5 Tips For a Better Sports Betting Strategy

Developing a sports betting strategy will help you build your bankroll. When you’re first starting out, finding a profitable strategy can seem like a challenging endeavor. While luck certainly plays a factor, sports betting experts have shown that research and discipline allows them to turn a profit over the long term. We’ve listed some tips below to help you begin crafting your winning strategy.

Tip #1: Never Let Your Emotions Get the Best of You

While some bettors place wagers on teams based on feelings and emotional attachment, many sports betting experts have cultivated a winning strategy by focusing on the numbers while capitalizing on any edge they can find.

If your friend is telling you about a “Lock of the Century” type of wager, do thorough research on the bet and only place a wager if you feel 100% comfortable with the bet. Never bet outside of your bankroll limitations, even if you’re extremely confident in your pick.

Tip #2: Focus on a Team or Specific Sport

Think of it as finding your sports betting niche. Begin researching the sports you know the most about and begin formulating a strategy to capitalize on your knowledge. Validate your findings by researching what other trusted sports betting analysts are saying about the specific game that’s perked your interest. Begin comparing your results to the experts to see if you can mimic or beat their win rates. If you begin losing more than you win, figure out what went wrong and make adjustments accordingly so that you can try to fix it.

If you devoted your expertise into betting on NFL games, you must put in the work and figure out what types of bets you’d like to place. Use your DVR to record a football game and re-watch certain parts of the game to pick up on tendencies. You may also want to focus on a specific type of bet. You could strictly bet on point totals or focus on more exotic bets such as parlays.

Tip #3: Bet on Big Distractions

During the middle of the 2014 NBA playoffs, the LA Clippers were favored to beat the Warriors by 2 points. About 48 hours before the tip-off, TMZ and ESPN were reporting that Clipper’s owner Donald Sterling had made racially insensitive comments that became a top news headline all around the world.

Although the Clippers were the favorites, many sports betting experts believed that the distraction of their owner’s disgusting comments contributed to the 21 point loss to the Warriors. When you have world class athletes competing for a championship, any distractions that may take away from their mental focus could factor into the final result of the game.

Tip #4: Go Line Shopping

In tip #1, we suggested that you focus on the numbers and find any edge. When you go line shopping, you’re doing just that. Line shopping is a term used to describe the act of researching the betting lines being published by different online sportsbooks to see if a better payout or line on a specific event exists.

If you become a member of multiple online sports books and deposit cash and each website, you’ll be able to rapidly bet on lines before the they move begin to move. When you’re betting on sports, you’re looking for any edge you can get. Sometimes those edges come from spotting a match up problem; other edges are derived from the betting odds themselves. If you are able to capitalize on these small edges, your bankroll will be able to survive short term fluctuations.

Tip #5: Outdoor Sporting Events: Check the Weather

Some sports betting analysts say that checking the weather is worthless because they claim that the weather has little impact on the final score of the game. It’s not a black and white issue, because weather conditions can certainly impact a specific team’s ability to execute on offense and defense. NFL.com recently published an article that tracked the completion percentage in outdoor games between 2007 and 2011. The NFL.com site found that games played between the months of November and January experienced a 4% drop in completion percentages.

When you’re betting on an outdoor game such as the NFL or MLB, it might be a good idea to check the extended forecasts so that you can anticipate weather events. With NFL betting, the lines could be published as early as Tuesday allowing you to evaluate odds assigned to point totals and point spreads. Use your best judgment with when factoring the weather into your decision. While the weather may not directly impact the better team’s on-field abilities, it could impact both teams abilities to put points on the board.