US Online Sports Betting Strategies
Expert bettors over time have taken note of specific betting moves that are inclined to earning you profits. These moves are called betting strategies, and that is what we will be discussing in this article. Basketball, baseball, football, horse racing, formula 1, mixed martial arts, boxing, tennis, soccer, and rugby are the top sports features offered by US bookmakers. All these sports require betting strategies, and the good news is that most share similar ones.
Strategies differ based on the type and scope of your bet. Some punters may be looking to make quick profits as a one-time thing while others seek to increase their winning percentages for a steady stream of betting income.
Table of Contents
- The Best Sports Betting Strategies
- Betting On Sports That You Know
- Controlling Your Bankroll
- Tips On Things To Avoid When Betting
- Conclusion
The Best Sports Betting Strategies
There are two kinds of strategy approaches – from the game's perspective and personal perspective. The former involves analyzing the team and gauging its success while the latter concerns personal habits and tendencies that can make or break your betting experience.
At Sports Betting Guide, we advocate smart betting. You may have thrown money at your favorite team blindly as a newbie bettor. However thrilling that experience was for you, think of the excitement being multiplied ten times over; that is what you get when you strategize your bets.
There are three key elements to being a smart bettor:
- Bet on the sports you know
- Look beneath the face value
- Be in control of your bankroll
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Betting On Sports That You Know
Ever heard the saying knowledge is power? This applies to the playing field as well. If you have been an avid football supporter for years, it would be unreasonable for you to start betting on, say, basketball, which you have never actually watched before and vice versa.
While one sport may be foreign to you, you already know the rules of the other inside and out, and you can make a better guess at what the outcome might be. You are also aware of the unique bets that are available like "most run-outs" in cricket and "point spreads" in football.
Knowing the sports includes two sub aspects:
Knowing the Team/Players
Knowing the sport you are betting on inside and out, its rules and the different types of bets is vital for a positive betting record. But that alone will not instantly turn you into a winner. Betting on either a team sport or single-player sport, you must get to know the teams and players as well as possible. You need to figure out all of the following critical information:
- Their strengths and weaknesses
- Place in the league table
- Their current form
- Home court advantages
- Injuries
- New signings
When choosing which team is most likely to win, don't be biased towards your favorite team. Looking at the teams objectively, with these variables in mind, will give you the best option.
New seasons always come with significant changes to teams. Make sure to look at how those changes affected the team for the better or worse. Look for players aging, leaving, or joining the team. Did something in the managerial staff change? How are they performing under that manager? Evaluating the overall effect of these changes on the team needs to happen all the time since organizations are continuously evolving.
With single-player sports, it's much of the same story. What is their current form? What is their current record? Did they acquire a new coach or trainer? What changes might be affecting his/her performance? Fundamentally, betting is a statistical phenomenon, and while external factors are always in play, there is a probability, or should I say predictability level, which occurs after continuous experiments (matches).
Here are some things you need to think about when considering players:
- Is one of the players having health issues?
- Are there personal things that are going on in the players’ lives that might affect their performance?
- Are there any players that aren’t going to be in the game?
- Are the MVPs getting too old? Is that going to affect the rest of the team?
- Will there be any home-field advantages in the next game?
- Are there new coaches or trainers that figure into the equation?
In large team sports like football or basketball, it may sound like a lot of work to keep up with all the players, but don’t you think it would be worth it for making some great bets? Also, you really only need to pay attention to the top performers, so I wouldn’t focus too much time keeping up with players that may never even get to play. Note- this is not to say that you should be biased towards your favorite team. Instead, possessing such essential information will help you understand all the variables at play to arrive at an objective decision.
Know the Records
Players in sports teams come and go, so that means it’s imperative that you know how teams have been performing recently. Sometimes a team may have a bad season. This could be due to a coaching issue or something else. Regardless of what it is, you need to make sure you know about how the team has been performing recently in order to gauge how they will perform in the near future.
It doesn’t matter if a team has won a lot in the past — what matters is how they are performing now.
Looking Past The Face Value
Teams and players do not always perform how you’d expect. Sometimes a match is more important to one side than it is for the other. Underdog teams can exceed expectations under fear of relegation, for example. Great teams might underperform when seemingly nothing is on the line.
When you look to bet on a team or a player, look at how important the match is to them.
