Approximately 77 million Americans bet on sports each year, meaning countless fans become bettors with each passing day. But how many new bettors do things the right way, with an organized plan and a personal checklist to keep themselves disciplined?
That's where we at AllSportsPeople come in.
We've put together a five-step checklist we wish someone had given us when we first started betting. By the end of this guide, you should feel more confident and knowledgeable about your sports betting journey.
Why every bettor needs a pre-wager checklist
In the same way our kids do well with daily classroom checklists and we benefit from to-do lists, bettors old and new can improve their efficiency and self-discipline in a major way by maintaining a pre-wager checklist.
The betting tips checklist you're about to create for yourself will keep you in check, even when things start to get rocky. It will serve as a go-to for when you're deciding how much to gamble with, how much to bet each time, how you can find the best odds, how to conduct research, and more.
This isn't just a hobby. It's also a financial expenditure, which some might call entertainment and others refer to as an investment strategy. We will only be as successful as we allow ourselves to be, and we can only prosper if we stay prepared, organized and disciplined. Let's do this.
Step 1: Check your bankroll and unit size
One of the most important first steps: managing your betting bankroll. Your starting bankroll should be the amount of money you feel comfortable losing. It should consist of a percentage of funds from your disposable income, or money you don't already have budgeted for living expenses.
Start with a small percentage, knowing that you will likely lose all or most of it in the beginning. Rome wasn't built in a day, so every new bettor should also understand that sharp bettors take years and years to even achieve 55% success rates. Every new skill requires practice.
Once you determine your starting bankroll, you can figure out your unit size, also known as the amount of money you will wager per bet. Most new bettors like to stick to a fixed unit size, say 5 or 10% of their total bankroll.
Many bettors opt to bet 1-5 units based on their level of confidence in a wager. If your confidence is high, you might bet five units. If you're a bit worried about volatility, you might want to do one unit or even a half-unit.
Remember that successful sports betting is a marathon, not a sprint, and there will be plenty of time for big splashes once you become a pro.
One helpful way to build your bankroll is to take advantage of welcome offers at sportsbooks. When you sign up, they often offer bet and get promotions and more bonus bets to help you get started; wisely distributing your funds to capitalize on growth opportunities could help you gain more traction immediately.
Step 2: Shop lines across multiple sportsbooks
Just like smart consumers like to price-compare different shops, outlets and websites for the best deals on food, clothes, vehicles and electronics, smart bettors line-shop at multiple sportsbooks before throwing down action.
Shopping for the best lines obviously gets you the most bang for your buck, as you'll always be able to place wagers with the highest potential payout. When you maximize your profitability opportunity with each wager, you position yourself to make a huge long-term effect on your bankroll.
Line-shopping across books also helps you to better understand odds, value, how sportsbooks set lines, and market movements. The more sites and apps you travel, the more familiar you'll be with how books set odds, how to target and pinpoint value-betting opportunities and how the public tends to bet and in turn move the lines.
Step 3: Research stats, trends, and matchups
Don't click Submit on a bet that's purely based on a hunch or feeling. We aren't rooting here — we're betting our hard-earned money on a statistical prediction. Shouldn't that involve some scientific research?
Bettors can find a bevy of stats, analysis, matchup data, and trend research floating around out there, waiting for you to grab it and do something with it. Familiarize yourself with the various Sports Reference pages. Join sites like PFF, FantasyPros, Baseball Savant and Team Rankings.
While trends don't always point you in the right direction, it's valuable to know them and other stats that may be parroted by the public. Sometimes, it's profitable to go against the grain on them.
If you want to make money betting, you're going to need a lot more than just sports knowledge. "Knowing ball" and being a fan is a foundation — the finishing touches to your sports betting forever home will be paved through hard work and solid research. Be intentional with every move you make as a bettor, and you just might come out of it with some profits.
Betting terms glossary
Step 4: Understand market movement and timing
One of the core elements of gambling that all new sports bettors must grasp is that it's a business, and the sportsbooks' main job is to mitigate risk and secure your money. They're not just setting lines based on every matchup — they're also setting lines to get lure you into betting a certain way, and to ensure their liability isn't too high one way or the other.
Sportsbooks guarantee themselves profits by driving the betting numbers as close to 50% on both sides of the bet as possible. When the betting public splits a game, match, future or prop evenly, the book will profit off the vig (the commission all bettors must pay each bet). The vig is usually about $10 for every $100 wager.
As such, the books respond to the betting market when analyzing and adjusting their lines.
Bettors must understand how sportsbooks set betting lines; it's a fluid process that involves shifting the lines and/or odds when too high of a percentage of bettors has started to wager on one side. If the book has too much action on one result, that's a liability.
Volume obviously factors into line movements, as does sharp money (large wagers from experienced bettors aka "sharps"). New information like injuries, weather, trades or firings can have impacts, too. The aim of the book is to be one step ahead of the public, while the aim of the public is to lock in at the best possible value.
The best value typically comes early, right after odds open. The market hasn't manipulated the line much (although oddsmakers can anticipate the market well).
Another time to bet is late, especially if you're following the sharps. You will not be getting as much value as you would have earlier in the week, but you're also following the smart money.
Step 5: Avoid emotional, impulse, or chase bets
Bet with your head, not with your heart.
Try not to bet on the teams you grew up rooting for and watching on the regular. Bet on odds, not on teams — you should be backing science, not being a loyal fan. Loyalty won't make you any money in this business, unless you're loyal to a code.
Don't chase bets, either; it's one of the most common betting mistakes to avoid.
If you have a losing streak, take a break and evaluate what has caused this slide. Trying to bet more and more in order to dig yourself out of a hole — or making bigger and most impulsive wagers to make up for previous losses — is the first step toward betting bankruptcy.
The key to bankroll management is sticking to the plan at all times and, if it comes to it, walking away if it's not working out. Don't become addicted to the action without falling in love with the grind of researching. Trust the process, and be your own biggest and best ally.
Your life and livelihood could be at stake if you don't watch out for yourself. Countless millions of bettors have lost everything because they didn't start their betting journeys with plans and strategies. Follow these five steps religiously — and get to know every facet of each one — and you should have a fun and successful sports betting journey.