Some forms of online betting can lead to long-term profits. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist or a mathematician to bet on sports successfully. However, you need the right strategies to beat the bookies in the long run.
Bookies enjoy a house advantage of at least 2%-3%, which is why it takes a lot of self-discipline and focus to become a professional bettor. A little patience and this guide by Betting Sites Ranking is all you need to master the strategies used by the pros. By the end, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge needed to shop for the best lines and gain an edge over other punters on the sportsbook with time-tested strategies.
Remember that each betting strategy has its shortcomings, no matter how much anyone tries to convince you otherwise. However, not all strategies are total junk because some have merit and provide long-term benefits. With these tips and tricks, you’ll be wagering like a sharp in no time. Now let’s talk strategy!
Top Online Betting Strategies: The Basics to Know Before Getting Started
Many forms of online betting strategies exist. However, every educated punter needs to learn about two central concepts that persist in almost every betting strategy. These include the concept of value and the importance of a sound bankroll management strategy.
What is Value Betting?
Each set of odds bookies offer comes with an implied probability. This means that bookmakers set offs that reflect how the event will probably be. It could be a loss, win, or draw for a rugby team, the final score of a hockey match, or the winner of a boxing match. For instance, 1.75 or ¾ odds have a 57% implied probability.
Punters have to judge whether the odds are accurate. If they see an even less or more likely than the bookies do, perhaps this means they’ve found a value bet. Bettors can consistently detect value bets to eventually streamline more winnings than incurring losses.
Recommended Read: How To Manage Your Bankroll For Sports Betting
Why is Bankroll Management Important?
If you don’t want to go broke, bankroll management is extremely important to keep an eye on. Even if someone places bets on what they perceive to be value bets, chances of them losing the entire bankroll still exist. This is known as ‘gamblers ruin.’ Common strategies include dividing the bankroll into units of 1%-5% of the total and avoiding betting more than that. This is important to diversify the risk while improving the handicapping skills significantly.
Recommended Read: How To Perfect Your Sports Betting Strategies And Pick Winning Betting Markets
Some Other Concepts to Learn
ROI
As one of the most basic investment types, yield or Return on Investment (ROI) also applies to sports betting. You should look at your betting hobby just like you manage your other investments. The bankroll is an initial investment, so you need to ensure you can capitalize on it.
Kelly Criterion
Many investors and punters swear by the Kelly Criterion. The concept refers to a formula that tells punters how much to bet, depending on their perception of value. Kelly Criterion calculators are widely available online to give punters a feeling of what it’s all about.
When applied to sports betting, the strategy can be aggressive, as it can see punters wagering a hefty percentage of their bankroll on a single bet. However, the concept is useful because it makes bettors consider and estimate the value of their bets in significant detail.
Gambler’s Fallacy
Any punter beginning their sports betting journey must look out for the gambler’s fallacy. They essentially need to know that each bet is independent of the next, at least in pure gambling forms. This means that if a ball falls on red in many roulette rounds in a row, it doesn’t mean that it’s more likely that the ball will land on black in the next round and vice versa.
Patience in Betting
Always remember that it’s rather silly to assume you’ll win all the wagers right away. Patience is very important in betting. You need to understand that most betting professionals win only 55% of their wagers. It takes discipline, patience, and refined betting strategies to get the desired results.
Recommended Read: How Beginners Can Become Professional Gamblers With Online Sports Betting Sites
Top Online Betting Strategies to Master
Chasing Steam
Chasing steam is an incredibly lucrative strategy because it has been proven to work. It refers to monitoring significant movements in the betting market. When professional gamblers or betting syndicates wager on one side, the odds significantly move. That’s because bets of serious punters often represent a huge chunk of cash, and bookies frequently change the odds so that they have to pay out less.
The idea behind the concept is that professional gamblers have a sound idea of what the likely outcome might be. By monitoring the odds on several bookmaker sites, you can copy them when betting on your preferred league or sport. If you see the odds dramatically hanging on many sports betting sites, place the bet with a bookie that hasn’t changed the odds yet. This way, you can follow the experts while getting better-valued bets.
Fading the Public
As chasing steam’s exact opposite, fading the public involves betting against the professionals rather than following the public. In this scenario, when odds and lines move sharply, you must bet against the trend.
The strategy is suitable for major competitions, hyped athletes, and highly publicized events. The idea is that if the professionals can move lines, the bookies’ cash cows, i.e., the causal bettors, can also move them.
Finding Outliers
This strategy is based on common sense because outliers refer to odds that go against the trends. To find the best value, punters will need to look for the best odds for their bets. They’ll need to compare different bookmaking websites and will need to sign-up on several top betting sites in their region.
The simple task of researching the best odds can be a full betting strategy. Many bettors consistently wager on outliers, regardless of the event and their knowledge about it. This is particularly because they think the market is almost always right, and the odds tend to follow the money that generally comes from professional bettors. You can consistently find value bets by looking for outliers.
