Is Betting A Good Way To Make Money
In short, the main advantage of bet exchange for sports arbitrage is that the odds at a betting exchange are on average 10 – 20% better than they would be at a traditional bookmaker (see the next section). Means, even deducting the commission, their odds could be still better. I did matched betting to make extra income on top of my 9-5 job, but it’s also a great job for stay at home mums, students, freelancers and pretty much anyone who can use a computer and can spare a few hours a week! It is also a relatively fast way to make extra money. Yes, you do need to have a small amount of money on hand to place your first bets (around £60-£75 is ideal) and it could take a few days for that.
- Dividing your balance in units. If you want your betting career to have a long-term future, you need.
- Poker has long been one of the top ways to make money with gambling. This reputation has.
- Bookmakers make money; sports analysts make a living from gambling by compiling odds for bookies; some of my own income derives from sports bettors using this website. Programmers earn a living from gambling by developing various betting applications. Manufacturers of gaming machines make money from people’s gambling habits.
With each new NBA season, sports bettors get to take a whole new approach to betting on the NBA. Free agency, the draft, and trades have this league constantly changing more than any other, which starts up top with betting on the NBA Finals and trickles all the way down to the actual player transactions.
You honestly have the ability to bet on virtually anything involving the NBA these days. Once NBA trade rumors pop up, you can wager where star players will get traded to or what their next team could be the following year.
During the season, your betting options are at their greatest height, as there are a litany of player and team bets to choose from.
While the list is rather long as far as NBA betting opportunities go, there’s a small group of NBA wagers you should focus most of your time and energy on. With that, here are the seven best ways to make money betting on the NBA.
Talk about an edge. Normally, the top NBA betting sites set NBA odds with confidence, but even the most reputable sites have to admit they aren’t always sure how things will unfold.
They’re obviously setting the price they think bettors will respond to, but as things first get going, nobody has a clue what will happen. Why? Because these games don’t matter.
Teams will limit or rest their marquee players without hesitation, so your usual NBA betting strategy may not work here. However, if you research how coaches and players operate during preseason play and keep tabs on NBA news (follow NBA team beat writers), you can gain a serious advantage in this type of basketball betting.
Bet on Who Will Win the NBA Finals
This is a tried and true season-long prop bet that bettors can attack before the current season ends, and that’s often talking about the next season’s Finals.
NBA Finals odds are made available extremely early at the top NBA betting websites, and they’re constantly updated throughout the year. Regardless of when you feel like betting on the NBA Finals champion, you will usually have the ability to do so.
Bettors may want to pick their timing wisely for this wager, of course. The NBA can be fluid prior to the league’s NBA trade deadline each year, while placing bets before the summer’s free agency period ends is rarely suggested.
That being said, the NBA’s offseason usually paints a fairly accurate picture of who the top teams are and which NBA Finals sleepers could be worth backing.
Whatever your stance, you can bet on this wager virtually 365 days a year. You’ll just have to wait until the end of the NBA playoffs to find out if you won or not.
The art of NBA player prop betting should be mixed into your season-long NBA wagers. As noted, you can bet on where players will be traded or play down the road, but the list of NBA player props doesn’t end there.
Individual awards like the coveted NBA MVP, Most Improved Player, Defensive Player of the Year, 6th Man of the Year, and even NBA Coach of the Year are among the best NBA player prop bets for you to target.
The nice thing is that like NBA Finals betting, most of these props are hosted at the most respected NBA sportsbooks for a good portion of the season. You can take advantage of early NBA odds by placing bets prior to the season, but as more information trickles out, you can still hedge your bets (or double down) with additional wagers.
Sometimes, the NBA can be predictable to the point where division winners or title favorites offer little to no value. When that’s the case, NBA bettors can aim a little higher with NBA player props.
Exploit NBA Point Spreads
You can bet on the NBA all year long, but the most action admittedly comes during the regular season. Props and futures are still out there to be targeted, but the grind refers to trying to figure out how to bet on individual games.
One of the most popular types of sports wagers is the point spread, as bettors try to find sustainable profit through picking teams to cover or beat spreads.
Whether you’re betting on an NBA team to cover a 5-point spread (win by six or more points) or beat a 10-point spread (lose by 10 or fewer points), this is a common bet due to the ability to win without being right about the actual winner.