- If you're a basketball bettor and the team already reached the playoffs with no chances of climbing in the ranks, they might sit out their best players.
- A team on the cuff of reaching the playoffs might step it up another notch.
- A team who wishes to avenge a defeat from a previous game may also be highly motivated.
Betting on the skill of the team is important, but it is not everything. Also, look at the teams' determination to win. Their motivation can be the deciding factor in winning your bets. Irrespective of what the odds indicate, tilting your wager in favor of a motivated team may reveal some hidden value that will leave you smiling all the way to the bank.
Injured players
Several changes occur every season and even in between matches. Injured players are one such important factor that can radically change a team's winning chances. If a top player is injured and replaced by a substitute, the sportsbook still considers the team as a whole and may retain the predetermined odds. If you know that the injured player is a valuable asset to the team, you will realize that their absence gives the opponents a higher chance of winning. In single-player sports, it is all the more crucial. Even Serena Williams will have a hard time pulling off a win with an injury.
Check out who's injured, the importance of that player, and the quality of their possible substitute. The bookies could give that second-string quarterback horrible odds of winning, while you know that player possesses a lot of value for the team.
- Using these types of situations in your advantage can lead you to find some high-value bets. However, should there be more than one injured player, or it's the team captain, then be a little more careful.
- With single-player sports, it is an entirely different story. An injury is most likely devastating for the players' chances. No matter how good Roger Federer is, an injury will undoubtedly sideline him.
Note: Sticking to the sports you know is good, but learning more about other games is better. The latter opens up better opportunities that translate into more wins. Luckily, at Betting Guide, we cover every form of sports betting available, and you can learn all there is to know on any of our betting guide articles.
Don't let losing get to you
One of the biggest mistakes in sports betting is chasing your losses. Sure, there will be times where you hit a losing streak. Just like winning streaks, they happen in sports betting. When you happen to be in a situation like this, remember not to panic. Panicking leads to chasing your loss, just to turn it around. Instead of this, look at your betting patterns and reduce the amount you are betting until you get back to winning.
Don't worry, losing streaks happen to everybody, and you will be tempted to chase your loss. Waiting it out until you get back to the winning rhythm is the best strategy here.
Bet Smart
It sounds tempting, betting on your favorite team, despite them falling from grace. Hoping that your favorite player will magically recover from that lengthy injury. Or rooting for the underdog because the returns are looking great.
You make these hopeful bets with the heart instead of your head. Evaluating the teams' or players' chances honestly and objectively gets you further then basing decisions on feelings or hunches. Consider all the factors involved in your choice. Be selective with your bets; only go for the ones that make sense and give you the highest probability of winning!
This may sound obvious, but it’s important to be introspective about your betting strategies and history. Do you have a history of always picking the underdogs? Do you panic after losing too many bets? Or maybe you are on a winning streak and you become careless. Make sure to pay attention to how you’ve been betting recently, the outcomes of those bets, and any betting habits you might have.
This may take some of the excitement out of betting if you have to take a step back and evaluate your betting strategy. But you know what’s even more exciting than placing many fast-paced bets? Winning a bunch of money! If you think and play smart, you can have a ton of fun sports betting while also winning.
Understand the concept of value
Real success only comes when you make valuable bets. What do we mean by this? Value is a term that gets used a lot concerning sports betting, but it's something that many bettors don't properly understand.
- The bets' value is the relationship between the odds of a bet and the probability of that bet coming true.
- For example, if you think that the odds of the New York Yankees winning a game should be around ⅓, but the odds offered are ½, then this is a great value betting opportunity. In this example, the ratio of risk to possible reward is in your favor, so the Yankees are a good bet in this instance.
Experiment
There's no right or wrong way to bet on sports. Various methods can be useful. The best way to determine which techniques work well for you is by experimenting with them. Betting small amounts with new strategies and systems you found in books or online until you find an approach that results in profits. Try out different types of wagers and various forms of sports betting too, like fantasy football, for example.
Controlling Your Bankroll
It’s key to bet on your bankroll. This means betting money that's reasonable to what you’ve deposited. Doing this will let you gamble for longer time periods. Staking all your money on Liverpool to win their next game won’t help if they lose. You’ll be left with no bankroll and end up having to deposit more funds. To maintain your betting habits, you have to bet within your bankroll. Money management can quickly get out of control if you do not pay attention to your stakes.