Backing the Favorites
Well, favorites are favorites for a reason. Backing them is another simple online betting strategy that practically requires no complex skills. Favorites have ludicrously high winning odds, especially in some particular sports like boxing or tennis.
For this strategy to succeed, punters generally need large bankrolls to make more money since they might only make less than 10% profit from every bet. While the strategy may seem solid, it’s still risky.
Even with small losing odds, winning your lost money back can be challenging. Since so many bettors like to place wagers on the favorites and bookies are on the lookout for ways to minimize losses, the odds are often unrealistically low.
Recommended Read: How To Find The Latest Sports Odds From Local Bookmakers
Winning Streaks Betting
Momentum and form are crucial factors for determining odds. When a particular team wins eight times in a row, the odds of them winning the ninth game are strong. However, every player or team eventually loses, making betting on underdogs a smart move, especially when the odds are overly inflated.
Arbing
Arbitrage betting, also known as miracle bets and sure bets, refers to situations when a punter bets on an event’s both outcomes, guaranteeing profitable returns every time. You can place arbitrage bets by finding bookmakers offering opposite odds of the same event.
Betting on both sides means you’ll win regardless of the outcome. Sounds too good to be true, right? It is! However, since most betting sites regularly update odds, it can be challenging to find arbitrage betting opportunities. When you find one, you’ll need to promptly place the bets to make the most out of them.
Recommended Read: A Guide To Arbitrage Betting
Hedge Bets
This strategy is quite similar to Arbing because you’re essentially wagering against yourself. The hedge betting strategy is useful in many situations, such as when placing outright bets, because it involves the benefit of movement in odds for the bets you’ve already placed.
Another situation would be having an acca in multiples with only one leg left. You’ll practically be placing an opposite or lay bet for the last outcome to guarantee further profits after winning previous legs.
Dutching
The umbrella term has several meanings but mostly refers to any set of wagers that guarantee profitable outcomes if you win at least one of them, including Arbing or hedge bets. However, the phrase is also more specific to horse races since you can wager on more than one horse in a tournament or race.
You’ll get the profit as long as at least one of your selected horse’s places or wins. Another meaning associated with the term refers to adjusting the size of bets. In this situation, punters win the same amount regardless of the outcome.
Punters can pair this strategy with hutching, where they need to lean toward the outcome that they think is more likely instead of balancing the wagers. This means punters will win more depending on which bets they win.
Recommended Read: Dutching In Online Sports Betting
Betting Records and Statistical Models
You can use betting software or maintain an Excel sheet to keep track of your betting record. Professional punters often calculate probabilities and gather statistics rather than just trusting their gut.
Actual math backing up the claim proves to be more profitable in the long run. Poisson Distribution and Normal Distribution are some of the commonly used models for predicting outcomes.
Normal Distribution uses previous sports results, such as the number of goals scored in a match, to form a pattern of the likelihood of winning. It can be represented using bell curves, with the top of the curve highlighting the most likely outcome. Calculating variance and standard deviation allow seeing how much and to what extent the results are likely to differ from the mean value.
On the other hand, Poisson Distribution refers to the prediction of the game’s outcome or score by comparing the performance of a team with their own and other team’s performance data, including league averages. Using this method, punters calculate any specific outcome’s probability, such as whether the team will win, lose, or achieve a specific score.
Tipsters
Following the tipsters is another great tool for finding all the smart bets. Many tipsters are professional punters with high success rates. These are punters who are no longer accepted by bookmakers or are allowed to place limited bets, which means they cannot win big anymore due to the restrictions. These individuals sell subscription services to those looking for tips.
Pro Tip: Many phony tipsters advertise ‘proof’ of winning huge bets. Be wary of these tipsters who sell bogus tips because advertisements don’t necessarily reflect any person’s overall betting records.
Recommended Read: How To Avoid Big Sports Betting Loss
Matched Bets
Many sports betting websites offer deposit bonuses or free bets. Punters can benefit from the promotional offers by using their free bet and placing a lay bet at an exchange booking site. They can also place an opposite bet on a different site to get guaranteed profits, no matter the outcome.
However, since bookies are also in the market to make some cash, you’ll often come across complicated terms for such welcome offers and free bets. Some require wagering on the bonus multiple times, while others involve accumulators.
Draw Betting
This strategy often proves helpful, especially for football punters. Many bettors naively ignore the possibility of draws and place bets on their favorite teams. It moves the betting lines and creates lower paying odds for the lose/win outcomes, paying higher odds for draws. Therefore, draw betting sometimes provides great value.
Staking Plans: The Top Betting Systems in Online Betting
This betting system tells punters how much of their bankroll to place on every bet. In addition to the Kelly Criterion, many other relevant systems exist for mastering sports betting. Staking plans is one such strategy that’s especially helpful in casino gambling. Here are some betting systems you can use to excel in sports betting.