There isn’t much value in backing favorites in pro sports, so spread betting allows you to take a look at how games are priced and see if there’s an advantageous approach.
How you bet on NBA spreads will always depend on a multitude of circumstances, but this checklist is a good one to abide by.
- Injuries/starting lineups
- Recent series history
- Fatigue/schedule
- ATS data
- Home/away splits
- Eye test
- Find the best value
This is a good list of criteria to check off as you prepare to bet. If any star players for either side are out, that needs to be noted. Of course, this is especially important for the favorites, and it becomes a bigger deal the larger the spread is.
If the Golden State Warriors are favored by 10 points and Stephen Curry is ruled out, the Warriors covering suddenly gets a little dicey.
Leaning too much on past results can get you in trouble, but rivalries and “mental holds” can be real things in a sport like basketball. If a team has won six straight in a series or 10 of the last 12, that isn’t something to ignore.
Perhaps more important than anything when betting on NBA spreads is assessing team fatigue and how each team’s schedule impacts them. Teams on long road trips, playing back-to-backs, or hitting the floor for the third time in four or five days can suffer immensely from mental and physical fatigue.
On top of that, it’s always useful to take a look at a team’s against the spread data, as well as straight-up results and home vs. away splits.
Lastly, don’t overlook the eye test.
This applies to the matchup at hand, in addition to the pricing by whatever NBA sportsbook you’re betting at. If you can quickly assess a matchup and a team is favored by -10 and shouldn’t be, the bet could be as simple as that.
Of course, before putting any of this into play, be sure to go NBA lines shopping at your most trustworthy NBA betting websites. The more sites you can look at, the better prices you’ll find.
This should lead to maximum value and an easier, safer bet.
Everything we just touched on can and should be applied to your search for that huge NBA upset pick. Betting strictly on NBA underdogs probably isn’t the best idea just because it can backfire horribly, but sometimes there are very sneaky spots to target insane value.
When looking to bet on NBA upsets, there are five huge factors to consider.
- Price
- Matchup
- Schedule
- Fatigue
- Injuries
NBA betting odds are always going to dictate what you do to some extent. Be sure to shop around just like with any wager and work your way down from there.
Of course, be sure to dissect the matchup at hand so that you know how to view the prices for the game. Consider what major injuries are expected to have an impact, how tired players can be, and what their schedule has been like.
There is information online as far as which games are most likely to be “trap” games for every franchise, but you can do the digging pretty easily yourself. Basically, if a team has played numerous games in a short amount of time — and/or if they’re coming off of a huge game or looking ahead to one — they could be physically or mentally ill-prepared.
Betting on NBA underdogs can be highly profitable, but it’s not guaranteed to always be sustainable. It’s best to pick your spots and try to refrain from always betting only on the major underdogs (+145 is a nice win, too).
Another popular way to bet on NBA games is to pick a side on game totals. The top NBA betting sites assign an overall total for points scored in the game, and bettors need to decide if it’s too high or too low.
There are absolutely going to be instances where you’ll just want to leave it alone and bet on something else, but totals can be fairly easy to exploit.
Here are some things to consider before betting on NBA totals.
- Injuries/fatigue/schedule
- Pace of play
- Offensive efficiency
- Defensive efficiency
Just like with most NBA wagers, be sure to do your research and know what big injuries to account for, as well as anything pertaining to player fatigue or schedule impact.
The next big thing to look for is team pace. Some teams rely on a slow, methodical offense, simply aren’t great at scoring, and/or try to beat teams defensively. The slower the pace, the fewer possessions you have to work with.
If one team plays fast and the other doesn’t, these offensive philosophies could cancel each other out. Teams can also change the way they play depending on matchups and whether they’re at home or on the road.
If in search of a tiebreaker, home teams tend to dictate the pace — at least initially.
Offensive and defensive efficiency are also very important to note, and you can add in shooting percentages, both inside and from long range. The point is to build a strong case that one or both teams are going to struggle to score or dramatically slow the game down, or both teams can contribute to a very explosive shootout.
The point spread is often used to figure this out, too. If the total is high but the spread is also high, there is a risk of a blowout. The over would then be at risk of not delivering.
