Creating a Personal Betting Strategy: How to Be Successful
Developing a personalized betting strategy is something that all online sports bettors must consider at some point. Suppose you want to become successful in sports betting. In that case, you need to lay out some ground rules to follow but also have the flexibility to adjust your strategy for significant changes like line movement, better odds, or sports news like player injuries or weather conditions.
A tailored approach can lead to better decision-making and more controlled betting, which is excellent news because the best practices we discuss in this guide can help you minimize potential losses. If you’re still hashing out what kind of betting strategy you want to employ, keep reading, and we’ll highlight several betting styles, bankroll management practices, and ways to keep records of your bets that you’ll love!
Assess Your Sports Knowledge
You generally have the most success in sports betting when you wager on the sports markets you know best. Knowing specific teams or players can give you an edge when you add odds to your bet slip—you can better spot value in specific bets because you have an intimate knowledge of what’s happening behind the scenes.
Know Your Stuff
We’ll give you an example to make this easier to understand. Suppose you’re into betting on horse races. If you live and breathe the sport, you should know all about each horse’s racing history and record. You know all about the jockeys. You see each track and how they are set up.
Say you’re placing a bet on a particular horse, and you know they perform well on dirt tracks, but the favorite to win doesn’t have the best history of racing on dirt. This would be an opportunity to bet against the favorite, and you’d have a good shot at winning a bigger payout by wagering on the underdog. We’re referring to this when we say that knowing the market allows you to find better value in your bets. The more of these wagers you can place and pull off, the more likely you’ll be on the winning side of the curve and building up your bankroll.
The Advantage of Research
With all that said, it’s best to bet on the sports you know the most about because you can leverage your personal expertise to pinpoint valuable odds and take advantage of golden betting opportunities. At the end of the day, there’s still an element of risk because anything could happen, but knowledge and research give you a leg up on the general betting public. Deep research is a tactic that successful professional bettors have used to pad out their online bankrolls.
Define Your Betting Goals
Ground your betting experience by setting a few goals you hope to achieve over time using your favorite sportsbook. Think about why you’re betting on sports in the first place. Are you doing it for fun? Is it for making extra money? Or is there a thrill you get from outsmarting the oddsmakers when you fade the public, and it works out?
The Smartest Goal to Set
A big part of betting on sports successfully is good bankroll management, so one of your goals could be to make steady progress by adding to your bankroll slowly but surely over time. A few strategies for achieving this goal include the following:
- You are using a percentage or unit betting strategy and keeping that number the same across all bets. The proportion changes with the ups and downs of your bankroll balance.
- Placing bets where there’s value requires good knowledge of the market or league you’re betting on.
Goals for Playing for Fun
If your goal is to play for fun and avoid slipping into gambling problems, you best read up on responsible gambling practices and potential red flags that might indicate you’re sliding into a bad habit.
Avoid the following rookie betting mistakes:
- Chasing losses (placing bigger bets to recoup lost bets)
- Betting with emotions like frustration or anger
- Not sticking to a unit or percentage of your bankroll to place bets
- Betting while you are drunk or using drugs
- Betting without research
- Not taking breaks from betting sessions
- Not setting up money or time limits ahead of time
To get the most enjoyment out of your online betting experience, employ the following best practices:
- Set up a gambling budget and keep these funds separate from your regular money.
- Set up a time for your gambling session and, even then, take frequent breaks. Don’t let sports betting take away from the essential things in life, like family or friends.
- Never bet on sports while under the influence.
- Use a betting strategy. Stake a small portion of your bankroll on all bets and adjust the percentage or unit to stay proportionate.
Goals for Bettors Who Have Money
Typically, the more money you have to gamble with, the higher your level of risk tolerance. Suppose you’re a bettor with a lot of financial resources at your disposal and a lot of knowledge of the market. In that case, you are likely to succeed in professional gambling because you have more to work with, and you’re more insulated against the fallout of taking risks. If you want to bet on sports to make money, you can only pull it off well if you have a large bankroll on your hands.
Whether you’re going for long-term profitability, entertainment, or a mix of both, think about what you’re hoping to get out of your online sports betting experience. Setting a clear goal or two can keep you grounded as you navigate your sportsbook or choice and help you not get in over your head!
