Sports Betting Strategies Guide

By: Matthew Buchanan | Last Updated: March 31, 2025

A good betting strategy is paramount to having a pleasant sports betting experience and keeping you from mismanaging your money. Ideally, you want online sports betting to be a delicate balance between having fun and making money over time using a steady strategy that’s applied consistently.

The benefits of learning and applying betting strategies include the following, though they aren’t always guaranteed:

Betting using a solid strategy is one of the many ways to exercise responsible betting and take proactive steps to ensure a pleasant, enjoyable betting experience. To keep sports betting a delightful balance of having fun and making extra money over time, it’s best to stick to responsible practices like bankroll management, knowing how odds and finding value work, and researching your bets before adding them to your slip.

Explore Our Top Betting Strategies

Let’s look at the primary betting strategies you can work into your routine to increase your bankroll balance and to experience betting sessions where you’re making money but still enjoying your time. Good sports betting involves increasing your bankroll, but it’s also important to avoid falling into gambling problems or addictions by putting some disciplines in place to guard your mental and emotional health.

We’ll discuss ten great betting strategies in the section below so you can start honing your personal approach to online sports betting. Find the best techniques for your budget and personal style—great sports bettors have used each method at one point or another, so we encourage you to develop a strategy using various tricks.

And if you prefer to choose one strategy and stick with it, you’re more than welcome to do that, but we’d encourage you to work two or more of these techniques into your betting routine or sessions. To get good at sports betting, you must be open to new ideas and switch up your approach when appropriate.

1- Value Betting—Learn How to Find Value Bets for Consistent Profits

Value betting is when you find odds where the likelihood of an event happening is far better than the odds offered by the sports betting site. The only way to identify value is to have a grasp on what’s going on within any given sports market or game—it comes through research and having an idea of how each team or individual competitor is performing.

Suppose you’re an expert on the Seattle Seahawks season and know they’re gaining momentum. They’ve won the last few games, there are no player injuries, and their overall trajectory indicates they will win the next game. You know this, but the bookmakers put out odds that undervalue Seattle. This is where you can get a deal because the odds are less likely for them to win (according to the sportsbook).

2- Arbitrage Betting—Discover How to Guarantee Profits with Arbitrage Opportunities

Also known as “arbing,” arbitrage betting involves a bettor placing bets on both teams or competitors to win to ensure profit no matter the game’s outcome or competition. Arbing can be done with small-scale bets or betting on significant events, so this is a technique that newbie bettors can employ—it’s not just for professionals!

Arbitrage betting involves looking at the odds and calculating your potential payout before applying the bets to your slip. Sportsbooks are aware of bettors gaming the system to guarantee a profit, so some betting limits are placed on certain games or banned bettors they catch. Arbing is a gray area—there are no laws or rules in place saying that you cannot use this strategy. However, you want to be careful with how much you employ this technique because sportsbooks have systems in place to detect bets that aren’t placed in the spirit of legit gambling.

3- Matched Betting—Utilize Bookmaker Promotions to Secure Risk-Free Bets

Similar to arbitrage betting, matched betting involves placing two bets on two different outcomes to ensure they make a profit no matter how the game or competition shakes out. However, it’s different from arbing because bettors need to use the free bets offered to newcomers to fund the strategy.

Find a free bet offer at an online sportsbook and complete the necessary steps to qualify for the free funds. After placing your free bet with the sportsbook, head over to a betting exchange and place the opposite bet. You can profit no matter the outcome once the game or competition is finished. You could win with the sportsbook or the exchange, and you’ve leveraged free funds to make the victory possible.

Find Out More: Read our page on Matched Betting to dive deeper.

4- Handicap Betting—Master Handicap Betting to Level the Playing Field

Handicap betting is another way to refer to point spread betting, where bookmakers add points to the dog and take points away from the favorite to create even betting action on both sides. Bookmakers do this to ensure they profit no matter the game’s ultimate result.

Let’s say your sportsbook has a spread of 10.5 for a Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers game. The Bills are favored to win, so their spread is presented as -10.5. This means they must win the game by 11 points or more for the bet to be a win. The Steelers are the dog in this scenario (+10.5), and they either need to win outright over the Bills or lose by 10 points or less for that bet to win.

