lose if you haven’t put the work in.

Start things off by focusing on one sport, preferably one that you know a lot about, and take a look at the upcoming games for the day.

Look at the current records of the teams involved, which includes looking at their spread records for the season, as well as recent form.

Once you do that, pick the games where there seems to be a definite edge one way or another and take note of the bets you would have made.

If you are losing more than winning, go back and check your research to see where you potentially went wrong. Once you are winning more than you are losing, make the move to real money bets.

Spread Betting Tips: How to Spread Bet Successfully

Becoming a successful spread bettor begins with learning how to pick and choose the game that you are going to wager on. Sure, you could throw money at every game, but your chances of winning regularly take a hit when you follow that path.

It is certainly tempting to have action in every game but try to limit yourself to a few games per day that you feel confident about. Given the odds in spread betting, a strike rate in the neighborhood of 55-60% will see you in profit.

What are the Best Spread Betting Games to Wager On?

There is no easy answer to this question, as there are so many different factors that go into placing winning wagers. You have to look at the head-to-head matchups, the spread trends of each team, and how they have been performing of late to get a better picture.

For example, you might have a team that has a very good record against the spread for the season but who are in a slump that has seen them fail to cover in a number of games. Do you trust their overall record or what they have done lately? It is situations such as those that you can figure out while practicing how to spread bet on sports.

Other Spread Betting Tips you can Consider

Knowing Your Market

The scope of spread betting is enormous, allowing you to bet on anything from sports to financial markets to politics to house prices. To succeed as a punter, you must therefore choose your markets carefully, preferably wagering on the market you are most comfortable with.

For example, if sportsbetting is you forte, know everything there is to know about and then focus all your bets on it, rather than trying an avenue such as politics that you don’t know anything about.

Besides knowing your market, strive to master the spread betting strategies and tactics of that market, as that is the only way to encourage sustainable success.

Setting a Game Plan and Realistic Targets

Just because you know the online NFL betting market doesn’t mean that any spread bet you make in it will be successful.

Winners and losers in spread betting are often separated by game plans and betting strategies.

It is almost impossible to develop you own plan overnight, so learn to be patient and invest plenty of time and effort into trial-and-erring your strategy until it is perfect.

Once you have a solid game plan that leads to success, like let’s say betting only on odds that have points of 7-or-below, stick to it.

Still on game plans and targets, it pays greatly to safeguard yourself against emotions such as greed, fear and false hope, which can easily corrupt your focus when betting.

Just like other forms of trading, it is easy for you to get carried away and make impulsive spread betting decisions. To avoid being swayed by emotionality, you can set trading targets and rules such as:

• Target profit goals (per day, month, year)

• Maximum losses you can take

• Size of the trade at any given time

• Entry/exit strategy

As you become more confident and conversant with the market, these spread betting rules can be adapted or changed to any new strategy you wish to adopt.

Stick to the KISS Principle

It is good betting practice not to complicate things in spread betting.

Once you have familiarized yourself with your target markets and you know how long you intend to hold a trading position (along with a predetermined knowledge of how much you are willing to risk); go to the betting boards and simply place your bets.

Avoid trying to hear what everyone out there is saying, or which mathematic formulas some statisticians are using to handicap their spread bets, as this will only confuse you.

And while you are at it, remember to start your wagers on a very small scale, especially if you are a beginner. When you use larger sums and big stake sizes, especially as a beginner, you are highly likely to make rash decisions that could cost you in a big way.

Once you are comfortable with the simple trades, like betting on individual events, you can then take progressive steps into more complicated stuff, like parlays.

Buy or Pass the Extra Point?

Bookmakers usually have costs tied to bets, commonly known as juice, and these are included in the spread bets, leading to a bit of some gap between the bid price and offer price on a share that you intend to buy.

And in the instances that there is a lot of public interest on a particular spread, sportsbooks can increase the spreads by half a point or even a point. If the half or extra point is affordable and worth some extra value to you as a bettor; then it is okay to buy it.

However, if the extra point comes with too much risk or offers no value to you as a bettor, then simply avoid purchasing it.

Understanding and Anticipating Line Moves

Given several factors can affect spread betting lines, the Oddsmakers can move at virtually any time. In sports betting, for instance, the announcement of a key player suffering an injury can lead to big shift in the spread betting odds.

Sometimes, though, line movements are ‘manufactured’ by the Linesmakers to simply throw the bettors into disarray and confuse them. As a trader, you must therefore understand how the line movements happen and be ready to adjust your bets accordingly.

Do Not Fight the Trends

Spread betting markets, whether we are talking about sports or financial markets, are heavily trend-reliant. So, when the market indicators are pointing towards a trend, feel free to ride on it, of course while you maintain your professional discretion in the process.

Don’t Rely on Tips from ‘Pundits’

Given that spread betting is multi-billion money-minting industry, the online betting market has seen a steady rise of so-called pundits, with nearly everyone claiming to have a foolproof way of handicapping spread bets.

Don’t trust these blood-sucking leeches who are out to bleed you of your hard-money, unless you are looking for a fast way to go broke.

Listening to professional advice from trusted sources is okay, but when all is said and done, learn to trust more in your own judgments.

Keep Informed and Up-to-Date

Whether or not you’ve traded for tens of years and you think you have found the Holy Grail of spread betting success, it is advisable to cultivate a strict culture of constant learning and re-learning.

Spread betting, just like other forms of betting, is a continually changing environment that calls for you to make use of all the resources available around you to maximize your understanding of its dynamically shifting markets.

Learn from your spread betting mistakes

Over the course of your betting, right from the moment you start as beginner, you should have a monitor and evaluation system that is able to track your progress in the spread-betting strategies.

And if you find that there are certain mistakes that inhibit you from achieving your full potential, learn from them and strive to correct them, rather than repeat them at the costly expense of your time and resources.

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