Sports betting. It is a rising industry with more and more sports fans wanting to get in on the action.
In 2021, the sports betting market was valued at over $76 billion. It is expected to reach a valuation of over $167 billion by 2029.
If you are a sports fan that wants to start placing bets, you may not know where to begin when it comes to making a smart sports bet.
What should you do? What are the biggest things that you need to look out for?
These are some betting tips for you before you get started.
- Bet Against the Public
The first thing that you should do is fade the public when it comes to betting on a big game. What this means is that you should bet against the public if enough of them, like a team.
What you need to remember is that sportsbooks like to balance bets as much as possible. That means that they ideally like to have close to half of the money go to one team and half of the money goes to another team.
There are resources out there that can help you keep track of the percentage of bets going on each side. A simpler way can be reaching out to sports betting forums like https://www.bookmakersreview.com/guides/california/.
When fading the public, one big sign that you should do this is if a large percentage of the bets are going on one team, but the line stays the same. Normally, if a sportsbook sees a large number of bets going on one team, they will move the line-up if the team is a favorite and down if the team is an underdog.
An example of this was the 2021 SEC Championship Game. Here, 94% of the bets were placed on Georgia. Alabama won the game.
So, what does it mean when the line stays the same in spite of this? It means that the public is likely to lose this bet. Fade the public in these situations to take advantage of a good line.
- Stay Away From Parlays
For those of you that are not familiar with parlays, this is when you combine two or more bets into one. You are betting on all of the bets on your ticket to win and by taking this risk, you are hoping to get a bigger reward.
The reward can be tempting because you can earn a lot more money on certain teams than betting on them individually.
For example, let’s say that you are betting on the New York Jets and the Green Bay Packers to cover the spreads in their games. They are listed as each having -110 odds to do so. That means that you have to bet $110 to win $100.
Combining them together, you can get paid out with 13/5 odds. That means that you can get paid about $264 when you bet $100.
How about if you add a third team with the same odds? Then, you can get paid nearly $600 for that same $100.
That is the trap that gets people to bet parlays. How is it a trap? Because all of the teams on your ticket have to win.
So, if the Jets, Packers, and the Pittsburgh Steelers all have to cover the spread, you lose everything if one of them fails to do so.
What you can do instead, if you do not want to bet a lot of money on these teams, is make three separate bets at about $35 each. That way, as long as two of them win, you are still coming out of that with a profit.
- Stay Away From Big Favorites
The next thing that you want to do is avoid betting on big favorites. The main reason that you want to avoid this is that the risk far outweighs the reward here.
Let’s say that you want to bet a big moneyline on a team that is a big favorite to win. The Buffalo Bills could have a -400 moneyline at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
A lot of people could believe that they are a lock to win and that there is no way that they can lose. People could see that as an easy way to make $100 and not care that they have to put up $400 to get that.
Here is the problem with this idea. If the Bills get upset in this situation, then you lose $400.
Essentially, you just lost what could have been four separate bets all at once, and now you are a lot less likely to break even or make a profit from sports betting in the long term. So, avoid these big favorites and stick to average lines or moderate underdogs.
- Search for Lines
Finally, take advantage of how many sportsbooks are popping up in your area and shop around to find the best line for your bet. Getting a better line in some situations can significantly increase your chances of winning a bet.
To do this, you should know swing numbers in certain sports. When it comes to point spreads in football, those numbers are three, four, six, and seven. Those are the numbers that are most likely to change the outcome of a bet.
Let’s say that the New York Giants are favorites by 4.5 points in one sportsbook against the Philadelphia Eagles. But, then you look at another sportsbook and find one that has the Giants at -4.
You should place the bet at the second sportsbook because if the Giants win by a field goal, you at least push the bet there versus losing the bet outright at the first sportsbook.
- Establish a Budget
Before you start placing your bets, you need to allocate a certain amount of money that you are going to dedicate to sports betting. What this means is that you need to look at how much money you have in your savings and how much of that you can devote to sports betting.