Ideally, betting on the over has both teams offering average or above average paces and capable, efficient offenses. If you can have one or both teams playing average-to-poor defense, that only helps.
It works the other way for the under, while pricing can be crucial no matter what the case is for either team. That’s where the eye test and hunting for elite NBA betting value once again come into play.
Lastly, consider trying live sports betting. This isn’t just about hedging previous bets, either (although it’s okay to do that a little bit).
Rather, betting on the NBA live is more about taking advantage of game momentum and line movement. If the Warriors open a game as 10-point favorites but are down by five at the break, their game line will almost certainly dip.
Perhaps now they’re no longer favored to win the game, or at a minimum, that 10-point spread shrinks drastically. In-game injuries, team adjustments, and player performance can play into things swinging back the other way, while anyone who watches the NBA knows how much basketball can go back and forth.
Betting on the NBA is a roller coaster ride in general. Live NBA betting simply allows bettors to exploit it.
One great NBA betting strategy to use with live NBA betting is noting how teams perform in the third and fourth quarters. Whether it be coaching adjustments, lineup changes, or just an overall team philosophy, some teams come out red hot to start second halves, and others tend to cave.
That’s just one sliver of information you can use to bet live on the NBA and hopefully do so successfully. More than anything, though, NBA live betting allows you to keep the game exciting (and potentially profitable) from start to finish.
Just be sure to research the very best live sports betting websites before placing your bet.
Where to Bet on the NBA
As you can see, there is a lot to soak up in the NBA betting world. Your options for betting on the NBA know no bounds, as you can wager on players and teams all year long or even bet on the games as they go.
Of course, this all circles back to what I opened with, and that’s first finding the best value at the most reputable basketball betting websites.
Finding which site is the best for you as an individual is a process you personally need to take on because every site can be different as far as bonuses, promotions, customer service, and payment methods go.
Ideally, though, you can find a handful of NBA sportsbooks that package most of that criteria and are also safe to play at.
For a short list you can trust, here are some great NBA betting sites to consider.
I won’t waste your time running through these websites to tell you where to bet, but all of these NBA betting sites check off the major boxes. Those would be safe, reputable, and elite in terms of pricing and promotions being offered.
I don’t think the point is to ever pick just one site to bet on the NBA, though. NBA betting is so volatile by nature that you will always want to keep your options open. That applies to wagers offered but also to pricing.
Hopefully, this post helps point you in the right direction in terms of where to bet on basketball and which wagers to attack. For more NBA betting odds, insight, and advice, hit up our NBA betting guide.
Every gambler wants to win profits. But this is very difficult to do when considering that the casino holds an edge in most games. Of course, you can use a combination of luck and skill to win more money. But banking on luck is a terrible way to earn long-term profits through gambling.
Therefore, you need to find games and advantage play techniques that give you an opportunity to win in the long run. I’m going to discuss the best games and advantage gambling methods that’ll help you accomplish this goal.
Poker has long been one of the top ways to make money with gambling. This reputation has only increased in recent times with the availability of online poker. The reason why poker offers such a great opportunity to earn money is because you’re competing against other players – not the house.
But I believe that any poker player can win with the right approach. The only question is what route you should take towards becoming a winner. Read the stories of any successful poker player – past or present – and you’ll see that there’s no single road to get there. But there are some universal steps you can take to becoming a stronger player.
Here are different methods you can use to improve your skills:
- Watching pros on Twitch streams.
- Watching training videos on YouTube.
- Joining a training site (usually $30 per month).
- Reading poker strategy books.
- Reading poker strategy articles.
- Hiring a poker coach.
- Reviewing your sessions afterward.
You also have to decide what poker variation and type you want to attack. After all, this game offers over a dozen variations along with different game types. Some of the poker variants include Texas holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud, Razz, Badugi, H.O.R.S.E., and Crazy Pineapple. The different types of poker include cash games, multi-table tournaments (MTTs) sit and go’s (SNGs), and lottery style games. You should throw out lottery style poker games right away if you’re a serious player. These games rely on too much luck in order to win anything significant.
