Sports betting markets are potentially a very lucrative long term financial investment. The rewards are there for those who are comfortable with calculated risk.

You must be aware of the fact this is a long term game. It's really important to keep in mind that anything can happen in the short term. Don't be swayed by short term swings.

Personally I have been studying betting markets for about five years. Whilst I don't know everything, I do know enough to feel confident in my approach.

There is no quantifiable optimum sports betting strategy. It simply doesn't exist. However, if it did exist, it is my firm belief that my strategy would contain many of its elements.

My winning edge is the result of thousands of hours of hard sports statistical analysis, combined with experience and extensive knowledge of the three sports I wager on, MLB, soccer and UK horse racing. I'm not suggesting these are necessarily the best sports to make money on, just that these are the sports I have very well researched.

Using statistics, I can spot trends which are highly statistically significant. There is a useful test, known as "chi square", which can be used to measure the statistical significance of a set of results. Of course the past doesn't necessarily equal the future, so each event has to be judged independently. The statistics give me an important starting point.

Getting the best odds is very important. I use both exchanges and bookmakers. Usually the betting exchanges show the best odds. This is because the bookmakers take a large profit margin.

There is a lot of competition amongst bookmakers and the exchanges and we should all be taking advantage of this. The exchanges just take a 5% commission from your winnings.

The prices on the exchanges are very accurate - the implied probabilities are close to the actual probabilities. Numerous academic studies have shown this to be the case. Therefore, never underestimate the task of beating the market.

Sports betting is not glamorous. It can literally take thousands of bets for your winning edge to be realised. In fact, there is no absolute guarantee of making money even over the long term. This is the case with any investment, you are taking a risk. I expect in my own betting, to have one losing year in every four. You must have patience and be ruthlessly disciplined.

For anyone wanting to start out on this journey, it's important to learn as much as you can. Don't be too eager to start before you have sufficient knowledge and skill. You could be punished for it. Don't risk money before you are really familiar with important concepts such as probabilities, baye's theorem, classical statistics, money management, kelly staking, etc. You can never learn too much, you must then decide if it is worth it, good luck!

Learn more about this author, Carl Marshall.
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