Sports betting: 9 tips for beginners

Sports betting has become a big part of everyday life. With the massification of the football industry and other top sports, everyone wants to bet on their favorite club or competition. With a market of $ 200 billion, sports betting is a godsend for many companies. And if you want to get started in sports betting, you need to know its main aspects that we try to detail in this guide.

Warning: Sports betting is considered to be gambling. Only bet money that you are prepared to lose. Never bet the money you use for basic needs like rent or food!

1 – The favorite team against the outsider

In sports betting, the main aspect is the favorite and the underdog. When you are using a sports betting site and you have a match between two teams with one having the minus sign (-) and the other having the plus sign (+), it means that the first is considered favorite while that the other is the outsider.

If the odds are equal for both teams, then the bookmaker will not put anything or the equal sign (=).

2 – The point spread

We haven’t bet the old fashioned way for a long time. It is much more complex with almost infinite variations. It is no longer just a question of determining the victory of this or that team, because we can use the point spread. It is a measure of your bet in relation to an event that is going to occur.

Imagine seeing a bet that PSG will win the Champions League and the Bookmaker has a point spread of 5.50. This means that if you put 100 dollars on this win then you have to multiply that odds by your bet. It sounds like common sense, but sometimes you will have negative ratings.

So if you see that Chelsea have a -10 point spread for the final victory then that means that sometimes you have to put in $ 110 to get $ 100 because you are not taking enough risks and you are poorly rewarded.

The point spread is mostly used in American sports betting, but it is starting to become popular across the Atlantic.

3 – Sports betting on points

Points and their calculation can become a nightmare for the bettor, but also a real delight for sports betting sites, because you can do almost anything. In sports like Basketball, you see bets as total points that you also know as Over/Unders. If the bookmaker tells you that the Over/Unders between a game between the Lakers and the Bulls is 125 points, then that means that the total points of the two teams will not exceed 125 points. Either you bet over and if the total is 150 points then you have won your bet.

Where it becomes a mess with the advent of real-time sports betting. For example, you are told that the number of touches between a PSG match against Montpellier is 15, but that in the second half it will be 25, but that depends on whether there is rain or not. In modern sports betting, bookmakers take great pleasure in making betting more complex. On the one hand, it increases their chances of winning the bet and it offers more diversity to the players.

4 – The Vig or the Juice

Often times, sports betting will show a certain value like -110 next to an odds. This indicates the Vig or the Juice. Term that has been complicated to the extreme so that the general public gets lost in it, it is simply the bookmaker’s commission. This is the equivalent of a negative Point Spread and it comes from the fact that fundamentally the bookmaker does not give a damn about the outcome of the bet.

You too, I imagine and therefore, the Vig for Vigorish or Juice is a security that the Bookmaker will put in to win some money anyway when the bet is super safe. For example, you have a match between PSG and Amiens, this latter being a low tiers club. In other words, we already know who will win. If the Bookmaker shows a measure of -110 on PSG’s victory, which seems pretty obvious, then that means you have to put in $ 110 to earn 110. What’s the point? Well, you, you win your bet without taking any risk since you only lose 10 dollars and it comes back to the bookmaker.

A good sports betting site will try to have VIGs low enough to attract players to bets considered safe.

5 – Is sports betting legal?

This is a question whose answer depends on the country where you live. In France, sports betting is authorized for authorized operators. Note that since 2020, the ANJ (National Games Authority) has replaced ARJEL. Some punters, unhappy with certain drastic conditions imposed by French bookmakers, will bet abroad.

This is at your own risk, as you may have trouble withdrawing your money. But sports betting is also authorized in certain American states and also in the United Kingdom which has a rich and very diversified sector, reflecting its football championship which is the richest and the most attractive on the planet.

So, before you bet, check the laws of your country, especially for withdrawal of money. Often, sports betting sites pay little attention to the countries of their visitors, but that becomes problematic when it comes to withdrawing the dought as the other would say.

6 – How much to bet?

I would say bet your mother-in-law first if you can, because everyone wants to get rid of their mother-in-law. But beyond the joke, this is the most important question and one that determines why sports betting can ruin you and destroy your life. The golden rule is simple: ONLY BET THE MONEY YOU ARE READY TO LOSE !!

Don’t expect to get rich from sports betting. Bets are a pleasure, like going to a restaurant or a movie. You have some money and you want to put it on your favorite team. Therefore, you need to start small. You need to define what is called a bankroll which is the money you are earmarking for your bets.

Make this bankroll your monthly budget. For example 100 dollars, then put only 1 to 5% on each of your sports bets. In this way, it allows you to go through your whole month without exceeding your bankroll. And it will also allow you to understand an essential aspect of sports betting. It’s a marathon and a not sprint. As in life, you will have good and bad days, remember that victory in many sports is a matter of luck.

Of course, we can tell you that betting is something very sophisticated, that everything is mathematized, etc. But basically, the La Remontada game between Barça and PSG shows that anything can happen. And that as a result, anything can also happen to your bets that you have carefully studied for days.

That doesn’t mean you can’t spot trends that make it so important to make it a marathon. Small bet after small bet, you will come to master all the techniques and traps to avoid. And it becomes a real pleasure which is essential in this activity.

7 – Real-time odds change

Real-time sports betting is exciting, but also very dangerous, as we tend to bet on events that can change from minute to minute. Another thing is the change of odds dynamically. Before a game, many things can change such as bad weather, sudden injury to a player.

All of these aspects will change the odds of the game. Therefore, you have to keep abreast of the odds throughout the days leading up to the match. We have seen odds that have changed in a few hours. Most sports betting has apps that allow you to do this in real time. Use them, you won’t regret them!

8 – Play the competition of sports betting sites

There are literally thousands of sports betting sites around the world. As a result, you can make the competition play as you want (respecting your national laws of course). Sometimes you have bookmakers that are cheaper than others or have different odds. Either the bookmaker has information that the other does not. Or, its method of calculation is different.

The only way is to try different sports betting sites to see which one is right for you.

9 – The progression in sports bettin

Sports betting is a sport in itself. A sport that can be mentally taxing and stressful. And now in other sports you have apps that allow you to measure your progress over time. Do the same with your bets. Either, you use a dedicated application that allows you to record all your bets and thus measure your profits and losses.

Or, a simple Excel sheet can do the trick. The important thing is to be able to follow your progress over time. You will learn to know your strengths and weaknesses which is decisive in betting. Maybe you will find that you lose every time in one sport and that you are more comfortable in others.