Budgeting and Bankroll Management
The key to managing your online sports betting bankroll is to set up a budget that doesn’t jeopardize financial stability. Bankroll management plays a critical role in a sustainable betting strategy. We’ll discuss the ways you can effectively manage your funds in a way where you can make steady gains but still have some fun betting on sports.
Responsible Bankroll Management Tips
- Establish a gambling budget. It’s a set amount of money that’s to be used strictly for your gambling session. It’s money that you can afford to lose. You’re not using cash needed for your rent, mortgage, or utilities.
- Keep your gambling money separated from your regular money. You can use deposit methods like the Play+ Card or e-wallets like Skrill or PayPal to keep your gambling budget in a separate online account.
- Mitigate losses by setting up time limits on your gambling session.
- If you feel angry, frustrated, or tempted to chase losses, take a break. Clear your head and get back to rational thinking.
- Stake a small percentage of your bankroll on each bet. Or establish a betting unit. Keep your stake the same across all bets, no matter how tempting it might seem to bet a lot on a golden opportunity. As your bankroll grows or shrinks, adjust your bet size accordingly.
- Think of sports betting as a long-term thing. Look to grow your bankroll incrementally with intelligent, logical steps. Avoid thinking about it in terms of big wins and monster payouts.
You can do all the right things we’ve talked about and still lose money. It’s not as if this is the magic formula to getting all your bets right and raking in cash without effort. You must have realistic expectations for sports betting; otherwise, you won’t make it!
Tools and Software for Bankroll Management
Check out the Bet Analytix app at Google Play or the App Store. This helpful mobile app can help you track your online sports bets and help you find new ways to improve your strategy and approach when it comes to managing money and making good sports bets rooted in research and value.
Google Play
- Rated 4.2/5 stars
- Rating based on 678 reviews
- 100k+ downloads
- Free to download
- Offers in-app purchases
- Over 400 tipsters are using this app
Apple Store
- Rated 5/5 stars (perfect score!)
- Rating based on 6 reviews
- Free to download
- Offers in-app purchases
- Over 400 tipsters are using this app
Once you’ve downloaded the app and logged your sports bets into your account, you can enjoy the following perks:
- Track your bets (single, combined, systems, back, lay)
- View more than 50 statistics
- Share your bankrolls
- Share your bets
- Follow tipsters
- Receive notifications
- Use tools dedicated to betting
- Manage risings
- Manage your tipsters and bookmakers
- Manage your betting categories, competitions, and betting types
- View current activity
Sports betting is a continual process of researching the games, teams, and competitors and finding value in the odds. However, following these steps will allow you to be on the winning side of the curve more often than not. Over time, you can expect to see some slow but steady progress as you add to your bankroll little by little.
Choose Your Betting Style
The betting style you choose will depend on how much money you can commit to each sports betting session and your overall betting goals using your favorite sportsbook. Once you’ve established what you want to accomplish in your sports betting experience, be it leisure, making money, or doing it as a hobby, it becomes easier to discover your approach and style for managing your bankroll and placing wagers.
Betting Styles
This isn’t even scratching the surface of all the tactics you could employ when betting on sports, but these basic approaches give you a good idea of various ways you can operate using an online sports betting app.
- Conservative Betting: If you’re new to sports betting or playing the long game of incremental growth over time, you’ll want to employ this strategy. Keep your unit size down to 1-2% of your initial bankroll and adjust it when your bankroll grows or contracts. This approach minimizes risk and helps you to gain smaller payouts that add up over time. You’re way less susceptible to crushing blows to your bankroll that come with aggressive betting.
- Aggressive Betting: This approach suits bettors with large bankrolls and a higher risk tolerance. You’re typically betting between 3-5% of your bankroll to be considered an aggressive bettor. We only recommend getting aggressive in your betting if you have the bankroll to accommodate significant risks.
- Single Bets: This is a one-bet-on-one potential outcome with one set of odds. Examples include money lines (betting on a winner), point spreads, and over/under totals. These are the best bets for playing the long game of small, incremental growth. Most of these bets have two possible outcomes, meaning that the likelihood of your prediction being correct is higher than that of betting on a parlay or prop bet.
- Accumulators: This is another term for parlay betting where you combine several bets into a single wager with multiple “legs.” These bets are only considered a win if the punter correctly predicts all legs. You must have a solid knowledge of the teams and competitors involved in the parlay to pull these wins off successfully. You cannot make these kinds of bets willy-nilly—they need to be found in sound research. Accumulators (accas) should be left to professional or seasoned bettors with a good eye for value and an intimate knowledge of the teams or players they’re betting on.