To stay on track, you should:
- Only wager money that you are willing to lose
- Wager small amounts more frequently
- Give yourself a weekly max bet limit
- Decide a percentage of your bankroll to wager at a time
- Have a winning objective, once you reach it call it a day
- Stake Less Money In Proportion to your Bankroll.
- Stake Less Often to maximize the longevity of your bankroll
- Only Stake Money You’re Willing to Lose.
- Have an End Winning Goal
- Don’t Use the Martingale Strategy
Staking less often and less money will increase the longevity of your bankroll. It will let you bet for longer time periods. Whilst having an end goal or end value will stop you from gambling too long. The more time you spend gambling the more money you’ll lose in the long run. It's best to have a realistic goal that makes you say “Okay it's time to stop".
Sports betting is a realistic activity. Your winning objective and weekly bet limits should be practical and in line with your bankroll. The major enemy of your bankroll is yourself or, more precisely, your emotions.
Forget emotions, be objective
In sports betting, sometimes emotions can get the best of us. I’m guilty of letting my emotions take over sometimes only to place bad bets and lose money and go home with nothing at the end of the day. Not good.
We get that you want your favorite team to win, but they have to be in good shape and have an advantage over their opponents to do so. Ignoring the facts just to follow "your" team may lead you to place a bad bet. Don't worry, betting against your favorite team doesn't make you a bad fan, it only makes you a smart bettor.
Instead, just stick to the facts and stats. I know it can be exciting to bet for your favorite team, but sometimes they don’t have the best odds. You need to think for a second — what’s more important, winning some money, or wasting money on a bad bet so you can feel good about supporting your team?
Once you can focus on winning instead of being a supportive fan, you will then have to overcome another emotional hurdle - betting more when losing. We are all guilty of trying to recuperate losses by making consecutive and irrational bets at one point or the other as gamblers. You dig so much into your bankroll without realizing it, and most times, it leads to further losses. In this situation, it is best to take a break and come back some other time.
Tips On Things To Avoid When Betting
The Martingale strategy
The Martingale strategy is a betting method where you double your stake every time you lose. The concept behind it is that as you keep multiplying your stake and when you do win, you get to cover up for all your losses.
We think it's an excellent idea for someone with an unlimited bankroll. Before you make that winning stake, you may have already depleted your funds. Then you just and up with massive losses and no way to earn back your money.
Betting Option Monopoly
Football enthusiasts who only go for point spreads, soccer fans who only go for straight wins, and baseball fans who only go for the money line are monopolizing betting options. Punters always go for the popular bet types with the mindset that it is easier to win that way. However, it is also from these popular bet types that bookies make the most gain and can outsmart players. Even when you do win, the profits are small compared to the stake because there is usually little value in the odds.
Online Sports Betting Guides Featured On Our Website
We have specific betting guides on a number of different sports across the world. You won’t find a sport missing when you search for them in our online betting guides page. Here are the sports we have betting guides on;
- Horse Racing
Horse racing is an international sport that is played across the globe. The sport is tracked back to 1797, where the first races we held in South Africa. There is a lot of history in horse racing, and we provide our readers with guides on how to make the best bets on the sport. We look into things such as the horse’s race history, age, and their trainers.
F1 has now gained a lot of market depth in online sports betting. New strategies for betting on the F1 have been made so players can make the most winnings. A lot of people think you need to know everything about cars to bet on the F1 but that isn’t the case. If you know your background in the sport you’ll be able to make the best bets. Our F1 strategies will help you out if you’re not a petrol head.
MMA has grown in popularity over the past decade with huge stars such as Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey, and Connor McGregor coming into the spotlight. The combat sport of MMA can be gruesome to watch but is amazing to stake on. Our betting guides look at stylistic matchups, fighters win streaks, strategies on round betting, and many more areas.
The peak of basketball is played at the NBA, there are other leagues in Europe and Asia where the sport is played. However, the NBA is where most of the spotlight is. The rules of basketball are very easy to understand. This means it is also easy to build strategies and place the right bets. It’s exciting to watch the match if you’re bet on the NBA or any other basketball game.
The modern game of baseball was made in the 19th century. The game is still played today, with lots of different ways to bet on the sport. You can expect the best strategies to be in our baseball guides.
