How to bet on sports - for beginners

Many articles on this subject get semi technical and the equations presented in those articles usually contains a Greek letter or two too many. That is all fine and fancy, but the scope of this article is simply just to publish the bare bones of how to bet on sports. The hope is that you will keep this simple write-up in mind when closing in on the more advanced material available on Howtobet.net

How to bet on sports? Bet on value

The essence of learning how to bet on sports is to accept that sports betting successfully is very much about betting on value. It is not about “picking winners” on gut feeling without any bet analysis. Don’t you dare to forget it, unless you want to go broke that is.

Betting on value simply means going for betting objects that will return more money than what you wagered on them. You need to do this on a consistent and ongoing basis. No diversions, no bobbing and weaving. You aim and fire according to a pre-made betting strategy tailor made for discovering and exploiting any value Mr. Market is willing to offer.

No matter if you are a bettor who goes for high betting turnover and lower betting margin, or if you prefer to wait it out and only take the very best sports picks, the essence remains the same; you bet for value.  If you are a leisure bettor who doesn’t really care too much about turning a profit over time then you know we are okay with that. However, we at Howtobet.net are not okay with you basically just giving your hard earned cash away. Place sports betting picks that have value on your betting slip instead of just going through the odds list zombie-style. You can still have fun with your accumulators. The Howtobet.net accumulator tips will make sure of that.

So how does this value materialize itself?

Sports betting is all about the sum of all the small edges you can collect throughout your betting career. These small edges are in essence made up of thorough bet analysis utilizing basic knowledge in statistics and probability and mixed with enthusiastic love for sports.  Obviously a deep knowledge of those lovable sports is needed too. Much can be said about this, and yes Howtobet.net covers it in detail in hundreds of articles. As a starting point; be sure to read the how to bet on sports general article.

How to bet on sports - Exploiting value

Experience in the market place

This will help you pick bets when the market is off target. This could be due to a wide variety of reasons such as a market overreaction to team news, or because it is Monday night and the only game on in the English Premier League has a big favorite being hammered relentlessly by leisure punters. How do you go about this? Well, you got to get in it to win it. Follow the market day and night like we have for some years and it will become second nature. Or, if you prefer the more lazy approach; come to Howtobet.net and get betting advice and betting market commentary from us.

Mind Management

Mind management tends to be overlooked, but Howtobet.net has written plenty of unique betting bias psychology articles. The hope is you will find help controlling your mind, keeping you calm, cool and able to see through the diluted opinions, general hype and utter bullshit thrown at you from all corners of the media world.

Money Management

You will need to have a general strategy in place for your staking and you obviously have to set aside money for betting. This money that you set aside is usually branded as a bankroll, and it should not interfere with your grocery shopping cash or keep the wife-happy-budget.

One thing you need to realize and accept, is that when you start placing your bets and really get in to learning how to bet, there will be wild fluctuations in your bankroll, no matter what your general strategy is. This is the very nature of turning over money on small edges, so do not let the fluctuations throw you off track - remain focused and stay with the strategy you have decided to use. Money management is a kind of risk management; the idea is finding a bankroll size and staking strategy that suits your general skill level and willingness to accept financial risk.

You can go about finding this preferred staking strategy  in many ways; for instance a lot of punters prefer the Kelly criterion or variants of it. Others just define bet picks in categories and flat bet these categories. Others prefer outright flat betting. By flat betting we simply mean that the wagered amount is fixed for any and all sports betting picks. Yet others use variants of permutation betting and all kinds of betting systems with or without one or more bankers. Howtobet.net covers those possibilities in detail in other articles instead, as we would go far outside the scope of this article exploring those in this write-up.

When it comes to the size of your bankroll. Well, here we don't want to indicate anything. It really is up to you. If you put a gun to our head; your financial position, your risk willingness and social obligations to family and friends should be weighing on your mind when deciding on this. Also, you can begin small and scale up once you see you have what it takes to bet on sports for profit.

Howtobet.net Money Management suggestion

We suggest finding the staking strategy that helps you deal with bankroll swings from the perspective of maintaining your sanity. Usually, this means wagering lower amounts per bet pick than you perhaps prefer, but so be it. Betting on sports should be fun and rewarding, not stressful and an exercise in handling scared money.

Rounding it off

We hope this beginner article found you well, and that you have enjoyed it. Be sure to come to Howtobet.net for more betting advice on learning how to bet on sports.