- Long-Term Betting: This betting approach is the strategy that most bettors will want to stick to because it keeps you grounded. You bet a consistent percentage of your bankroll on each wager, and combined with sound research, you should experience steady gains over time with small wins. It’s not flashy or exciting how it can be advertised or shown in the media, but it’s the smartest way to bet on sports—you can make money and enjoy yourself without worrying about losing your head.
- Short-Term Betting: It’s a betting style, but it’s also a significant mistake if you don’t have a sizable bankroll to back up the strategy. Those with the resources, research, or knowledge to make good bets can pull off this approach, where you can only spring on hot betting opportunities that lead to big payouts. But we’d warn you that most professional bettors use the long-term betting approach, so short-term isn’t a desirable option if your goal in sports betting is enjoyment and financial stability.
The Ideal Approach for Newbies
Obviously, you need to do what’s best for yourself, but we highly recommend taking the following betting approach if you’re new to online sports betting or if you don’t consider yourself an expert:
- Use conservative percentages or units of your bankroll on all your bets.
- Stick with single bets with only two potential outcomes (they are much easier to predict correctly).
- Think long-term instead of chasing flashy, big-time payouts. Successful sports betting requires good research, patience, and being okay with seeing your bankroll grow over a long period of time.
Research and Use of Data
We’ve already addressed this concept throughout the betting guide, but good research on teams and individual players is paramount to placing solid sports bets. To make sound betting decisions, you should bet only on the markets or teams you know, and if you aren’t familiar with them, you need to start doing some research, so you’re not just taking a shot in the dark.
This is what’s known as placing ignorant bets. Some bettors fall into this trap by betting on their favorite teams to win just because it’s their favorite team. It’s a personal preference, and the bet isn’t placed on solid research. This can lead to many unnecessary losses and a strain on your bankroll.
Good Tips for Researching Your Bets
Follow some of these tips for placing well-informed bets that have a good shot of making you some decent money:
- Check out basic statistics (scores, team standing, field goal percentage, individual players’ performances, head-to-head matchups, etc.)
- Keep up to date on any news in the market, like player injuries, venue, roster changes, coaching changes, weather conditions, etc.
- Look at the entire season to pinpoint trends like a team gaining momentum or underperforming.
- Check out the odds to find places where the oddsmakers have misassigned value to a bet (this is where you can see edges in the numbers).
- Use more than one sportsbook to see what kind of odds are being offered—you can shop the lines to find the best possible value that works for your goals.
Implementing Betting Systems and Models
The best betting system is doing solid research before placing your bet and then sticking with a small percentage of your bankroll (between 1 and 2%), using this amount for every bet you place. It mitigates potential losses and slowly increases your bankroll over time, if done right, through small, incremental payouts. Not only should you place budgetary limits on yourself, but you should also put time limits on your sessions. Even in the midst of a sports betting session, we encourage you to take a few breaks to avoid the traps of chasing losses, emotional betting, or placing too many bets.
Ideally, this is the betting experience you’re shooting for to make money and still enjoy yourself as you wager on sports games or events.
Loss Recovery Strategies
However, there are a few advantage betting techniques and loss recovery programs that we’d be remiss if we omitted from this guide. These systems aren’t a good choice for the average bettor with a modest bankroll because they require a lot of risk. We recommend the Martingale or Fibonacci loss recovery systems if you have deep pockets and nerves of steel. You have to go out on a limb to pull off these fancy maneuvers.
Martingale
The concept of this system is pretty straightforward. For every loss you experience, you must double the bet. This will help you recover all your previous losses and win a profit equal to your original stake. Doubling the bet after a loss isn’t something anyone can pull off because many bettors are on a strict budget. We recommend the Martingale strategy only to bettors who have the financial backing to pull it off.
Fibonacci
A more advanced loss recovery technique, Fibonacci only works best on wagers with -110 or -105 odds and is a negative progression betting system. It guides how many betting units you risk on each sports bet. The sequence of the Fibonacci system looks like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc.
