betting tips

1. Bankroll management in sports betting

The term “bankroll management” is equally important in relation to sports betting, to casino games and to poker. It describes how you treat your available funds and how much of it you should use. Many professional bettors, which theoretically beat bookmakers in the long run, ultimately fail in practice due to poor bankroll management, which is why this topic is extremely important to us. The ability to apply good bankroll management and to hold onto it even in difficult times is perhaps the most important point for us, whenever we are being asked what makes a good sports bettor.

Who Needs Bankroll Management?

Solid bankroll management is an absolute requirement for professional bettors, but hobby gamers should also definitely strive to use good bankroll management system. Even if you only bet on certain games for entertainment, a strong bankroll management increases the chances that you will get out with a plus at the end of the day. Nonetheless, it is even more important that bankroll management protects the hobby players from losing all of their credit within a short period of time or even on one hit, which is one of the most unpleasant experiences for any betting companion.

Let’s summarize the advantages of good bankroll management. Good bankroll management …

  • …protects us from losing large parts of our bankroll in one fell swoop
  • …prevents us from running after losses and attempting to compensate for them quickly and with a lot of risk
  • …prevents us from becoming too cocky in good times
  • …helps us to make rational decisions and to approach betting seriously
  • …is often decisive for whether you are a winner or a loser when betting

How large should my bankroll be?

When it comes much money you want to set aside for betting on sporting events, everyone has to decide for themselves, as the financial possibilities differ greatly. But it is essential that you can actually afford the amount that you bet. You shouldn’t need the money from your bankroll to pay current or near future bills. We cannot emphasize how important it is that you choose an amount that you can afford to lose. The variance in sports betting can be very high and you will position yourself in a very sincere situation – if you actually need the bets for everyday life.

If you only want to bet just for fun, for example to make the outcome of a certain game more interesting, then it is also okay to set a monthly budget for this hobby. Even in this case, a good bankroll management would be recommended, but we understand the pure leisure bettor, who plays only small stakes and exclusively for fun and does not want to have the necessary discipline to follow a strict bankroll management.

However, if you take betting more seriously, it is an absolute prerequisite that you have a proper bankroll management in place and follow it in a disciplined manner. Bankroll management is the only way you have a realistic chance of generating nice profits in the long term.

 

2. Sometimes you need to be able to lose

Obviously, you can’t just keep winning in sports betting. There are always setbacks and sometimes they can last longer. Anyone who has ever bet over a long period of time knows what it is like when almost nothing works out for an entire period of time. It’s maddening, but you also have to be professional and disciplined about it.

If you permanently lose most of your bets over a longer period of time and your bankroll also shrinks significantly, then there can be several reasons. Bad luck is certainly not the only one. Use every bad phase to your advantage and to further optimize your betting behavior. Ask yourself the following central questions:

  • I don’t bet as disciplined as I used to
  • I haven’t researched my bets well enough lately
  • Was I too careless with calculating values?
  • I bet too much and maybe also on competitions that I know too little about
  • Am I betting too much money on certain bets?
  • Do I actually have my bankroll management under control and always pay attention to how much of my bankroll I am using?

In the vast majority of cases you will find yourself answering some of these questions when you are on a “losing streak”. Never forget that professional betting is mostly about organization and discipline. Even when things are going uphill, you should never forget to adhere to these fundamental aspects of structured betting. And when things go downhill, that’s the point when you need to remember these important points.

What should I do if I am on a losing streak?

An analysis of your betting behavior is essential. Find the faults in yourself and the way you are betting. Be honest with yourself and admit when you have deviated from your plan.

A break won’t hurt you. You’ll miss out on nothing, since there will always be loads of competitions, games and markets. Sometimes it makes sense to regain a cool head by simply keeping your feet still. Just like athletes do, you also need your breaks as a sports bettor.

Don’t worry, you will get over the bad phase just like it happens in every aspect of life. But what happened, happened already. You will not get back the losing bets by wildly betting on the lottery ticket. Keep cool, analyze, optimize, regenerate.

And most importantly: never bet on your last shirt. Especially in the initial phase, in which you can lose a lot of money if you don’t stick to your concept. It can happen that you hit the bottom – that is, rattle down to zero. If that happens, you must by no means use all your might to try to get your money back. Don’t bet with money that you really need for something else. Stay cool and keep working in a structured manner. In spite of continuing to bet, it will not bring your bankroll back and is not only financially, but also psychologically dangerous for you.

Winning has to be learned too!

The successful times in sports betting are similar to the unsuccessful ones. However, emotionally on a completely different level. When everything just works, you tend to get cocky and possibly hang in even more than you did before. Sure, because you like to watch the betting account grow.

But even if everything works out for you, it is important to keep cool even when winning. Never stop working on yourself and analyzing your betting concepts. Sometimes you deviate from your bankroll management and the way you choose bets and still end up winning. But this will not always be the case, so “sticking to the plan” is a very important principle even in times of victory.

Just because nothing bad can seem to happen at the moment doesn’t mean it can’t happen. In these cases, the crash can happen sooner than you would like. Stay focused, keep your betting frequency and go on betting like you used to when you set out your winning strategy. Take your time with your bets and never stop analyzing your bets, indifferently to whether you win or lose.

Why pay for sports picks?

 
Why should you or anyone pay for sports picks? Think about it for a minute, it is no different than paying a consultant for helping you pick stocks, real estate, or any other financial decision. Getting advice from someone who knows the industry can always be an advantage if the information is used correctly. A professional in any field will have strategic contacts with others in the same field and spend a lot of time working on their craft.

As far as picking a sports service there are some things I would recommend and some things I would definitely avoid. Be careful of the so-called guaranteed games. If they use language like “It’s a lock”, “game of the year”, etc. then you should probably avoid these services and move on.

The sports handicapping industry has developed a bad reputation for good reason. Fly-by-night operations are popping up everywhere promising get-rich-quick schemes to desperate sports bettors.  Pick sites create illusions and smoke-and-mirrors by advertising misleading win percentages and short-term results as opposed to educating the betting public on the importance of long-term, sustained growth. Meaningful return on investment is achieved over a period of months and years, not over a weekend or on one Monday Night Football game.

Lying by omission is also a popular tactic utilized by many pick sites.  These handicapping services will tell the bettor about the good runs while leaving out the bad runs that ultimately leave the handicapper as a 50/50 proposition long-term. This advertising tactic is oftentimes used by large handicapping conglomerates that employ many handicappers on its site.  While handicapper A is on a “12-2 run,” handicapper B, C, D and E are losing their shirts but those results are conveniently left out by the pick site.  The odds are that at least one of the handicappers on the site will be on a winning streak so that the service can advertise that “red-hot run.”

 

  • Long-Term Results – Has the sports pick site consistently out-performed the investment industry over a long period of time?  While losing days, weeks and even months are a reality due to the inherent nature of sports betting, the important question is whether the handicapper has achieved long-term, documented results. Judging a handicapping service on a large sample size is the only logical way to determine the likelihood of its future success.