Best Bets: 6 Essential Sports Betting Strategies

Sports betting. It is rising in the industry in the United States, with more and more new bettors trying to get in on the action.

In 2024, the industry was worth over $76 billion. By 2030, this value is expected to increase by $90 billion.

If you are someone new to sports betting, you may be wondering what the best bet is when it comes to this. What should you do? What are the biggest things that you need to know?

These are six tips that you can use to make the best bets.

1. Shop Around 

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One of the best things that you can do as a bettor is to shop around for lines. Doing this allows you to have more control and help make other sportsbooks put out better lines.

At first, you may not care if a line is only different by half a point.

However, let’s say the Kansas City Chiefs are favorites by 10 points over the Denver Broncos in one sportsbook. Then, they show up with a -9.5 spread in another sportsbook.

If you want to bet on the Chiefs, you would go with the second sportsbook to give yourself a little more wiggle room to gain a profit off of your bet.

2. Consider the Odds 

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Here, one thing you want to be careful of is making sure that you get odds where you have a decent return on investment. It could be tempting to bet on a team or a player that you think is a lock to win their match.

Let’s say that Germany has a -700 moneyline to win their World Cup match against Costa Rica. Most people may believe that Germany is the superior team and cannot imagine a scenario where they lose to Costa Rica.

However, what if Costa Rica beat them? What if the teams draw? Then, if you put up $700 just to win $100, it is the equivalent of losing seven regular bets at once.

When that happens, it can destroy your yield and it can make it that much more difficult to turn a profit from sports betting. Avoid this trap and stick to odds that are more reasonable.

3. Set a Budget 

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Another thing that you need to make sure that you do is set a budget for yourself. If you have $10,000 in your savings account, decide how much of that you are going to allocate to sports betting before you even place a bet.

Let’s say that you decide that you are going to put aside $1,000 for sports betting. You should separate that money entirely from your bank account.

If you put it in your sportsbook account, just know that you should not deposit more money into your account if you happen to lose to that money. Stick to your budget to ensure success.

4. Know Your Units 

Along with setting a budget, you want to divide that up carefully when it comes to sports betting. In other words, if $1,000 is your entire bankroll above, you do not want to place that all on one bet.

The risk is too enormous because in theory, once you lose your bankroll, you do not re-up that bankroll. This means that the initial money that you put in there needs to suffice.

How do you do this? Use the unit system.

Units typically represent 1% of your bankroll and it helps give you about 100 bets to place before you lose all of your money. Since it is highly unlikely that you lose 100 bets in a row, this system is designed to give you more time to recover from unexpected losses.

So, if your bankroll is $1,000, you would be placing $10 bets on each game that you wish to bet.

5. Pick a Sport 

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Are you someone that follows one sport more than others? If so, you should consider focusing more of your time on that one sport than other ones that you may consider betting.

The reason for this is if you focus on your best sport, you have the opportunity to master your craft versus knowing a little about every sport. While that can still help in certain circumstances, you will not maximize your profits going this route.

Knowing every angle and every loophole with one sport can make you stand out above the rest that are trying to bet it.

6. Notice Trends 

Finally, keep an eye on any potential trends that come up during the course of a season. If you keep a sharp eye on this or even trends in recent years, there may be openings for you to make some easy money.

An example could be if you follow the NFL, the New York Giants tend to be a team that goes under the point total when they play home games. If you caught their trend, you could bet on the under in all of the home games and are likely to come away with a profit.

Place Your Best Bets 

Here are six sports betting tips that you can use to place your best bets. Remember to focus on your best sport, notice betting trends that you can take advantage of, come up with a budget and know your units, shop for lines, and bet on reasonable odds.

If you do all of this, you are likely to have more success betting. For more relevant information on this subject, see our Sports section.