#1- Fibonacci Betting System
This is a negative progression system with the idea based on increasing stakes after losses and decreasing them after wins. When you bet more after losses, you can recuperate some money you lost on previous wagers. Bet sizes in this system follow the Fibonacci sequence, with each wager as the sum of the previous two.
Recommended Read: Golden Rules To Turn Betting Into A Profitable Investment
#2- The Labouchere System
The system resembles the Fibonacci system, with the difference lying in the complexity levels of both systems. In the Labouchere method, punters start by writing a sequence number. The bet is always the sum of the last and first numbers. Upon losing, another number is added to the sequence. But every time you win, a number will have to be removed from the sequence.
#3- The Martingale System
The Martingale system is one of the easiest of all staking plans, as all you need to do is double the bets after a loss. Theoretically, the system results in profit every time as it’s designed to help punters win back their losses with smaller profits. Making even-money bets using this system helps minimize the risk and simplifies things for those looking for consistent short-term profits.
#4- The Oscar’s Grind
This negative progression strategy is a little more complicated than the Labouchere or Martingale system. Punters start by betting one unit and keep the unit size the same regardless of whether they’re on a losing or winning streak. The bets are increased by a single unit each time you win following a loss.
Bet sizes remain the same until you lose and then win again. The idea is to chase the losses without going overboard. When you increase bets by a single unit following losing streaks, it’s relatively less risky than most other betting systems. You’re also less likely to reach the table limit during lengthy losing streaks when you follow the Oscar’s Grind.
#5- The Paroli System
As a form of positive betting progression, the Paroli System is more commonly used in gambling but can also be applied to sports betting. The key is to choose bets with approximately 50-50 odds.
The system requires doubling each wager after a win until three victories are achieved simultaneously. This means banking the profits and returning to the original stake anytime you lose a bet. This way, you won’t have to encounter hefty losses due to progressions. You should note that you don’t need to increase the wager size after a loss, whether it succeeded multiple victories or another loss.
Following three straight wins or a loss, the next bet will always be the same as the original stake. The Paroli System utilizes a conservative approach and is a great way to practice measured and disciplined bankroll management.
Following the system won’t leave you burned as you chase losses, and you won’t think you’re invincible thanks to the hot-hand fallacy because you’ll never bet too big.
Recommended Read: 9 Tips For Improving Your Sports Betting Skills
What is the Pareto Principle?
Widely known as the 80/20 rule, the Pareto Principle, while not a betting strategy itself, refers to an incredibly helpful way of identifying which betting strategy may help a particular punter find the most success.
Distribution is more or less 80/20 in many fields. For instance, 80% of a bookmaker’s income comes from 20% of the players. For punters, this means that 80% of their profits are likely to come from 20% of the bets. It ultimately helps identify what bets to focus on and which ones to discard.
Top Things to Know About Gubbing and Keeping Multiple Betting Accounts
Players planning to use matched betting, hedge betting, or Arbing will need to maintain accounts on multiple sports betting sites. Bookmakers won’t be pleased if you hedge your bets on the same website where you’ve placed the original bet.
Once you start making serious returns on your investment, you need to avoid being gubbed. They often exclude players who use too many effective strategies and win too much from promotional offers or have their wager size restricted. Therefore, it’s clever to spread the larger bets over multiple sites to avoid gubbing.
Moreover, keeping multiple accounts improves your ability to shop lines and odds. In the betting world, even a 5% difference can sometimes be significant for boosting your bankroll. Many sportsbook aggregators are in the market for the same reason. They let players combine bookmakers on a single platform, allowing them to shop odds without the need to create more than one account.
Overround Betting: How Bookmakers Make Money
While learning about strategies that effectively help boost the bankroll is a smart way to make your betting journey profitable, it’s equally important to understand how bookies make money. The insight about how they create the odds is helpful because then you can outsmart them. Bookies use strategies like overround betting and book balancing, among others.
Overround, or juice, vig, and vigorish, is used by bookies to make a profit. In essence, they keep the total implied probability of all outcomes of particular events above 100%. Therefore, each wager has a profit margin for the bookmaker. The concept is similar to that of the house edge in casinos. Some bookies also make profits regardless of the overround because many naïve bettors chase their losses or try doubling up on their wins.
How to Find the Top Betting Sites in Your Area?
First things first, betting strategies, while beneficial in many cases, should never be viewed as a way to make guaranteed profits. However, some of them often prove to be highly effective for spicing up your online betting sessions.
Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned punter looking for an online betting site in your region, Betting Sites Ranking can help you out! The online betting sites reviewing platform brings you a wide array of popular, reliable, and trustworthy online gambling websites from all across the world.
Our team of professionals works alongside industry insiders to bring you the best betting site reviews while helping you learn how you can become an expert gambler in no time. You can also compare different sites or check out our regularly updated lists of top daily bets, best crypto sites, best betting apps, and informational betting guides.