This leaves you choosing between cash games, MTTs, and SNGs. Here are the pros and cons to each of these choices:
- Cash games – Pros: great for steady hourly profits, especially when multi-tabling online. Cons: your losses can accelerate greatly if you’re not skilled.
- MTTs – Pros: give you a chance at winning a huge payout for a small buy-in. Cons: bigger MTTs have lots of variance, meaning you won’t cash often.
- SNGs – Pros: you can make a steady profit from SNGs without assuming too much risk. Cons: you need to multi-table SNGs or play higher stakes in order to make serious profits.
The biggest thing to keep in mind about poker is that it’s not an easy way to win profits. This is especially the case in today’s poker climate, which features better players than ever before. But as long as you’re willing to take a long-term approach to the matter – rather than expecting quick winnings – then you can slowly grind up the stakes and make some money. Moreover, poker offers more opportunities to become a profitable gambler than anything else on this list. Despite modern poker’s increasing overall skill level, you’ll find lots of juicy cash games, MTTs, and SNGs.
Chances are that you’ve seen a daily fantasy sports (DFS) commercial or two. These commercials are often aimed at making sports fans think that they can easily win money. This couldn’t be further from the truth, though, because DFS is a skill-based form of gambling. The biggest winners are those who dedicate the most time to creating lineups, analyzing statistics, and learning other strategies. Much like poker, you’re competing against other DFS players to craft the best player lineups. This skill aspect gives you an opportunity to win on a consistent basis.
Of course, not everything regarding DFS is about analyzing stats. You also need to develop simple strategies that’ll help you craft winning lineups. One of my favorite simple approaches involves looking for low-salary value players before filling out the rest my lineup. Focusing on the best value picks first helps me fill multiple positions on a roster before going for the high-salary players. Additionally, this allows me to see how much remaining money I have to go for the All-Stars at the end. DFS isn’t as lucrative as poker or sports betting for the average gambler. But you can certainly win some major money through this form of gambling.
Case in point: former poker pro Aaron Jones won $5 million through a DraftKings NFL contest in 2016. Plenty of other players have won large payouts since then. First things first though; in that you need to become a successful player before dreaming about a big win. I suggest starting with general strategy in low-stakes contests, before diving into advanced stats and programs that can truly make your winner.
Sports betting is similar to poker and DFS in that you can win long-term profits. But it also works differently from these two games in some ways. Poker and DFS involve competing against other players, with the house collecting a small amount of rake from the contest. Sports betting, on the other hand, revolves around trying to figure out which side of the line has more value. Therefore, you’re not competing directly against other bettors for winnings.
For example, you’d need to win 52.4% of point spread bets with 10% juice (comes from losing side) to be profitable. Winning over 52.4% of your wagers doesn’t sound extremely difficult. But keep in mind that even the best sports gamblers only win 53% to 55% of their point spread wagers. The rate at which you need to win moneyline bets depends upon the odds you’re taking. For example, you only need to win over 43.5% of the time on +130 moneyline bets to earn profits. But it’s not any easier to beat moneyline wagers than point spreads or any other type of bet.
The reason why sports wagering is difficult to profit from is because bookmakers are really good at setting lines. Their goal is to create equal action on each outcome in a wager, thus guaranteeing them a profit when the juice is taken into account. I mentioned earlier how you’re directly competing against other bettors. But you need to find favorable opportunities before most other gamblers, because lines shift when there’s too much action on one side.
Jumping on lines early is one of the best things to do as a sports bettor. This allows you to find value before any potential shift occurs to balance out the action. Handicapping is the main strategy for finding value in lines. This technique involves examining a variety of factors to see if the bookmaker’s odds lineup with your take.
Here’s an example:
- Atlanta Falcons +140
- Carolina Panthers -165
- You handicap this game.
- You think that the Falcons are undervalued at +140.
- You bet on the Falcons to win.
The factors that you look at when handicapping differ based on the sport. But basic elements that you should consider include injuries, player matchups, travel schedules, motivational factors, and statistics.
Stats are very important in sports gambling, because you can use them to spot trends that’ll give you an advantage over time. You can also use sports betting software to help you analyze advanced stats and make better bets. Of course, sports betting is like DFS in that you want to first learn the basics while concentrating on low stakes wagers. As you become more competent, you can graduate towards making bigger bets and using programs to help you out.
