Why I Like Sports Betting Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

Why I Like Sports Betting

Sports betting, first of all, is not a game with a fixed house edge where the casinos are raking off fixed percentage.  Sports betting requires more skill than playing casino games.  Sports betting is similar to live poker.  Although, you don't win every time, you do have huge advantage over the recreational bettor if you know how to handicap a sports betting event. 

Just keep the following in mind, the sports books make their money on sports bets by collecting a commission on losing bets.  This is called the Vigorish or Vig for short.  Ideally the sports books would like to have the same amount of money wagered on the two teams playing. 

Sports books provide what is known as a line.  The line is basicaly what the sports book handicapper predicts the number that will be required to split the wagering evenly on both teams.  Thus, the reason why reason the line may change from the opening line to the line at game time.

As a rule, the public is swayed by sentiment to bet on a certain team from the opinions of others.  That is why you see so many people “jumping on the band wagon” of a winning team.  When this happens, the odds makers need to adjust the line to get some action on the other team.  If they do not, then the betting would be heavily lopsided.

When this happens, a weaker team can actually become the favorite if public sentiment is with that other team.  This then makes the underdog a huge overlay for the seasoned handicapper meaning that the odds are in his favor. As an example: Say 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.  This is a great opportunity for the smart sports bettor to bet against the general betting public.

I like to consider myself a winning sports bettor.  If you are to be a winning sports betting handicapper, you should ignore most of the public sentiment and formulate your own opinions before placing a sports bet.  As a general rule, I will take information from numerous sources, including sports betting forums, and then assign a certain weight and value to the various teams in the sports event.  I will then make my own power ranking and predict what the point spread or moneyline should be without looking at the official line first.  I will then take my predication and compare it to the line that is being offered by the sports book to look at discrepancies.  Now a days, computer programs as well as the vast amount of data available via the internet make my handicapping efforts not as difficult as in the past.

Another reason why I like sports betting is that I have a stake in the game.  Especially, if I am watching the game on my "big" screen TV in HD!  I have done my homework and know the outcome of the game.  Well, at least most of the time!

Why don’t more people win at sports betting? Like any other endeavor it takes time, patience and practice to become successful and most sports bettors do not have the time!  The chart below shows the break even points for the various odds you will find when you make a bet on the moneyline.  Remember, with higher odds you have to have a higher winning percentage to break even. If you bet the underdogs, which I suggest you do, you can have a lower win percentage and still make money.

Winning Percentages
Favorite Winning %            Underdog     Winning %
-110     52.38                       +110              47.62
-115     53.49                       +115              46.51
-120     54.55                       +120              45.45
-125     55.56                       +125              44.44
-130     56.52                       +130              43.48
-135     57.45                       +135              42.55
-140     58.33                       +140              41.67
-145     59.18                       +145              40.82
-150     60.00                       +150              40.00
-155     60.78                       +155              39.22
-160     61.54                       +160              38.46
-165     62.26                       +165              37.74
-170     62.96                       +170              37.04
-175     63.64                       +175              36.36
-180     64.29                       +180              35.71
-185     64.91                       +185              35.09
-190     65.52                       +190              34.48
-200     66.67                       +200              32.26
-220     68.75                       +220              31.25
-240     70.59                       +240              29.41
-250     71.43                       +250              28.57

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