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Ever walk into a casino sports book and feel like you’re looking at the mission control of an alien spaceship? It can be an overwhelming experience as a first-time bettor, especially if you don’t know what the numbers on the digital boards mean. All you know is that you’re confident this team is going to beat that team and you’d like to lay down some money on it.

Well, that’s called betting the moneyline.

Like any hobby, sports betting is one of those activities with its own language, set of best practices, and house rules. Rookies have to learn what all of this entails, often from a friend who is already confident in their knowledge. Once you learn a handful of sports betting tips for beginners, you’ll feel confident placing a bet on a legal sports gambling app like the one from BetMGM or strolling up to a cashier to wager on a game or team you like.

Similar to our guide to NFL betting tips, we wanted to put together a little piece that explains some of the basic things you need to know about sports betting before putting your hard earned cash on a game.

How does a spread work?

In games like football and basketball you’ll see two teams listed. For example, on opening night of the NFL season this year, the Kansas City Chiefs are -9.5 vs the Houston Texans. What this means, is that if you want to bet the Chiefs, they need to beat the Texans by 10 points or more in order for you to win. If the Chiefs win by 7, then you didn’t “cover the spread” and that would be a loss. On the opposite side, you can bet the Texans +9.5, which means you would win if the Texans lose by 9 points or less, or win the game outright.

What’s a moneyline bet?

In baseball, you will see bets like this: New York Yankees -200 vs Toronto Blue Jays +175. What this means is that you are betting the moneyline, which is just betting a team to straight up win. However, the more likely a team is to win, the more expensive the bet is. In this example, you need to put up $200 to win $100 on the Yankees. But if you bet $100 on the Blue Jays in this bet, and they win, you will win $175. Betting favorites on the moneyline can be expensive!

What is the “juice”?

When you bet a game with a spread, you’ll notice that most of your bets will say -110 or -120. That means that you need to risk $110 in order to win $100. This is called the “juice” or the “vig”. This is essentially how the casinos make their money.

What’s a parlay bet?

A parlay is a bet where you group together a bunch of bets, but must win all of them in order to cash the ticket. These bets can be fun, and depending how many bets you put in, can offer a huge payoff with very little cash to risk. Below is a table that shows general odds on parlays if you are betting regular -110 spreads. This chart is based on risking $100. Remember though, while four teams may hit for you in your five team parlay, that one loss makes the entire bet a loser. So choose carefully!

Have multiple places to bet

The odds on bets are not necessarily the same from sportsbook to sportsbook. The Chiefs in the example above may be a 9.5 point favorite on one book, but only a 9 point favorite on the other. That’s a pretty important thing, as if you bet the Chiefs -9.5 and they win by 9, you lose your bet. But if you bet them at the other book at -9, then you would have pushed, and gotten your money back. Always look at multiple sites and get the best line possible!

Stay within your means

We are betting on these games to be entertained. If you go on a losing streak, it happens to everyone. Don’t get out of control and start doubling up, trying to get your losses back. Bet the games to have some extra fun, but don’t go over your head!

Where should I bet?

Find reputable books to bet on, ones that are approved by your state. The great thing about these books, is they are always looking to get new customers, and offer some great promotions – like this $600 risk free bet from BetMGM! Before signing up, make sure you do a quick google search on that specific site, there are usually some great deposit bonuses available that will get you some extra money to place on some bets

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Making money betting on sports can be tough, but there are a lot of sports bettors who consistently win, and there are even a lot of professional bettors who make a good living off of sports betting. On this page you will find sports betting strategy and tips to help you become one of the winning bettors.

Below I talk about the basic sports betting strategies for beginner bettors, but if you are more experienced you can check out the advanced sports betting strategy articles towards the bottom of this page.

The Basics To Sports Betting Strategy

In order to help yourself make money or a profit from sports betting there are a couple of basic strategies or tips you will want to understand and follow. None of these sports betting strategies are secrets by any means, but following them will help you win money betting on sports.

The bettors who don’t follow any of these strategies are often referred to as “squares” and those are the type of bettors that the sportsbooks will make their profits from.

#1 Money Management/Bankroll Management

When you are betting on sports you should always set aside a certain amount of money, which we refer to as your “bankroll”, in which you can afford to lose. Like with any type of gambling, you never want to bet betting on sports with money you cannot afford to lose. Set aside a certain amount of money that you can use for your bankroll for the week, the month, or the season. A general sports betting strategy for money management is to only make bets with 1%-5% of your bankroll. For example, if your bankroll for the NFL season was $1,000 you would be making $10-$50 bets on each NFL game you wanted to bet on. It is also very important that you do not chase your loses with bigger bets. It is common for some sports bettors to be down money and feel in order to win it back they need to increase the size of their bets. This is putting yourself in the wrong mindset and will often lead to you losing even more money. Work with the size of your bankroll, and look to slowly increase it over the length of the season.

