In the U.S., more than two-thirds of the states have legalized retail and or mobile sports betting and sports betting bonuses. A significantly smaller number of USA casinos offer bonuses because only a handful of states have legalized online casino gambling. Why?
One of the arguments used to say yes to sports betting and no to online casino gambling is as follows: sports betting can involve skill while any kind of casino gambling is based solely on chance. It’s true. Sports bettors have handicapping tools they can use to make reasonable “predictions” about game outcomes. Conversely, casino gamblers are strictly at the mercy of random outcomes with no predictability.
Given the advantages sports handicapping offers gamblers, the following information is going to focus on the three (3) skills sports bettors can use to handicap sports.
U.S. sports bettors love to bet on three basic sports: football (college and pro), baseball (pro), and basketball (college and pro). What each of these sports has in common is a minimum of 15 games on the board on any given day. That’s a lot of games on which sports bettors can wager.
Smart handicappers don’t “play the board.” That means they avoid playing too many games a day. Instead, they will try to isolate two or three of what they believe are the best betting opportunities on the board.
It takes time and patience to sift through statistics and handicapping information for multiple games to find the best betting opportunities. How much time? Two to three hours a day when a full roster of games is available. What kind of patience? The patience to not bet any game until the right betting opportunity has been identified.
Anyone who wants to consistently select sports winners has to use historical statistical data and other handicapping information. Doing anything less would be tantamount to guessing, and sports bettors who guess are destined for the “poor house.”
The best sports handicapping techniques require that bettors use historical statistical data to compare opposing teams or athletes to one another. Time and again, successful handicappers have proven that past performances are reliable predictors of future performances. That’s why statistical data is so important to the handicapping process.
However, team and player performances are only a piece of the handicapping puzzle. Skillful handicappers will also seek out other forms of handicapping information. For the benefit of readers who aspire to be good sports betting handicappers, here is some of the other information they should seek:
Note: All of the aforementioned data and information is usually available online for free or through subscription-only handicapping services.
If a gambler cannot effectively manage their sports betting bankrolls, they will eventually fail. Bankroll management starts with the understanding of three (3) basic rules of thumb:
Rule #1 – No gambler should ever set up a gambling bankroll that exceeds what they can afford to lose. The term “afford to lose” refers to discretionary money, which is defined as follows: money that is remaining after all bills have been paid and money has been put in savings for the future.
Rule #2 – Never wager more than 3% of one’s bankroll on a sports bet. Sports betting tends to run in streaks, something that happens without explanation. By limiting each bet to 3% of their bankrolls, sports bettors can survive attrition from losses until they hit a hot streak.
Rule #3 – Establish daily limits. Each day a sports bettor jumps into action is a new day. It could be the day a hot streak hits or conversely, the kind of day nothing seems to go right. Smart handicappers have the skill to “know when to hold ’em and when to fold’em.”
For certain, it’s important to establish a cap on the amount a handicapper is willing to lose each day. It’s a bad day when losses start mounting. However, it’s just as important for handicappers to be willing to walk away with profits. It doesn’t happen often. That’s exactly why skillful handicappers will peg a winning goal each day and take a break after hitting that goal. While it is possible a handicapper might be walking away from a hot streak, one should never worry about what might happen with future bets the same day.
Conclusion: The best chance you will ever have to be a consistently successful sports bettor is to do what the pros do, use the aforementioned skills.
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
