by Philo Gabriel

Created on: October 23, 2009   Last Updated: March 18, 2010

Having supported myself solely through sportsbetting (mostly on NFL football) for about a decade, and during that time interacting with a lot of folks on both sides of the counter who helped me learn what it takes to win, I can make several suggestions to the person serious about making money betting on sports:

1. Bet with your head, not your heart.

There are reasons - cold, hard, dry, dull, mathematical, boring, logical reasons - for or against any bet you could make.  A good way to lose is to let your emotions sway you from such reasons.

Don't bet on a team because you grew up rooting for them. Don't bet a game because it's televised. Don't bet more on Monday Night Football because you want to catch back what you lost over the weekend (or because you want to go for the big kill after a winning weekend). Don't hedge a bet because you have a psychological preference for safety. Don't bet a game because you haven't found anything to bet all day and it's getting late and you really wanted to gamble today. Don't bet a "teaser" because it's a "fun" way to bet. Etc., etc.

If that kills it for you because it sounds too much like a job, then accept that you're a "recreational" bettor, and not destined to make money at this.

2. Learn math.

Simple addition, multiplication, division, fractions, percentages, etc. will handle a lot of what you need to do. But the more knowledge you have of probability and statistics and more advanced areas like that, the more you'll find it opening up new opportunities for you and enabling you to better exploit existing opportunities.

3. Realize that it takes money to make money.

A lot of the factors I'll talk about below are easier to do the more money you have. People with $100,000 to invest in sportsbetting can pursue a lot more strategies a lot more effectively than people with $1,000 to invest.

4. Have as many sportsbetting accounts as you can handle.

If you're playing with the neighborhood bookie, making all your bets with just one person or shop, that eliminates or lessens almost all the ways you can make money sportsbetting. So I'm assuming you'll play at legal offshore sportsbooks. If so, don't pick one or two and put all your action in there. Pick ten or twenty or thirty. (You're playing by phone or Internet, so it's not unrealistic to manage that many. It's not like we're talking about running around on foot to dozens of Vegas sportsbooks in person.)

5. Be careful to use only the safest sportsbooks.

Don't open an account

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