Sports betting appeals to the smart bettor because it is not a game with a fixed house edge where the casinos are raking off fixed percentage.

Sports betting requires more skill than luck similar to live poker.

Easily The Best Way To Make Money From Home

Before going into more detail you need to understand how sports betting works. We will take a look at football where a point spread is involved. Basketball also uses a point spread. The casino Sports books make their money on sports bets by collecting a commission on losing bets. This is called the Vigorish or Vig for short.

The most common odds are 11 to Ideally, the Sports book would like to have the same amount of money wagered on the two teams playing. To accomplish this they assign a line or spread to make the contest equally attractive for both sides. The Point Spread Many people believe that the point spread is the predicted margin of victory by which one team will beat another team.

This is not true. For this reason, the line may change from the opening line to the line at game time. If the public is swayed by sentiment to bet on a certain team then the odds makers need to adjust the line to get some action on the other team.

Otherwise, the betting would be heavily lopsided. The general betting public reacts from the opinions of others. A weaker team can actually become the favorite if public sentiment is with that team.

When this happens the underdog presents a huge overlay for the seasoned handicapper meaning that the odds are in his favor. Team A should be a 3 point underdog to Team B, however, The public loves Team A and are betting on them and the line moves to make Team A a one-point favorite, then Team B becomes an excellent bet.

Why Sports Betting is Profitable - Winning Percentages

This is the contrarian principle and why many smart handicappers go against the general betting public. The Handicapper A winning handicapper formulates his own opinions about the game and ignores most of the public sentiment.

A handicapper takes information for numerous sources, assigns weights and values to it. They will make their own power ranking and predict what the point spread should be without looking at the official line first, and then compare their predictions to the line to look at discrepancies.

A large amount of data available via the internet and other sources means that the handicapper has more information but it means there is more to sift through to find the gems. The use of computer programs can help when searching through the data. Like any other endeavor, it takes time, patience and practice to become successful. A person of average intelligence can become a winning handicapper if they have the desire.

I earn a great living solely off Sports Betting in a family full of Alcoholics and Complusive Gamblers. AMA : IAmA

Based on the odds of for a straight football or basketball bet a handicapper only need to be right The chart below shows the break-even points for the various odds you will encounter when you make a bet on the money line.

With higher odds, you have to have a higher winning percentage to break even. If you bet the underdogs you can have a lower win percentage and still make money. Search the site GO. Updated December 01, Learn Something New Every Day Email Address Sign Up.

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