Betting for beginners

You would think that betting on boxing would be simple—that it couldn’t get any simpler.  Two men walk into a ring and start throwing punches.  Eventually, one of them will beat the other.  How could betting on that be complicated?  All too often, though, the decisions made in boxing matches come from the judges.  Not all fights are won through knockouts.  Many are decided based on points.  Still others are decided by factors that sadly have nothing to do with the skill of the fighters.  I will talk more about that in just a moment.

Some of the most exciting moments in sports come when teams are making their way toward the playoffs.  During these times, there are key games where a certain team must win in order to advance.  Games like these are fun to watch, and can keep you on the edge of your seat.  They can be even more exciting if you wager on them.  But can they be profitable?  There are certain considerations you should always be aware of when going into these betting situations.

Maybe you have only ever placed wagers online, or perhaps you have only ever dealt with local bookies in the past.  Either way, if you are thinking about trying something new, you may wonder about the differences between betting online and betting offline.  What are the unique considerations?  What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each? 

If you have decided to take betting seriously and learn it as a real trade, congratulations on making a challenging commitment.  It is not easy to learn how to bet as well as the sharps, but if you are determined, someday you can become a professional sports gambler.  One of your first steps is to gather resources and learn as much as you can about the sports you will bet on as well as betting techniques, odds, statistics, and mathematics.  Where can you find free and paid resources to get started?

Paid

We often think in terms of productivity quotas, especially when it comes to making money.  Sports betting is not a gig that pays hourly; it pays based on how many bets you actually win.  You may even have already sat down and crunched numbers and determined that you would need to place X bets a year at your current win percentage to make X amount of money.

Recently, I wrote about the reasons you should consider watching the sports you bet on.  A lot of punters skip watching games, or do not watch them regularly.  Often this is because of time constraints or laziness.  There are a few good reasons to consider skipping the games, but there are also a lot of great advantages to watching.  When you watch games, you:

You do not have to watch the sports you bet on.  In fact, the very first thing I want to say about this is that some punters actually do better if they avoid watching the games they bet on.  There are some drawbacks to watching games, and certain personality types can be tempted to go on tilt.  Watching games has a number of benefits, however, and can really help you to develop your skills and betting strategies.  Note that you may decide to watch the games you are betting on, but you may decide to forego that and still watch ga

One of the best strategies you can use to analyse an upcoming football match and make accurate predictions is team form assessment.  In my previous two instalments (Assessing Football Team Form Part 1 and Part 2), I discussed a variety of factors which can all have an impact on team form.  These include the players, the managers, the play style of the team, travel, game history, and whether the upcoming match will be a home or away game f

In this series, we delve in-depth into analysing team form.  Being able to assess team form helps you to make a number of predictions heading into a football match.  It can help you to determine which team will win, what the end score might be, and which players are likely to score first.  In my first installment (Assessing Football Team Form, Part 1), I talked about three important factors to consider when you are analysing team form: players, managers, and play style.  Now I will talk about a fe

One helpful betting strategy which an assist you in placing smart bets is learning how to assess team form.  Assessing form from one sport to another is a similar process, though each sport has a few unique considerations.  Let’s talk for a moment about assessing form for a football team.  Some teams are in better form while they are home than when they are away.  Being able to assess a team’s form can help you figure out which side to bet on, and sometimes can result in some great deals.