3 Keys to Successful Sports Picks

March 1, 2008

How many gamblers do you know that consistently win? The answer is most likely none. Making winning sports picks is tremendously hard and requires many different attributes. You often hear your buddies say that they lost on a last second touchdown or a 3-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. In reality, they lost those bets before the games even started. In my opinion as a professional sports handicapper, there are 3 essential keys to making money while betting on sports. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Know what to look for.

What this means, is how to read point spreads and analyzing situations. Not all, but some games in every major sport have certain situations that are more beneficial to one team over the other. You must have a in-depth knowledge of handicapping to understand what these are. Here’s an example of this in college football. Team A is ranked and starts the season 5-0. They lose a hard fought game and now take on a solid team that has 2 or 3 losses to quality teams. Most of the time the ranked team that lost will have another let-down the following week. It is hard to recover from a disappointing loss that may have cost them a chance at a BCS game. This philosophy is the polar opposite of what the average gambler thinks. They believe that the ranked team that suffered the tough loss will “bounce back”. This is a common mistake. Knowing when situations benefit you as a bettor is a just part of putting the odds in your favor. Reading point spreads takes years of experience, and can’t be taught over-night. It takes a keen eye to see if a point spread is “off” enough to give you an advantage. Try to study reading point spreads by keeping track of what teams cover when a spread is at a certain number. This takes time, but is well worth investigating.

2. Patience.

The average “Joe Six-Pack” bets solely to be down on the action. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to stay away from games that have no value in terms of the point spread. An example of this would be weekday football games. Monday night football is generally the only show in town for that day, and many bettors feel the obligation to bet on this match-up. If you don’t see a point spread discrepancy or a situational advantage you need to learn to leave it alone and fight another day. It’s hard to do, but a big part of being a consistent winner.

3. Money Management.

This is an absolute necessity when betting over a long period of time. If you make sports picks year round, you need to treat betting like a business. Spreading your money out evenly is very important. Remember, there is no such thing as a “lock”. I see and hear about it all the time. A guy will win 4 out of 5 games and lose money, because he placed 5-times as much money on the game that lost than he did on the winning bets. This is a common theme when it comes to the uninformed gambler. Don’t try to get rich quick, because it will force you into bad decisions. Making parlay bets as well as betting too much money are generally bad news for gamblers. Parlays pay out great odds for a reason. They are much harder to hit then the odds pay out. You have a 50/50 chance of correctly predicting a sporting event. In order to figure your odds of hitting a parlay, multiply 50% by 50% for every game in the parlay. In other words, if you have a 4 team parlay, your chances of hitting it are 50x50x50x50. In a 4 team parlay you have a 6.25% chance of winning all 4 games. That is 16/1 odds. Most 4 team parlays pay between 10 and 11 to 1. Sucker bets! Stay with straight bets, and make them all for the same amount. The amount you bet should be based on the size of your bankroll. Generally 5-7 percent is the maximum amount you should place on a single wager.

If you follow all of these rules, you are guaranteed to be more successful and consistent in your sports betting endeavors. These tips for making winning sports picks are courtesy of expert handicapper Glenn Andrew.

Written by Cover The Number · Filed Under Sports Information

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