The reason that you need to do this is that if you get too caught up in sports betting, then you can risk all of your savings being gone and even getting into debt over sports betting.
While most sports bettors likely will not reach that stage, there is a small percentage of bettors that can be prone to gambling addiction. It is estimated that 2.5 million Americans have a gambling addiction.
If you are not sure if you are one of those people, it is best to take precautions in this situation.
Say you have about $10,000 in your savings account. You may determine that you are willing to put $2,000 of that money towards sports betting for the year.
Put that money to the side and figure out a budget for yourself. In this situation, that would be $166.66 per month.
However, what if you only wanted to place bets on the NFL? Given that there are 18 weeks in the regular season and four weeks of playoff football, you would have enough money for $90 worth of bets per week.
Sit down and do the math. Come up with a budget before placing any bets.
- Bet in Units
Along with establishing a budget, you need to establish how much money you are going to place per bet. In the betting world, this is called a “unit.”
Units are generally 1% of your total budget for sports betting. That gives you about 100 bets before you lose all of your money.
It is designed this way so that you do not lose all of your money in a short period of time. Plus, it is very unlikely that you will lose that many bets out of 100, so it keeps your betting situation stable.
Following the example above, one unit would be $20 if you put $2,000 towards sports betting. Where this gets dangerous is breaking away from that and betting a large amount on one game.
Say you bet $20 on your last 10 bets and won six of them. That means you had about $40 worth of profit in that stretch.
Then, you decide that you are so sure about one team winning a bet that you put $100 on them. They go on to lose the game and suddenly, that profit from before is wiped out and you are now down $40.
This is why betting in units is important. It provides you with more long-term stability and it protects you from an unexpected loss.
- Know Your Best Sports
There are a lot of different sports available to bet on in most sportsbooks. So, you may be tempted to bet on everything that is in front of you.
The truth is, you should identify the sport that you have the most knowledge on. Then, you can place more focus on that sport and make more educated bets.
Once you start to know a sport inside and out, you can identify lines that stick out and lines that seem just plain weird.
For example, in college football, you may notice that an unranked team is a small favorite against a ranked team. To the novice bettor, they may feel like they are getting a steal with a good team being the underdog and place a bet on them to cover the spread.
However, you have to look closer and figure out why the ranked team is an underdog in the first place. The answer is that they are probably going to lose.
Sportsbooks are not ignorant and they put these lines out for a reason. That is why you need to pay close attention when you see lines like this in certain sports.
If you can identify these lines and have the knowledge to take advantage of them in certain sports, it can get you a nice profit.
- Pay Attention to Trends
Finally, along with trying to bet on sports you know, you should try to bet on trends that you notice in sports. Sometimes, sportsbooks do not catch up to a live trend that is happening in time. That can leave you an opening to get an easier win on a bet than it should be.
For example, in college football, a team that was great last year with a decent recruiting class this year can get a lot of hype during their first few games of the season. However, they may start slow and fail to cover the spread during their first three games.
You notice by the fourth game that they are a favorite against a team that does not seem notable. However, for the bettors that look closely at this game, they may notice that the underdog in this game is 3-0 against the spread.
That is a situation where the sportsbooks are still convinced that the public will bite on the favorite here. The smart bettors will strike on the underdog and take advantage of these potential profits until the sportsbooks catch up.
Pay attention to a team’s record against the spread. Also, pay attention to a team’s record when it comes to over/under total points bets. The same logic can be applied there.
See More Sports Betting Tips
These are just eight sports betting tips that can help you improve your chances of success in the sports betting world. Take all of these tips in and once you have them memorized, determine what your budget for sports betting is going to be and sign up for a sportsbook.
Then, sit back, relax, and watch your bets turn into wins. Do you want to see even more tips? Read more in our Gambling & Casino section.