5- Bankroll Management—Essential Strategies for Managing Your Funds Wisely

Another great strategy to ensure a great sports betting experience is effectively managing your online bankroll. You can place great bets and win a lot of money (that can take you far!), but if you cannot manage your funds well, you’re working against your own progress. It’s paramount to have your money under control.

A few of the best ways to manage your money well include the following:

Learn More about Bankroll Management

6- Live Betting Strategies—Tips and Tricks for Successful In-Play Betting

Live betting can maximize your betting opportunities on a singles game or competition, but you must be careful not to get in over your head with too many bets or too much action. Luckily, there are some tools and tricks to maximizing your live betting session but making intelligent moves that benefit your bankroll by focusing on quality over quantity.

Follow these tricks to bet the most out of live betting while making intentional moves that build your bankroll and help you minimize potential losses:

7- Over/Under Betting—Strategies to Predict and Bet on Total Scores

Totals or over/under betting involves correctly predicting if the combined final score of a game will come in over or under the bookmakers’ predictions. While total bets are straightforward, they can be difficult to predict even when you basically have a 50/50 shot of getting it right.

To get good at betting totals successfully, we’d recommend having a good knowledge of each team. Take player injuries or suspensions into account. Look at coaching and the overall trajectory of the team. Are they building momentum, or are they running out of steam? Consider the weather, too, and look at historical data to see how each team performs in certain elements. It also helps to look at each game in terms of periods or quarters to get a more accurate look at how it might play out.

8- Parlay Betting—Maximize Your Winnings with Smart Parlay Bets

Parlay bets are a form of exotic betting with more than two possible outcomes, severely decreasing your chances of getting the prediction right. However, parlaying two or more into a single bet can result in big-time payouts if you have predicted all the legs correctly and the parlay comes through a win.

We’d only recommend parlay betting to gamblers who know the market well and have deep pockets to go out on a limb—parlay bets are the definition of “high risk, high reward.” Parlays are among the worst bets if you’re looking to slowly build your bankroll incrementally using innovative, logical steps. Too many things could go wrong in a parlay for it to be a viable option for keeping your bankroll growing.

9- Futures Betting—Long-Term Betting Strategies for Future Events

Futures bets are another form of exotic betting where you can see more than two possible outcomes. An example of futures betting would be placing a wager on the winner of the Super Bowl at the beginning of the year or even at the start of the NFL season. Because these bets can be difficult to predict, especially given more time, futures are bets we’d recommend newcomers stay away from. Sure, they can offer some hefty payouts, but they aren’t good bets for ensuring steady returns for your bankroll.

10- Prop Betting—Unique Strategies for Proposition Bets

Yet another sector of the exotic bets category, prop bets are wagers placed on occurrences or non-occurrences that could happen during a game or event. Many prop bets focus on individual player performance, a few examples being which player will score the first two-pointer or which player. Other prop bets can be centered on random factors like the length of the national anthem at the beginning of the event or who will win the coin toss.

The best way to succeed with props bets is to research the players and teams to see how they would perform in certain circumstances. Look at historical performance throughout the season to help you make a call on sure bets. If one particular NBA player always wins the opening tip-off, they can make it happen again.

The bad side of prop betting is that there are more than two outcomes, so prop bets can be difficult to call. We recommend prop betting to professional bettors or gamblers with intimate knowledge of the market, players, or teams. These bets might not be as volatile as parlays or futures, but they still aren’t the best for ensuring steady gains over time, as you’d see with money lines, spreads, or totals.

Additional Resources

Learning about common betting strategies can be helpful if you’re becoming familiar with sports betting, but we’d recommend checking out some additional resources to expand your knowledge. We’ve added a glossary of standard sports betting terms that are good to know, betting calculators and other tools to help you improve your overall approach to preparing your bet slip, and books or websites where you can learn additional tips and tricks to up your game!

Enhance your betting knowledge today with these helpful resources!

Glossary of Betting Terms

The world of sports betting has a language all its own. Suppose you’re unfamiliar with the terms we’ve been throwing around while discussing betting strategies. In that case, we’ve added the glossary of betting terms so you can understand what we’re talking about. Learn the terminology and jargon of sports betting in no time!

View Full Glossary

Betting Tools and Calculators

Another great strategy in online sports betting is to calculate your potential winnings to see if your bets are worth your time! Plenty of betting calculators are out there, and tools like odds converters can help you streamline your online betting experience. Take advantage of these tools before placing bets on your slip!

Further Reading

Check out the following reading materials for further learning on how to hone your sports betting strategy:

Betting Strategies FAQ

If you want to gain the main highlights of the betting strategy we’ve discussed in this review, check out the most common questions we’ve received from our customers and readers on the subject.

What Are the Best Betting Strategies?

There are many good strategies for sports betting, but the best approach for each bettor will vary based on their experience with betting, their knowledge of the market, teams, or players, and how much money they have to dedicate to sports betting. Generally, newer bettors will want to stick with handicap betting, over/under betting, and value betting. Seasoned bettors with a lot of money can navigate exotic bets more competently, but these bets are still too volatile to contribute to steady growth and returns.

Can I Use More Than One Strategy?

We’d encourage our readers to become as familiar as possible with the various sports betting strategies and consider changing their approach occasionally. Once new bettors become more experienced with over/under and handicap betting, it’s time to work some value betting and live bets into the mix to see if these could be viable options for winning sports bets and adding to your bankroll.

What Is Bankroll Management?

These are good practices that any bettor should get into to manage their gambling funds effectively. A few examples of responsible bankroll management include setting up a proper gambling budget (money you can afford to lose), setting up time frames for your gambling session to minimize losses, and developing a betting unit that remains the same between different kinds of bets.

How Does Live Betting Work?

Bookmakers will put out new odds during a game or competition, which allows bettors to place multiple wagers during an event. This can be anything from new odds on point spreads or over/under totals to new prop bets that try to anticipate changes in the game. Many sportsbooks let bettors live stream events to keep up on the action while browsing the live betting odds. The nature of live betting is fast-paced, so you must choose your odds and add them to your slip in a way where you’re spotting value and locking the odds before they close.

What Are Some Ways to Minimize Losses?

Placing bets based on value and quality can decrease the number of losses you experience. Take the time to find the best value possible, focusing on the quality of bets you’re placing and not concentrating on the volume of bets. Keep your betting unit the same as all bets, no matter what value you find. Your betting unit should be 1-2% of your total bankroll.

Which Sports Should I Bet On?

You’ll find the most successful betting on the markets you’re most familiar with—the more you know, the more informed your final bets will be! We’d discourage you from betting on markets with little knowledge of the teams or competitors. All sports bets should be rooted in data like historical performance if you want to get good at winning your wagers. Bettors should avoid betting on niche markets because bookmakers use less data and information to form these bets, making them harder to predict.

How Do Parlays Work?

In a parlay bet, sometimes called an “accumulator,” the gambler combines two or more selections into a single bet. They can only win the bet if every “leg” of the bets is correctly predicted. If one leg doesn’t pan out as the bettor intended, the entire parlay bet is considered a loss. Parlays pay much more money than the average money line, total, or point spread, but they are difficult to predict. They aren’t the best for new bettors.

Are Arbitrage and Matched Bets Legal?

There aren’t any laws revealing these practices to be illegal gambling activities, but many online sportsbooks will either institute betting limits to cut down on people using these techniques or ban bettors where they see a pattern of arbitrage or matched betting going on. In both cases, the bettor is rigging the system to guarantee a profit no matter the outcome—it’s a gray area for sure, but it’s not illegal. Sportsbooks don’t care about these practices because they lose money from both.

Is Handicapping the Same as Point Spread Betting?

Handicapping and point spreads are the same thing—the favorite to win is subtracted points, and the dog has points added to get bettors to place wagers on both sides of the bet. It’s a way for the sportsbook to guard themselves against losing money. It gives bettors the chance to win money by betting on the underdog.

How Do I Find Value in My Bets?

To find value, you have to have some knowledge of the teams and competitors you’re betting on. Suppose you know how they perform given certain weather conditions or know of player injuries or building momentum. In that case, you can quickly find places where the bookmakers might be overvaluing or undervaluing.

Ready to Start Winning?

Now that you have some knowledge and tools to fuel your next betting strategy, you can start placing bets on your slip! Remember that you can enjoy the following perks once you have a solid plan in place:

We’d encourage you to explore each strategy for further details on tips and tricks you can use when betting online. Always remember to gamble responsibly—stick to your budget and time limits, don’t chase losses, and find a good balance between having fun and making slow, steady progress as you increase your bankroll.