When sports betting, there is often a lot at stake and you want to do all you can to ensure you win the bet. Unfortunately, the odds of winning are usually against you. It’s difficult to predict what will happen in a game since there are so many different factors contributing to the outcome. In addition, the sports bookmaker or bookie usually has an advantage over the bettors. But, there are ways to even the odds or maybe even gain an advantage.
Before you can win at sports betting, you need to understand the term Expected Value, or EV for short. Every bet that you make will have a negative EV, a positive EV or occasionally, you may run across a neutral EV. When the EV is negative, your odds of winning are very low but the chances of you walking away with a win are very high when the EV is positive.
A neutral EV occurs when you are most likely to break even if you bet enough times. Making a neutral EV bet is not beneficial because you are basically swapping money around and even though you don’t normally lose a lot, you won’t win a lot either. Making negative EV bets will surely cost you in the end.
The Key to Winning at Sports Betting
Now that you have a better understanding of the Expected Value pertaining to betting and how it works, it’s important to know that the key to winning at sports betting is simply only make positive EV bets. However, that is easier said than done.
Learning which EV bets are positive and which ones are negative can be time consuming and a very tedious. It’s not something that the average person wants to do. It’s much easier to simply place your bet and hope you win but leaving everything to chance will not make you a winner. At best, you’ll eventually break even with time.
How to Distinguish Positive EV Bets from Negative EV Bets
So how do you distinguish positive EV bets from negative ones? It begins with a lot of research and studying. It can be a long and complicated process especially if you’re new to sports betting. Your first thought may be that this takes all the fun out of it but what you have to understand is that is what will help put the cash in your pocket. You have to be willing to work at it if you want to be a winner.
Read some books on the subject and learn how to weigh out the odds. If you don’t already understand the terminology used in sports betting such as “half point value” and what it means to “line shop”, then you must learn these. This is not the time for guessing. You’ll need to know and understand these terms when betting on sports or you won’t understand what’s going on. Most of all, while you’re learning how to find positive EV bets, resist the urge to lay your money down when the odds are against you.
It’s also important to take advantage of bonuses that can increase your winnings and learning how to understand and pick the best odds when line shopping is critical. You’ll need this information to determine the odds of a team winning or losing, which is what determines if the Expected Value of the bet is a negative or a positive.
