If you’ve found some early success with online sportsbetting, even if you’ve gotten to the point where you have made some websites close your accounts, it’s easy to run from a good rut into an awful one. Those bets that were golden, those runs that never seemed like they wouldn’t end, eventually turn south. Underdogs start winning right and left, and you end up with loss after loss. There are people who make sustained profits over time from sports betting. However, it’s a long-term strategy that requires a lot of discipline. With these four steps, you can put together a plan of your own that will stand the test of time.
Have a Plan of Action
Once you commit to sports betting over time, you have to commit to knowing your business inside and out. Instead of placing bets all over the sports spectrum, make yourself an expert in a handful of leagues. Examples might be focusing on the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, to give yourself the chance to bet all the way through the calendar. If you spread too thin, you won’t have time to do the research that you need to bring in profits.
Build up your Savings First
Before you start betting, make sure that you have the funds that you need to cover it. This isn’t money that you should be counting on to pay your bills, or even for your retirement. The money that you are using for betting should be extra money that you have set aside. This will keep you from panicking with your bets – and will keep you from risking the security of yourself and your family. Gambling is a hobby that can become a profession if you develop enough skill. However, before you take that step, you should have at least six months’ living expenses in savings – set aside from your gambling money.
Don’t get Stuck in day Trading Mode
What does this mean? When you put your opening investment into your sports betting account, you should imagine that your account balance is really zero. Don’t take out what’s in there until your return on investment gets all the way up to 100 percent – in other words, don’t keep withdrawing money from your account. That just adds up in terms of your administrative fees. Instead, watch your nest egg grow, and leave it alone. You don’t need it to pay your bills, right? So let it grow, just like you would let any other type of retirement account grow.
Don’t put all Your Money in one Basket
This means that you need to have several different accounts going at once, with traditional sports books as well as other betting houses. This isn’t to keep your money safe so much as it is to give you access to different deals on the same propositions. Different oddsmakers offer different lines on the same matchups, on the basis of the action they’ve received. Sometimes a point or two on a line can make a big difference, and you can profit as a result.
It’s important to remember that building profits over time with sports betting is a long-term commitment.
You’re not going to build a huge bankroll overnight. Even if you win big on one bet, you’re not going to sustain that sort of record over time. Instead, you’ll build profits gradually, with your research and attention to lines and point spreads gradually making the wins counteract the losses. It’s possible to build up profits over time, but you won’t do it without research and careful attention to detail. Start by adding these rules to your best practices.
Sources:
NFL.com: http://www.nfl.com/stats/player
Wikipedia.com: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_betting_systems
