Boyd’s Betting Tips: Money Management and Diversification
You may here handicappers talk about money management from time to time, but maybe you don’t have a clear concept of it, or perhaps, you are yet to find a system to follow. As a long time handicapper, I’ll be the first to tell you that having a money management system is a good strategy.
As is the case with any type of investment, it is important to do your homework and then also to diversify. First off, leave no stone unturned when you analyze each game on the board. Making a wager without doing so is also known as a guess and guesses will not turn you a profit over the long haul. Analyzing line movement, breaking down individual player matchups, looking at historical trends, and coaching angles are just a few of the places to start when handicapping a game. Many football and basketball betting enthusiasts don’t have enough time to break down all the matchups on a given day as thoroughly as needed and that’s where finding a trusted handicapper can come in handy. Finding someone you can trust to deliver winning football picks or baseball of basketball bets could be the first thing to help you on your way. But let’s say you have the time to do adequate research to handicap games every day. If that is the case, the next thing you must consider putting into action is a money management system. Without one, all the knowledge in the world can’t help you.
Many will use the coin flip analogy. If you flip a coin 1000 times, it will come up heads and tails pretty close to 500 times each. During this little experiment though, there will be stretches where the coin will come up tails five or more times in a row. If you can imagine that those tails flips are losses, you will see the trouble that some sports bettors get into. After a loss, many bettors will double their wager to try to get back what they loss the day before plus turn a profit. If they continue to lose while doing this, you can only imagine the world of hurt you could find yourself in. Here are a couple money management techniques to try if you currently don’t have any in action. Some players will bet a standard amount per game no matter what. Other players will rate their plays and bet a standard amount according to their rating. That’s what I tell players to do who bet my picks. Play the same amount for every 3*, 4* , and 5* selection every time no matter what. Another good idea is to set boundaries. In other words, never make a wager larger than a certain percentage of your bankroll. For most, 10 percent is the cut off.
In sports betting 50 percent won’t have you breaking even because of the juice that is charged by sportsbooks. You’ll need to hit 52.4 percent of your wagers to break even. To put that in further perspective, that’s 11 winners for every 10 losers to cover the standard -110 juice price. If you’re having trouble reaching a break-even percentage, you may want to consider giving my sports betting techniques a try to learn more about the art of handicapping while making money in the process.
Now, when I speak about diversification, I’m speaking about betting volume. Playing more games allows you to hit a lower percentage of your wagers and still make more money. Here’s an example. One bettor goes 10-7 for the week. That’s a profitable 58.8 percent winning rate. If he bet $100 per game, he would have profited $230 when betting with standard -110 juice. Another bettor plays double the games in a week and goes 19-15 (55.8 percent). If he or she wagered $100 a game also, they would have profited $250 while hitting 3 percent less. Hitting the same percentage as our player who bet fewer games, or going 20-14, would double your money. A $100 player posting these numbers in a week would profit a solid $460. Diversification is only a good idea if you are able to do enough research to bet a larger set of games.