0 + 1 = 1
1 + 1 = 2
1 + 2 = 3
2 + 3 = 5
3 + 5 = 8
5 + 8 = 13
8 + 13 = 21
13 + 21 = 34
To determine your next wager, add the previous two numbers in the sequence. The two numbers in the sequence represent betting units. In the scenario that you lose your bet, you add two numbers to the sequence. Following a winning bet, you must subtract two numbers. Let’s see how this all plays out in a few examples so you can better understand how the Fibonacci technique works.
Fibonacci Example #1
You begin on sequence 0, 1 to start. You start with a betting unit of 1 because 0+1=1. If the minimum bet is $5, you would bet your single unit of $5, and your bet wins. If you keep winning, you make $5 in profit and stick with the 0, 1 sequence.
Fibonacci Example #2
You begin on sequence 0, 1 to start. You start with a betting unit of 1 because 0+1=1. If the minimum bet is $5, you would bet your single unit of $5, and your bet loses. You must take the sequence to 0, 1, 1. Your betting units are now 2 because 0+1+1=2. So now you’re betting $10 now instead of $5. If you lose again, you take the sequence to 0, 1, 1, 2, so you’re betting 4 units now.
Final Thoughts on Betting Systems
While we’re all about sticking to a steady betting strategy with a conservative approach—it’s the best way to ensure small wins over time and minimize potential losses. However, there’s a time and place for upping your bet amount when you spot value using techniques like Kelly Criterion or confidence level betting. You don’t want to be so rigid in your betting approach that you never take advantage of some golden opportunities here and there.
One of the best ways to find out if your approach to sports betting needs to be changed so you don’t get stale is by keeping track of all your bets. We’ll talk about this in greater detail in the following section.
Record Keeping and Analysis
To find out how to improve your current betting strategy, keeping detailed records of all bets placed, outcomes, and reasoning behind each bet is best. If you don’t analyze your approach now and again, you can become stale, placing low-energy bets that don’t have a lot of value and not really getting anywhere when building your bankroll.
What Should I Record?
Please log the following information on all bets you place with your online sportsbook. You can look back on your past bets to see where you need to increase or decrease how much you bet, how often you bet, or change the kind of bet you’re placing.
- Date of the bet
- The matchup
- The type of bet placed
- Odds
- Spreads or totals
- The amount of your bet
- Your profit
- Final result
Analyzing these records can help refine strategies and improve future betting decisions. For example, if you find that you’re losing more money than you’re bringing, it might be time to adjust your betting units to match the size of your bankroll better. Looking over this information might even reveal that you’re not shopping for value but simply going for easy wins that don’t pay out much and aren’t worth the money you put into them.
The Time Commitment of Analyzing Your Betting History
Keeping records of your bets is easy, but pouring over the information to find out where you can hone your strategy can become time-consuming. But just as playing the long game in betting pays off over time, tracking your bets and using the info to improve your approach can pay dividends. Knowing your weaknesses in betting will let you know where you need to make some minor tweaks and adjustments to experience more success.
Adjusting and Improving Your Strategy
Another principle we’ve alluded to throughout this guide is the idea of sticking with a solid strategy but not being afraid to make small changes to improve over time. It’s healthy to regularly review and adjust your betting strategy based on performance and the changing sports landscapes. You’ll become stagnant in your sports betting approach if you fail to adapt to changes in the sports betting landscape, such as adjustments to the lines and odds at your favorite sports betting site or significant sports news.
Stay Current with Sports New
Keep up to date on any news in the market you’re betting on. If you don’t consider factors like this, you’re more likely to make an ill-informed bet that’s bound to fall apart. This can include factors such as:
- Player injuries
- Venue
- Roster changes
- Coaching changes
- Weather conditions
Weather and player injuries significantly can strongly impact the final result. We mentioned this example earlier, but if certain horses are known for performing well on muddy dirt tracks, you should bet that horse if the weathermen are calling for rain the day of the race.
Player injuries might not always significantly impact the outcome, but you’ll want to watch out for key players getting hurt. That’s where you could see a team that was initially favored to win quickly becoming a loser.
Watch for Bookmaker Adjustments
Some bettors fall into the trap of betting too early, as soon as the lines come out, and missing out on value later in the day or the week. In fact, many successful sports bettors wait close until the game or event to place their bets so they can find more favorable lines for the underdog. There’s also the phenomenon where sharp bettors place their wagers later, and the book adjusts the lines based on which way a group or sharps might be leaning.
