How to Become a Successful Sports Better - Part 1

After betting on sports for over 20 years, I have learned quite a few things over the years and I'm here to help you not make the same mistakes I made. One of the most important things to know when betting, is to NOT bet more than you can afford to lose. Think about Sports Betting more as a hobby than a profession, as very few end up making it as a professional bettor. With that said, there are a few tips to help you win money and keep betting fun.

First part of bankroll management is again, not betting more than you can lose. Second part is more how much should I bet and how do I not go broke. Here's a tip, set aside the amount that you are comfortable to lose. It could be $100, it could be $1000, it doesn't really matter as you should start betting units instead of dollars. Units are a percentage of your full bankroll and your bankroll is the full amount of money that you feel comfortable losing. So for simplicity sake, let's assume our bankroll is $1000. If I lose $1000, I would be upset, but it won't put me in a hole where I cannot provide for my family or go bankrupt.  

Now each person's unit size can be different, but the most common is one unit = 1% of your bankroll. So if our bankroll is $1000, our unit size will be $10. $10 will usually be our average bet size for now. More confident bets might be 3-4 units ($30-$40), so it depends on the level of confidence, but now when you hear someone say, I have 5 units on this play, you can assume he's fairly confident, vs if he says I have $50 on this play. We have no idea whether $50 is a lot or a little to each person, so we just reference units. 

With a unit size of 1% of our bankroll, it allows us to have 20-30% downswings and 40% upswings, because let's face it, everybody, except maybe me, will never win 100% of the time. Furthermore, variance is very real and you may end up losing a bet that you should have won, but won a bet you should have lost. But having a bankroll and discipline, you can deal with the variance better.  

Let's use an example, a friend of yours would like to bet on a coin toss for the superbowl and for some reason, he is a nice guy and wants to give you +120 (2.20 odds). We know that the true odds should be 50/50, but how much of our bankroll do we bet? If we bet $1000, our whole bankroll could be one with one coinflip. If we bet $250 each flip, it's possible with unlucky variance that he flips tails 4 times in a row to make us go broke. It's not very likely (6.2% to be exact) but still possible. Now if we are betting for long term and want to have fun, let's bet 1 unit ($10) and if your friend lets you, continue to bet $10 over and over and over. With odds of +120, I can guarantee over the long term, you will make a profit. 

Part of the key to betting is to find those value spots and know that proper bankroll management protects you from going broke and try to have fun.