Betting on sports can be done casually, as a past time to instil excitement around a game and get your heart pumping at every turnover or split second decision. But if you want to turn it into a more serious endeavor, and don’t fall into typical sportsbook traps like shaded lines, inflated prices or chasing steam only to end up with poor returns from your predictions, then it may be time to look for ways to improve your approach.
We have betting guides for bettors of all levels – from newcomers who are seeing odds screens for the first time – to the hardened veterans who are struggling in the competitive US sports betting market today, and want tips to beat the crowd and gain an edge. While there is no be all end all approach to sports betting that will see you always win, there are definitely steps you can take to reassess your strategy and focus your efforts on what’s important. And that is using your sports expertise in the right place, weighing potential wagers and finding the right balance to guide you forward.
Our Betting Guides
We cover everything you need in our guides, demystifying even the most advanced and mathematically layered betting strategies, dissecting different types of betting tools, and showing you how to apply them to your betting strategies.
The goal here is to gain a better understanding of the playing field. By learning about the implied probability, juice, shaded lines, and other tricks books use to create a house edge, you can plan your bets smarter.
Using Betting Tools
A few years ago, the idea of a tool that tracks bets and devigs odds would sound too good to be true. Nowadays, there is an entire sector dedicated to programming this software and launching tools to beat the sportsbooks.
There are tools for bettors of all levels, budgets, and to boost any betting strategy. We have reviews of all the best and emerging betting tools in the US, each of which has unique programming and design features to get you the insights you need. Virtually all tools cover the major US sports, NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, as well as college sports and women’s pro sports leagues. Soccer, golf, and tennis fans also have options, and then there are tools that expand their coverage to over 20 sports categories. These can include sports outside the mainstream betting sports, from MMA to eSports.
Head to our Betting Software for reviews of the best tools for each sport, that integrate different betting software to give you an edge in all your NFL or NBA bets (or any other sport).
Our Betting Tools page has tools broken down by strategy and functionality. Whether you want to gain good value hunters, arbitrage betting tools or the best parlay optimizers, you will find everything you need there.
If you are looking for a specific tool or want to browse the different tools, our Reviews page has all our betting tool and software reviews. We rate the different tools based on their money for value, efficiency, and effectiveness. If you have experience with any of the tools, feel free to rate any of the tools.
Types of Betting Platforms
The sportsbook that you choose to sign up to and bet at can play a massive impact in how you bet. Especially if you are open to signing up to numerous platforms, or testing alternative betting sites. Because traditional US sportsbooks are not the only way to go about your betting. There are alternatives to explore, including Daily Fantasy Sports apps, social sportsbooks, peer to peer betting apps, and even prediction markets.
US Sportsbooks
With conventional betting sites, the format is very simple. They provide the odds on their listed bets, and if you have money on your betting account, you click the bet, stake the wager, and confirm. If the conditions of your bet are satisfied when the bet settles, then you will get your payout. If not, then you have lost your bet and your stake. That is the basic premise of a conventional sportsbook. Of course, they will also include parlay and SGP options, some have system bets or round robins. Functions like Cash Out or Early Payout changes the conditions of your bet, with cashouts offering you an opportunity to settle the bet early, and early payout meaning you can win your bet if certain conditions are met during a game.
US sportsbooks will also supply live bets, futures, and a wide assortment of props and alternative betting lines to give you greater variety. They may also supply boosts and bonuses, amplifying the overall experience with perks. To wrap up, you deposit money, stake your bets, and then you can withdraw any money you put onto your account through the supported payment methods. Conventional sports betting is reliable and simple to learn, but it has some shortcomings too.
Sportsbook Pros:
- Massive sports coverage
- Great depth of betting markets
- Flexibility to place any type of bet
- You bet for real money to win real money
- Best US sportsbooks offer loads of bonuses
Sportsbook Cons:
- Only accessible in legal states
- Even some legal states have strict limitations
- Sportsbooks use juice to gain an edge
Social Sportsbooks/DFS
While DFS and social sportsbooks are separate types of platforms, many social sportsbooks incorporate DFS style contests, and DFS platforms integrate the dual currency framework of social sportsbooks. If it were a Venn Diagram, there would be a massive overlap between the two, as many platforms combine the framework of DFS and social sportsbooks to make their products. Social sportsbooks traditionally mirror what you get at a sportsbook, only they don’t use real money bets. Instead, they supply virtual currencies (Gold Coins/Sweeps Coins), which you can use to stake your bets.
As you can’t place bets using real money, they use a legal loophole to access states where sports betting has not yet been legalized. These platforms can offer real money prizes, but they under strict conditions. You can only redeem real prizes for Sweeps Coins (a virtual currency that you can’t directly purchase). The prizes may come in the form of payouts, but they can also be delivered via gift cards or merch.
DFS platforms gamify the sports betting experience with products that resemble sports betting, but they aren’t quite sports bets. For instance, Pick’Em games revolve around choosing Higher/Lower lines on player projections, and you need 2-6 to build a lineup at most DFS platforms. This is the equivalent of a player prop totals bet, and if you had to place 2-6 into one parlay. The DFS can modes where you play against your peers, with the best scoring lineups taking home prizes from a pool, or DFS contests that are directly against the house.
Social Sportsbooks/DFS Pros:
- Social Sportsbooks and Social DFS don’t need real money to participate
- Massive prize pools and competitive contests to offer
- Available in most US states
- You can win real money prizes
Social Sportsbook/DFS Cons:
- Often limited to the major sports and potentially college sports
- Limited betting markets to pick from
- Real money prizes are offered with strict conditions
Peer to Peer Betting
Another alternative is peer to peer betting platforms. There are platforms that operate in both legal sports betting states and states without legal sports betting – offering real money options to the legal states and sweepstakes style P2P betting to those states where sports betting is not yet legal. These platforms have the same standard bets that you would find at a sportsbook, only instead of going up against the house, you are competing against your peers. You can choose the price for your bet, setting the odds yourself, or you can lay a bet at the price set by your peers.