Responsible Gambling
To find that perfect balance between making money and enjoying your sports betting experience, you must maintain discipline in your betting strategy. You must also know the warning signs that you could be backsliding into a gambling problem and how you can address these issues.
Recognize the Problem Gambling Signs
Problem gambling is also known as compulsive gambling, and it is the uncontrollable urge to keep betting/gambling despite the devastating toll it could take on your life. Know the problem gambling signs:
- You lie to those you love about how much of your time and money is dedicated to gambling or sports betting
- You get a thrill by increasing the amount of your bet
- You attempt to restrict your gambling activity, but you don’t have any success
- You’re constantly thinking about gambling (planning your subsequent sessions, getting gambling money, etc.)
- You feel irritable when you aren’t gambling
- You chase your losses to recoup your money
- You put your job, family, friends, and opportunities on the line because of your gambling habits
- You seek financial help from others to get out of gambling debt or to fund your next gambling session
- You gamble because you feel bored, lonely, angry, frustrated, sad, or depressed
Know When to Take a Break
When is it a good idea to step away from my gambling session and take a break? Or when is it time to walk away from gambling altogether for a time? No matter where the severity of your gambling problems might be, you’ll know when a break is needed when you start to experience the following things:
- Gambling is no longer fun.
- You feel that taking a break will let you get into a better headspace.
- You’re focused only on recovering your losses.
- Gambling has taken over your life (emotional or psychological turmoil).
- Gambling is causing distress in your life and the lives of your loved ones.
- Your finances and relationships are in shambles.
- You experience high highs and low lows in your sessions.
- You’re using gambling as a means of escape or coping with anger or frustration.
- All you can think about is gambling.
We could cover many more signs, but it’s best to terminate your session if you begin experiencing or feeling these things. If you need to take an extended break, you can add yourself to your sportsbook’s self-exclusion list for a year or more. To deal with your gambling problems, you can join a support group like Gamblers Anonymous, Gam-Anon, or Gam-Talk.
A few other help resources for problem gambling include the following:
- The National Council on Problem Gambling: www.ncpgambling.org
- National Problem Gambling Helpline Network: 800-522-4700
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: 1-800-662-4357
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline.
Conclusion
If you’re seeking a personalized betting strategy that helps you stay controlled in your betting endeavors but still helps you gain profit over time, remember to keep these fundamental principles in mind to develop a disciplined, informed approach:
- Stake a small percentage of your bankroll on each bet. Or establish a betting unit. Keep your stake the same across all bets, no matter how tempting it might seem to bet a lot on a golden opportunity. As your bankroll grows or shrinks, adjust your bet size accordingly.
- Think of sports betting as a long-term thing. Look to grow your bankroll incrementally with intelligent, logical steps. Avoid thinking about it in terms of big wins and monster payouts.
- Establish a gambling budget. It’s a set amount of money that’s to be used strictly for your gambling session. It’s money that you can afford to lose. You’re not using cash needed for your rent, mortgage, or utilities.
- Keep your gambling money separated from your regular money. You can use deposit methods like the Play+ Card or e-wallets like Skrill or PayPal to keep your gambling budget in a separate online account.
- Mitigate losses by setting up time limits on your gambling session.
- If you feel angry, frustrated, or tempted to chase losses, take a break. Clear your head and get back to rational thinking.
- Check out basic statistics (scores, team standing, field goal percentage, individual players’ performances, head-to-head matchups, etc.).
- Keep up to date on any news in the market, like player injuries, venue, roster changes, coaching changes, weather conditions, etc.
- Look at the entire season to pinpoint trends like a team gaining momentum or underperforming.
- Check out the odds to find places where the oddsmakers have misassigned value to a bet (this is where you can see edges in the numbers).
- Use more than one sportsbook to see what kind of odds are being offered—you can shop the lines to find the best possible value that works for your goals.
- Track all your bets to find areas of weakness where you can improve your current strategy.
If you learn nothing else from this guide, we hope you can take away two or three of these best practices and apply them today to your online sports betting approach. Knowledge is power—the more you know, the better the bets you can place. As you learn more about how sports betting works and the ins and outs of specific markets, you’ll get better at spotting value, taking minimal risks when they’re justified, and coming out on the winning side of things more often than not!
