Gambling Guides: 5 Sports Betting Strategies to Try Out

Sports betting. For some, it is just for fun, and for others, it is an opportunity to make some extra cash. 

This is an industry that is becoming more and more popular, with over 100 million Americans having some sort of interest in betting on sports. 

But, to actually win some money, it takes more than just looking at a number, pulling the trigger, and paying attention to some casual sports news. 

The people that really make money in this niche have sports betting strategies and use them successfully. If you are just starting out, you might be wondering what the best sports betting strategy is? 

Well, these are five of the best sports betting software strategies for you. 

1. Fade the Public

One of the best things that you can do if you are trying to make some money off of sports betting is to fade the public. Some resources let you see what percentage of the bets in certain books are going on one side or the other. 

Why is this important? Because sportsbooks are likely going to lean towards the side that they can get more money from bettors but still cover their losses in case they are wrong. 

The goal is close to a 50/50 split but sometimes sportsbooks will lean towards one side if their algorithms suggest that the team is not likely to cover. 

So, if you see over 60% of the action on one side of the spread, this strategy would implore you to bet the opposite.

For example, let’s say the Giants are three-point favorites against the Jets. About 70% of the bettors in this scenario are going to back the Giants. 

On the surface, this may look like a good bet, because the Giants are likely coming into that situation being perceived as the better team. However, it may be worth considering trying to think like a sportsbook in this situation and see if they want you to take the Giants. 

Most likely they do, so you should do the opposite and take the Jets. This strategy forces you to go your own way and question the way you perceive teams going into a game but it will work more times than not if you stick with it. 

2. Bet Underdogs 

This type of strategy does not mean that you have to bet the underdog in every game that you consider. However, it does mean that you need to watch what type of odds that you are betting on. 

Because of the juice that most sportsbooks charge for you to place a bet on a game, you have to win 52.4% of your bets in order to break even. This means you have to win more than you lose and that you cannot take ridiculous odds. 

For example, let’s look at the Rams playing the Giants. In 2021, the Rams are most likely going to draw very high odds for the moneyline, most likely at least -300. That means that you have to pay $300 just for the chance to win a $100 profit. 

This is a bad bet and a very risky one for your long-term run, no matter how much better you think the Rams are than the Giants. 

Why? Because all it takes is one big upset in that scenario and it will be like you lost three bets at once rather than moving on from a normal loss. That big of a loss can ruin your chances of breaking even for the year as well, with the goal being to pick 52.4% of your games correctly. 

If you lose a couple of bigger odds bets like that, then that percentage of wins will have to go up to make up for it. 

Betting good underdogs gives you breathing room. So, look for good moneylines such as a +150 line for a game or even something simple as a +120. 

Be willing to bet on the dogs so that way you can give yourself a little more breathing room. 

3. Avoid Big Parlays

One big thing that sportsbooks like to advertise is the amount of money that you can win from cashing in a big parlay bet. For those unfamiliar, a parlay is when you have two or more bets on one ticket and you have to get every bet on the ticket right for you to win the money. 

With this, some bettors like to bet a small amount of money on a parlay that may have as many as 10 bets on it. Then, they might hope to turn $10 into say $7,200. 

Admittedly, the pros of this are that you usually are putting up low risk and are getting a high reward. However, the con is that you might as well be lighting that money on fire or play it in a lottery because you are giving yourself much less room for error with this system. 

The payout odds of a 10-team parlay are 720 to 1. The real odds of hitting this are even higher, so you have to consider the likelihood of winning one of these big parlays. 

This pay alone suggests that it is going to take you around 720 tries (realistically more) for you to hit one. On top of that, if you go 9-1 in those 10 bets, you do not get any money for that bet. 

Meanwhile, if you bet the games separately at $10 each, you would get an $80 profit with that record. 

You need to keep the odds of winning in mind before deciding to bet a parlay and to not overlook the smaller gains that you can have doing separate bets on each game. 

4. Shop for Lines

The simple advice here is to keep your options open in terms of where you are betting a game. Having options benefits you, as you can save a lot of money on juice if you look around for the right place to take your action. 

Let’s say for a normal game that the Giants are -3 (-110) in that game against the Jets above in a lot of sportsbooks. That is the average you might see all over the place, so you may feel inclined to take that line. 

But, what if one sportsbook offers that to you for +100? You should be taking the friendliest odds that you can get because it can save you juice in the long haul. 

If you bet $100 per game, you would only have to pay $100 on that bet instead of paying $110. So, you could save $5-10 per bet by shopping around for the right line, decreasing the number of games that you have to get right to make a profit. 

Another thing is that sometimes, you will get a friendlier spread at another book for the side that you want to bet on in a game. 

Let’s say that the Giants are -3 in almost every sportsbook that you see. Most bettors may just settle for that -3 if they want to back the Giants right? 

Well, you might find one book that has the Giants as -2.5 point favorites rather than the three. In football, this could be huge for covering a spread, because a field goal is seen as a scoring separator. 

In that scenario, the Giants could win the game by a field goal as time expired and you would cover the spread rather than push your bet. 

5. Sport Specializing 

Finally, a good tip for you to make more money is to stick with the sports you know inside and out. Let’s say the NFL is the sport you watch the most and you start out making a decent amount of money betting it. 

Well, you might get confident and decide that you are good enough to bet a similar sport that you watch much less often like college football. Well, this could backfire, as you may not know the right nuances and signs to look for when betting on this sport like you would the NFL. 

The suggestion is to pick one sport and then learn the betting trends in that sport like the back of your hand. This could be things like team records against the spread, who the public likes to bet on, opening lines, key injuries, and more. 

Let’s face it, you are just one person at the end of the day and it can be tough for anybody to have their hands in every cookie jar. Learn how to master one sport before stretching yourself too thin and betting on every sport. 

Learn More Sports Betting Strategies

These are just five of the best sports betting strategies you can use to try to make some money on sports betting. 

Do any of these seem useful to you, or do you still think the other side of the action is where the money is? Click here to start creating your own sportsbook and get a 6 weeks free today!