Here’s a video going over Bankroll Management strategies for sports betting:

Sports Betting Knowledge Chart

#2 Bet Sober and Don’t Go on Tilt

Although betting while sober seems like common sense, you’d be surprised how many people bet on sports under the influence. Is it a coincidence that the Las Vegas casinos offer free alcoholic drinks while you are gambling? I don’t think so. I don’t want to sound like your mother here, but betting while under the influence will impair your judgement and should definitely be avoided if you want to become a winning sports bettor.

The second part of this tips is “Don’t Go on Tilt”. Going on tilt or “tilting” is a commonly referred to term with poker players and basically means letting your emotions take over, which often leads to bad decisions. If you are angry or upset at something, such as a couple bad beats with your sports bets, you shouldn’t be placing any more bets. Take a break, go for a walk, get your mind clear before you start making anymore sports betting picks.

#3 Do Your Homework

This is maybe the most important sports betting strategy. You will always want to do your research before placing your bets. Although going with your hunch when betting your favorite sport may work some of the time, in the long run it will not lead to you winning money betting on sports. In order to profit from sports betting you will need to research, study, and do your homework for each pick you make. Look at stats, find trends, create sports betting systems, analyze past games – basically do everything you could possibly do to ensure you have value in your pick before you place your wager.

#4 Line Shopping

A very big step to becoming a winning sports bettor is to make sure you are shopping for the best lines. What this means is that you will have to have an account at a couple of different online sportsbooks and when you are ready to make a bet on a certain team or outcome you check the different sportsbooks and find which book is offering the best line for you (this ties in with our advanced how to find max value article). For example, if you are looking to bet on the New England Patriots on a 7 point spread, you would want to check a couple different sportsbooks to see if any of them are offering the Patriots at 6.5 points, or at the very least find the best price you can get them at 7 points at. Over the course of a sport betting season you can win yourself a lot of money from shopping the lines that would otherwise would not be one. Line shopping is definitely one of the best sports betting strategies used by winning sports bettors. To see a list of sportsbooks we recommend signing up for visit our Online Betting Sites section.

Sports Betting Knowledge

I’ve created a line shopping video and posted it on YouTube (seen below):

#5 Avoid Buying Points

Avoid falling into “square” tendencies such as buying favorites down or underdogs up. For example, some bettors always feel the need to buy an NFL favorite of -3.5 down to -2.5. The sportsbooks are smart enough to charge more juice to do this, mathematically making it a bad strategy. The same goes with buying an NFL underdog from +2.5 to +3.5 for example. In 99% of cases I would advise against it. Check out the video I made below about buying points on NFL underdogs.

Sb Sports Betting

Sports Betting Knowledge

Other Sports Betting Strategies and Myths

Above are the four main basic strategies you will want to follow in order to become a winning sports bettor, but there are a couple of other tips you can use to help you win money.

For one, you can try following a sports handicapper who is using a proven sports betting system. Be careful of scammers out there though. If they don’t show their past records long term plus proof I would pass, and in most cases I wouldn’t be paying for picks at all.

An old sports betting strategy is to bet on home underdogs. The theory is that teams are usually more inspired to play at home, and they will often not fold if they are down like they may when on the road. Betting home dogs in the past could have made you money, but this isn’t true as much anymore. You can read the current betting market article to learn why.

How To Make Money With Sports Knowledge

The last tip I have for you is to try and place your bets at the right time. With lines shifting from the time they are posted to the time the game starts, you will want to get your bet in at the time when you are getting the best price. Predicting line movements is extremely hard but it is worth looking into. Check out the video below that I made titled “When To Place Your Bets”.

Advanced Sports Betting Strategy Articles

» How to Place a Bet
» How to Win at Sports Betting
» Sports Betting Math
» Teaser Betting Strategy
» Prop Betting Strategy
» How to Get Max Value When Betting
» Future Betting Strategy
» NFL Bye Week Betting Strategy
» Parlay Betting Strategy
» Pleaser Betting Strategy
» Sweetheart Teaser Betting Strategy
» Current Betting Market
» How to Research Your Bet
» Mistakes You Need to Avoid
» Things Beginners Need to Know
» Win/Loss vs Value