There is no juice, and while these platforms do take their cut by commissions or even small fees on deposits/withdrawals, it is far lower than you would pay in juice at a sportsbook. The framework of peer to peer betting requires bettors to lay your bets for your bet to become active. Liquidity is required, and that’s why you can’t overprice your bets. But it also means that there is no juice applied to bets, something that adds great value to your wagers.
Peer to Peer Betting Pros:
- You and your peers set the odds prices
- No juice on bets
- Much higher betting value than sportsbooks
Peer to Peer Betting Cons:
- Betting markets can be limited
- Wagers require liquidity, some bets are unmatched
- They can charge commission
Prediction Markets
These platforms are a lot newer than the others, and they are hugely popular in the US right now. Prediction markets, or event contract based trading, is similar to P2P betting, only instead of placing bets you buy contracts. You can buy Yes or No contracts on any event, and if the event settles in your favor, you will get paid out $1 for every contract you own (barring any fees and provided these are $1 contracts). However, the big difference is that the prices fluctuate in real time based on market demand, and you can also sell your contracts prior to the event settling.
This added flexibility gives prediction markets their unique selling point, and timing your predictions is arguably just as, if not more, important than placing the winning “bets”. These are available in all 50 states, and the biggest trading platforms have millions of members, meaning there is no shortage of market volume and resulting liquidity.
Prediction Market Pros:
- No sportsbook juice
- Make predictions on real world events, from sports to finance and politics
- Selling option adds flexibility to buyers
Prediction Market Cons:
- Sports offering can be very limited
- No parlays and practically no bets outside main markets
- They can charge commission
Managing Bankroll and Risks
Betting always carries risks, and there is no such thing as a safe bet or a sure to win wager. Bankroll management is something that all US bettors do to some extent – even handling your tax forms and declaring your returns is part of managing your bankroll.
But from a betting perspective, bankroll management has many highly valuable uses, and these can convert to making smarter decisions.
Handling Variance
Think of a game of heads and tails, there is a 50% chance of landing heads and a 50% chance of landing tails. In a mathematically idyllic world, if you flip that coin 100 times then you should get 50 heads and 50 tails. If the flips are not rigged, then you should get around that many number of outcomes.
But in real world scenarios, there are no guarantees. The amount by which the real outcomes differ from the probable outcomes is called variance. If there are 50H and 50T, the variance is zero. But if you get 70H and 30T, you have variance, and 90H and 10T is even higher variance.
In sports betting, variance can occur, especially in the short run. If you bet on @ -150 favorites in 9 times, they should technically win 6 of those games. Variance doesn’t necessarily mean you lose, if that favorite won all 9 games, then variance has occurred but worked in your favor.
When making your betting bankroll, it is important to consider that there will be upsets or results that don’t reflect the given odds. Factoring in defeats is critical to forming a robust budget where you won’t go bust by chasing seemingly high value wagers.
Understanding Odds and Mitigating Risks
When sportsbooks generate odds, they are also guessing. They can’t predict the future either, so they use their own algorithms and data aggregators to create a market price for each of their wagers. Market prices (aggregated from various sportsbooks) are a good indicator, but they don’t rule out the possibility of big upsets and severely over or underestimated outcomes.
Learning to value the odds and appreciate the risks is one ofthe most important skills a sports bettor can have. Instead of just taking market prices and assuming a @ +100 bet has a 50-50 chance of winning, you can do your own research and form your own conclusions.
It may be a very good price for a bet that has a 60% chance of winning (based on your predictions), but if you think the real probability is closer to 40% or 30%, this bet is severely underpriced.
Even if it is a good bet, that doesn’t mean you should go all in. Because while the perceived risks may be lower, they are still there. You could take that bet 10 times and still have a run of bad luck, losing more than expected by the given data.
So always factor in the risks and the possibility that even the highest potential bets fail to win. By reducing your stake on riskier bets, you won’t avoid losing, but you can mitigate those losses and control the damage done by one-off upsets.
Assessing Your Betting Data
Your historical betting data is a goldmine; it has important metrics that can help you work out which bets you are better at predicting and which ones are bombs. It can also be used to see how you overcome variance and how much value you got out of your previous wagers.
The detail into which you record your previous results is critical to understanding context and figuring out where you shine and where you don’t. While you can track your bets manually and record all the data on big spreadsheets, it can become pretty complex, especially for high volume bettors. For the most comprehensive analysis, you don’t just list the stake and any returns, but also the:
- Type of Bet
- Odds at the time of placing bet
- Expected Value
- Closing Line Value
- Returns
Imagine if you placed a parlay, or a couple of SGPs. That’s why a lot of bettors turn to bankroll management software, as the top tools can record all this data, and some more, and then automatically calculate important metrics.
Planning for Your Next Bets
Gauging value, stake sizing, and weighing potential wagers is all an important part of managing your bankroll and creating a betting strategy. Avoid getting carried away with betting hype, pick inflated odds, or getting emotionally triggered and placing bets recklessly.
If you can keep a level head, pick smarter bets, and plan a weekly or monthly budget, you are already one step ahead. With time, you can learn to enhance your strategy, learning to spot better value, analyze the market prices, and capitalizing on high value bets.
This can all be done manually, but your job becomes a lot less time consuming – and far more efficient – with the use of a proper betting tool. With the right tool, that works with your budget and your sports betting requirements, you can optimize your picks, widen your horizon, and tweak your betting strategy for success.
