Improve Your Winnings With These Sports Betting Tips
Everyone enjoys feeling like a winner, and there’s often no better way to feel like a winner than by betting on sporting events. Not only do you get to enjoy the thrill of competition, but with sports betting, you’ve got some skin in the game and can win real cash when you make the right play.
However, making the right play isn’t always easy. If it were, Las Vegas would have closed down years ago. Instead, the Strip gets bigger and more glitzy every year because the sportsbooks and the casinos keep raking in money from players who don’t make proper plays. There’s no way to always beat the sportsbooks because random things can always happen in sporting events, but you can definitely maximize your chances of winning your bets so that you win more often than you lose. These tips can help you increase your winnings and make smarter plays!
Shop Around at Sportsbooks
If you’re new to sports betting, you might not know that each sportsbook has its own numbers based on the action it’s getting from its bettors. This is important, because a half-point in one direction can be the difference between winning and losing, and a slight difference on the moneyline can really make a difference with your bankroll over time.
Let’s say that you’ve got a good feeling about the Senators beating the Maple Leafs because Toronto is playing back-to-back games and Ottawa has rested for five days, so you take Ottawa for $100 at +130 at Sportsbook X. But over at Sportsbook Y, the Senators were available for +150. That’s $20 that you left on the table because you didn’t shop around to see which sportsbook offered the best odds for your bet. Over time, that money really adds up, and if you keep leaving money on the table, you’ll end up far short of where your bankroll should be.
Sportsbooks want your business, so they’re going to compete with each other to offer the best lines possible for your dollar. Take advantage of this by shopping around. The gambling experts at Canada Casino Hub have made a shortlist with the best paying Sportsbooks and Casinos.
Know Where to Get Good Information
Sports betting has a lot to do with getting the right information and putting it to good use. That means following the sources closest to the teams and players that you can trust to tell you the truth. In this day and age, beat writers that cover each team provide updates on social media, as will the teams themselves. These are primary sources, and they’re your best bet for reliable information that you can use for your bet.
Let’s say the Bills are facing the Dolphins one week, and the Miami Herald’s Dolphins writer reports that Tua Tagovailoa has looked a step slower than usual in practice because he’s dealing with a calf injury. If you’re paying attention, you can use that information to bet on the Bills before the public catches word and inflates the Bills’ numbers. The difference of even one point is huge in football games, so getting Buffalo -6.5 points (meaning you win if the Bills win by 7 or more) as opposed to -7.5 (you win if the Bills win by 8 or more) can literally be the difference between winning and losing.
Focus Sports Betting One Game At a Time
You’ve heard coaches and players say that they need to take things one game at a time. The same holds for you as a bettor, because single bets are much easier to win than parlay plays. Parlays come with higher payouts because you need to get every game correct or you don’t win anything, but that also means that you have multiple chances for your bet to go wrong. Random events can always happen, which make parlay plays a difficult proposition even for experienced bettors.
The best thing you can do is isolate games and focus on a few that you feel good about. Betting on two or three games separately before you make your next bets is a good way to give yourself action without stretching yourself too thin. If you bet on three games and win two, you’ve come out ahead and you’re funded for your next few bets. Plus, it’s always easier to focus on one game at a time and make your bet before looking at another. Remember, there is a lot of information out there on every game that you can bet. If you try to analyze too many games at once, you can overlook important details.
Learn From Bad Sports Betting Nights
Betting on sports means that sometimes, you’re going to lose. But as long as you win more than you lose, that’s OK. The best way to win more than you lose is to analyze your losing bets and see what you learned about a team. Maybe you found out that one team doesn’t play as well away from home as it does in its building. Maybe you discovered a team is a bad starter, and you should bet them in the second half. Or maybe you’ve seen a team that has given up and should be avoided this season.
Whatever you can find out, you can use for your next bet to make a more informed decision. As long as you’re learning, even your losses can help make you a more effective sports bettor! For all the latest sports news follow PledgeSports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.