The esports industry has been rapidly increasing in popularity over the past few years. Esports betting, which has spawned from this growth, allows you to bet on the action. If you’re already a sports gambler, then you’ll appreciate the easy transition into esports betting. This form of gambling uses the same odds and types of bets that are featured in traditional sports gambling. You can also use many of the same handicapping skills to win esports wagers. The only difference is that you need to learn about the different games, leagues, and players involved.
Esports betting allows you to wager on over a dozen computer and console video games. Here are just some of the available games:
- Battlefield
- Call of Duty
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Dota 2
- Halo
- Hearthstone: Heroes of the Warcraft
- Heroes of the Storm
- League of Legends
- Overwatch
- Rocket League
- Smite
- Starcraft II
- Street Fighter
These games all have different leagues too, which gives you even more chances to specialize. But I strongly suggest that you only focus on one game and 1-2 leagues in the beginning until you master them. There’s no sense in wagering on a bunch of options and spreading yourself thin. Instead, truly get to know a single game before moving on.
5 – Card Counting
Card counting is an advantage play technique that you can use in blackjack to make profits. The goal is to keep track of aces and 10-value cards so that you know when you have a better chance to get natural blackjack (21 on first two cards). Casinos pay you either 3:2 or 6:5 on your original bet when you have a winning natural blackjack. Therefore, you can gain a temporary advantage by making larger bets when your chances of getting a natural increase.
The biggest benefit to card counting is that you don’t have to compete with other players to win. Instead, this is a matter of you learning how to count cards and avoid being caught by the casino. The latter is one of the biggest disadvantages to card counting. It doesn’t matter how good you are if the pit boss detects that you’re counting cards and has security escort you out the door.
This makes it important that you don’t spread your bets too much when you have an advantage. Here are examples of an acceptable spread versus what’s not:
- Acceptable – Going from table minimum of $10 to $50 (1-5 spread).
- Unacceptable – Going from table minimum of $5 to $500 (1-100 spread).
- Acceptable – Going from table minimum of $5 to $75 (1-15 spread).
- Unacceptable – Going from table minimum of $10 to $5,000 (1-500 spread).
One other critical aspect involves researching casinos and finding out which ones are more tolerant of bet spreads. Some gambling establishments will become suspicious immediately when you use a 1-15 spread, while others won’t as long as you’re not obvious about your counting efforts.
Of course, you also have to thoroughly learn and master a card counting system. The actual process of learning a system isn’t overly difficult, especially if you use one like the OPP or Hi-Lo. The Hi-Lo is my favorite for beginners, because it’s simple and will still produce good results. You should be able to learn how to use the Hi-Lo within a matter of minutes.
Also note that you’ll need a large bankroll so that you don’t risk busting out in your card counting endeavors. The average successful counter only has between a 0.5% and 1.5% edge, which makes for a lot of variance. You also have to account for how you’ll be placing big bets when you have a positive count. This increases the risk, which is why you want at least a few thousand dollars in your bankroll when starting out.
Hole carding is another advantage play technique that you can employ in blackjack. This strategy revolves around trying to see the dealer’s face-down card (a.k.a. hole card) when they peek for a natural blackjack. As you may know, the dealer peeks for a blackjack when their upcard is either an ace or a 10-value card. The round ends if they have a natural, and anybody without a natural automatically loses.
Is Sports Betting A Good Way To Make Money Reddit
Under optimal conditions with a dealer that consistently shows their hole card, you’ll have anywhere between an 11% and 13% advantage. The biggest obstacle to hole carding is that there aren’t many dealers who’ll actually reveal their value when checking for blackjack. Chances are that you’ll have to sit at 100 or more blackjack tables before you find a really bad dealer.
You also need to sit in the correct seat to spot the dealer’s hole card. First base (seat to croupier’s immediate left) is best when there’s a right-handed dealer, and third base (seat to croupier’s immediate right) is best when there’s a left-handed dealer.
Video poker is the only house-banked casino game that offers you a long-term advantage. Unlike hole carding and card counting, you can sit at a video poker game for as long as you want and take advantage of profits. The first step to being a video poker winner involves knowing which variations actually provide an advantage. Here are the three most-common variants that will deliver long-term profits: