When you make a futures bet, your odds are 'locked in.' That means if you bet the Redskins at 12-1, you will get paid off at 12-1 odds, even if the sports book later adjusts the odds (to 6-1, for instance). Futures betting also is offered on the major events in horse racing, such as the Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup. Unfortunately, most online bookmakers take an adverse view of punters who are able to make a profit from their betting in the long term and will place restrictions on accounts, including exclusion from concessions (e.g. Withdrawal of Best Odds Guarantee, refusal to lay bets at early prices, etc) and/or placing exceptionally low limits on the.

Whether you’re gambling on football, baseball, UFC, or any other sport, every sports bettor should follow a set of basic rules to bet smart and win money. Even if you are new to sports betting, establishing a consistent system early could lead to success in the outset of your gambling career.

Gambling can be a rewarding and profitable challenge if you know how to approach the industry. But, If you find yourself losing more than you’re winning, consider following the tips below.

For those new to gambling, or even veterans who are reevaluating your approach to betting, here are seven tips to help you make smarter sports bets.

1 – Stick to One Sport

If you find yourself on a losing streak or feel exhausted while scouting and placing bets, you might be overextending yourself. High volume betting is an excellent method for experienced gamblers who have an established system that works for them. If you’re somewhat new to betting or consistently lose, I recommend finding one sport to bet on and stick to it.

Whichever sport you pick is up to you; it truly makes no difference as long as you devote the time and energy to understand better how to win money on the sport. In the sports gambling world, being a jack of all trades and master of none might sound more enjoyable in theory, but stretching your sports acumen too thin can lead to consistent losses and a depleted bankroll.

2 ‒ Use Flat Betting

When I first started gambling on sports years ago, I made every textbook mistake out there. My biggest mistake was habitually developing tunnel vision on one particular bet and unloading several units, convincing myself it was a winner. Rarely do those large bets go my way.

Gamblers are prone to find a line that is too tantalizing to pass on and delude themselves into thinking they can outsmart the book. When this happens, you can sustain significant losses and take yourself out of action more often than not. Instead of making a few large bets, you should be mindful of your bankroll and make several bets of equal value with a smaller amount on the line.

This practice, known as flat betting, is a practice that eliminates the potential of suffering significant losses and forces you to maintain a consistent approach to gambling. Even if some of these smaller bets don’t win, you can bounce back and turn to some of the other bets you place to recoup losses.

3 ‒ Make Small Bets to Start

On the same line of thinking, placing smaller wagers is a great way to familiarize yourself with a particular sport. The only way to learn how to beat the book and win money is to find a successful strategy. This strategy can only be developed if you are consistently betting.

Smaller bets aren’t as appealing as one big bet that could potentially double your bankroll. But if a large bet loses and you blow past your bankroll, you take yourself out of the game and stunt any progress until you can reload your roll.

The amount you decide on depends on personal preference, but in my experience, betting 1% to 2% of your bankroll per bet works for me. So, if your bankroll is $750, each bet should be somewhere between $7.50 to $15. Once again, the amount is up to you, but never bet an amount you’re not comfortable losing.

4 ‒ Take It Seriously

At the beginning of any sports gambler’s career, the question of purpose needs to be asked. You need to figure out whether this is a side hobby to blow off steam, or if you’re sports betting to make money. If you fall into the latter category, you need to think of yourself as a small business.

The most important factor of a small business is profit, and you won’t achieve profits if your books aren’t consistent. Make sure to utilize a bankroll: a daily, weekly, or monthly budget, so you don’t jeopardize your financial security. This point cannot be overvalued. Virtually every successful gambler sets a limit and doesn’t exceed that amount.

5 ‒ Don’t Bet Like a Sports Fan

When you’re deciding which sport or which team to bet on, remind yourself why you’re gambling in the first place. If you engage in sports betting to add some excitement and entertainment value to the games you watch, that’s perfectly fine. But if you’re betting to win money, you need to approach lines like a sports gambler, not a sports fan.

This concept manifests itself in many forms, most prevalently in the form of the hometown bias bettor. Betting on your favorite teams and favorite players might make sense to you. I mean, who knows your team better than you, right? When you bet like a sports fan, you open yourself up to potentially making emotionally charged decisions, rather than adequately vetted.

I rarely, if ever, bet for or against my favorite team. Not only do I recognize that I’m incapable of removing bias from the situation, betting on my team can ruin the experience of watching games. Don’t let yourself believe that your diehard fanhood will translate to gambling wins.

6 ‒ Shop for the Best Line

Unless you have the luxury of knowing a bookie, most sites and sportsbooks have built-in “vigs” or advantages in the lines they set. The house always wins, even if they lose, they’re taking a small percentage of your winnings as a standard fee. Because of this, sports gamblers are still at a disadvantage.

To try to lessen this advantage, you should make sure you’re getting the best value on your bets. Lines can vary between sportsbooks and websites, so you have the opportunity to find the best line and maximize profitability. Shopping for lines can be tedious, and you might think a small difference between lines makes no difference.

However, if a book is giving you an extra point on a particular bet, that could be the difference between a win and a loss. Several well-reviewed sports websites all around the internet offer the potential of added value. Before you place a wager, make sure you’re finding the best line and best odds.

7 ‒ Research and Bet Sober

There are few things better than taking in a football game on Sunday with a cold drink in your hand: sports and drinking are a classic combination. Once again, gambling on sports and watching sports are two separate activities, and they should be approached as such. The best sports handicappers will tell you that a bet made under the influence can be a dangerous thing.

All the research and analysis you engage in should be conducted with a clear mind to make sure your decisions aren’t impaired. Sports gambling, like any other form of gambling, is challenging enough as it is. There’s no need to make it more complicated.

If you’ve placed your final bets for the day and want to reward yourself with a drink, make sure you don’t go down the rabbit hole of drunkenly chasing potential losses. This is where inexperienced gamblers routinely find trouble. To win serious money, you need to think of gambling as a second job. You don’t drink at your day job, so consider setting that standard for your sports gambling career.

Conclusion

Sports gambling is a serious business, and as a part of the betting world, you should take yourself seriously. Even if you consider gambling a hobby, it’s always more fun to win than it is to lose. New gamblers need to make sure to start on the right foot and themselves to a high standard.

Profit may be hard to come by in the early stages, but if you follow these tips, you will put yourself in a position to succeed. Make sure to start with smaller wagers on one sport, remove emotional attachments to particular teams and players, manage your money, and treat gambling like a small business. Following these tips will give you a strong base to learn about the industry and figure out the best strategy for you.

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It’s a little misleading to say that mobile sports betting is the way of the future because statistics show that mobile betting is also the way of the present. Estimates are that mobile phone betting comprises of the majority of the total online betting market and it’s set to grow in the coming years.

How To Make Smart Sports Bets On Tv

Below we’ll share all the helpful information about the differences between mobile and desktop, how to make a solid mobile sports bet, and detail the biggest frustrations and hurdles we’ve encountered when betting on the go.

What Is Mobile Sports Betting?

Online betting sites recognize the trend towards smartphones and tablets and have responded accordingly. These days, all of the internet’s top sportsbooks have mobile online betting options. Some sites have developed apps to simplify sports betting while others focus their efforts on mobile versions of their websites.

No matter which site you choose, one thing is certain: whether you’re watching a game at the bar or on the go, you need to be able to place all the bets you want from your phone.

How Is Mobile Betting Different than Betting on a Desktop?

The term “mobile betting” simply refers to betting on a mobile device, be it a smartphone or tablet. Apart from that, it’s exactly the same as ordinary sports betting (at least when it comes to the types of bets and the odds you’ll encounter).

The differences between mobile online betting and desktop betting all relate to the wagering process and the visuals.

Since phones have smaller screens than desktops and laptops, sportsbooks can’t fit all the same icons and graphics into the same space.

How Do You Place Bets on a Mobile Device?

Each sportsbook layout will differ, but placing a bet on a mobile device is very similar to placing a bet on a desktop. Let’s review how to place your first mobile bet.

1. Log into your preferred account (either on the mobile site or mobile app).
2. Click on the sport you want to bet on.
3. Click on the game you want to bet on.
4. Navigate to the site’s “Bet Slip”.
5. Enter your stake.
6. Confirm your wager.

See? Easy peasy!

How To Make Smart Sports Bets

Biggest Frustrations and Hurdles with Mobile Betting

Mobile betting isn’t totally equivalent to betting on your desktop, and it does have a few select issues.

Constantly Having to Switch Pages

The biggest frustration with mobile betting relates to viewing lines/odds. Depending on which mobile sports betting or online betting app you’re using, you may have to navigate to different pages in order to see the spread, the moneyline, and total for the same game.

When looking at the odds for, say, an NFL game, you want to know the full slate of wagers that are available. Betting on the spread often depends on the total for that game. Most sharps are less eager to lay a lot of points in a game with a low total. Secondly, you often want to create parlays with the spread, moneyline, and/or total, and it’s much more efficient if you can do so from one page.

The frustration boils down to wanting all of the information at once and being able to do as much as possible on a single page. Mobile betting is not well-suited to meet those needs.

This limitation is just a reality of viewing sportsbooks on a small screen. Not all the information will fit onto one page. Generally, mobile sports betting sites have done their best to create a user-friendly interface, but there’s only so much that can be done.

Getting Signed Out

When you’re betting on your phone, you might be betting on a game that’s in progress. One of the keys to successful in-play betting is having up-to-the-second information on the status of the game. Getting this information can create login issues.

When it comes to live betting football, for instance, almost every sportsbook indicates which team has the ball (usually with a little dot next to that team’s name). In a sport with as few possessions as football, a team’s win percentage can change significantly based on the down and distance of the current drive.

If you were to navigate between multiple apps then go back to your mobile sportsbook, you’re usually logged out because you’ve been away for too long. You’ll have to sign back in to get to your game to enter your wager. It isn’t that difficult, but when it happens repeatedly, it is a huge pain. It can also lead to missing out on the best odds, especially when lines change very quickly.

Pro-tip for iPhone users: The password manager helps speed up the process without having to use the “Remember Me” feature on sign-in pages (which carry certain security risks). By clicking on the password field, your iPhone automatically asks if you want to enter the saved password for that site.

In Mobile Betting, the Pros Ultimately Outweigh the Cons

Lately, we’ve noticed an increase in mobile use vs. desktop. Mobile betting sites and mobile betting apps have become more than just serviceable substitutes reserved for a commute.

It’s often easier to relax on the couch, phone in hand while watching a game rather than getting up and using your computer. If you haven’t started mobile sports betting yet, you’re missing out on some prime lounging time. If you haven’t started betting yet, you can brush up on the fundamentals with our Sports Betting 101 guide.