Boxing has been a massive sport since the 70s where the great Mohammad Ali was facing opponents like George Foreman and Joe Frazier. In recent times we’ve had the pleasure of watching boxers such as Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Anthony Joshua, and many others. The strategies we give you in our boxing guides will look into weight classes, boxing styles, knockout percentages and many more parts to the sport.
The sport of tennis is played all year round. There are multiple ATP tours as well as the 4 grand slams in, USA, Australia, France, and the United Kingdom. Tennis can be unpredictable at times with a lot of the seeded players getting knocked out in the first 4 rounds of the competition. You could be in for big winnings with online tennis betting using our strategies for the game.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. You can bet on multiple leagues such as the Premier League, Champions League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian A series and many more. There are multiple markets to bet on in soccer, so we go through the best markets to bet on and best strategies to use for team betting. With the UEFA Euro 2020 coming this summer, we will give you a whole strategy list for the tournament.
Betting on the NFL is another player favorite. The NFL attracts millions of players to stake in the sport. Betting on the NFL is difficult as the season is so short, but with our strategies, we will help you in making the right decisions.
Rugby is on fire at the moment with the world cup finishing in late 2019. South Africa was crowned champion of the world. The world cup brought a lot of attention to the sport and this means a lot more players betting on the sport. Rugby union is a lot easier to bet on than the NFL, so it’s a good sport to look into if you’re looking to make a profit betting.
Conclusion
To become successful at online sports betting you need to use the best strategies in the game. Our online sports betting guides will help you on your journey to becoming a successful pundit. We cover a whole range of different sports mentioned above and are here to help you win. Make sure to check out our betting guides for your favorite sports before placing bets. It will increase your chances of winning.
To become successful at online sports betting you need to use the best strategies in the game. Our online sports betting guides will help you on your journey to becoming a successful pundit. We cover a whole range of different sports mentioned above and are here to help you win. Make sure to check out our betting guides for your favorite sports before placing bets. It will increase your chances of winning.
Betting Strategy FAQ
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Do betting strategies always guarantee a win?
Sports betting is a gamble, so there is never a 100% guarantee. However, where a random wager has a 50% chance of success, using a bit of strategy can take up to 80 or 90%. Strategizing helps you make the right decisions that increase the probability of a winning bet. -
What is the best strategy for sports betting?
We covered a few strategies here, but which one is the best? The best strategy is the one that works best for you. Some of these strategies might be easier or make more sense for some people than others. In order to find out what the best strategy is for you, make sure to experiment with different types to see what works for you. After you find a strategy that you like, make sure to refine that strategy and customize it to your play style. -
What sports can I bet on using these strategies?
If there’s a sport, chances are, you can find somewhere to bet on that sport. And most of these sport betting strategies are going to work with most sports. Some of these strategies might be more feasible for some sports than others. For example, if you are closely looking at players and their recent performance, single-player sports, like golf, will be much easier to keep up with. -
How much should I bet with these strategies?
ing. Once you start to use these strategies and begin to feel more comfortable using them, you can begin raising your bets if you wish to do so. -
What is the best strategy for punters betting for the first time?
The best one would be whichever one works for you, but all strategies are interconnected. Remember that a smart bettor is aware of the sport and related stats, finds the most valuable bets, and can overcome emotions to keep their bankroll in check. -
How many sportsbook sites can I join?
Luckily, many US States are legalizing sports betting, and since the trend began, sportsbooks have been on the rise. There are dozens of operators offering the best fixtures and odds. Sticking to one site has loyalty benefits, but you can take advantage of slight differences in odds by joining multiple sportsbooks. This is another useful strategy if you are playing for the long run. -
How many betting sites should I join?
That is totally up to you! If you find it easier to have only one account at a single sportsbook, than do that. Some people want to take advantage of the slight difference in odds between sportsbooks. We advise you to make use of this strategy if you are playing for the long run. -
What is the minimum requirement for my wagers?
Most sportsbooks in New Jersey accept a minimum bet of $1. Sometimes a little lower, sometimes a little higher, it all depends on the website you are placing your bet on. -
Will I get paid my winnings?
Yes, as long as you are playing on a reputable New Jersey Sportsbook. Luckily, online sports betting in New Jersey is well regulated and you will easily find information about the reputation of any sportsbook.
