How Professional Gamblers Bet

Jimmy Boyd knows how professional gamblers bet and it's probably not how you think. Take a look at this version of money management to see if it would work for you. It's not for everyone as you need to be disciplined and be able to know how to follow the game plan, but if you stick to it then we think we can make you understand how it works. In order to get in the right state of mind ask yourself whether it's better to win 60% of your games betting a select amount of games or betting a lot of games and hitting 54%?

Most of you probably answered 60% and some professionals and sports handicappers would also agree, but for us that would be incorrect. Sure if you want to minimize your risk then this is the way to go, but if you want to maximize your returns then you are going to have to bet on more games. Let me present the following example to show you why professionals depend on betting a large amount of games in order to feed their children and put a roof over their heads.

Handicapper A bets 100 games at $100 per wager. If he can hit at 60% this would give him 60 wins and 40 losses. The 60 wins give him $6000 in gross winnings while the 40 losses, plus the juice, would give him $4400 in losses. The net profit of $1600 isn't too shabby, plus if he shops lines and uses reduced juice he can maximize that amount even more, but let's keep it simple for this example.

Handicapper B comes along and bets 1000 games with $100 per wager. He's only going to hit 54% of his games though so he has 540 wins to go along with 460 losses. If you take the 540 times the $100 then you get $54,000 in gross winnings. Now the 460 losses plus the juice of $110 and you get $50,600 in gross losses, but if you couple those together you still have a net profit of $3,400, which is more than double our selective 60% hitting handicapper achieved above.

Now the key is to have a game plan and not over extend yourself. Handicap the games, pick your winners and leave it alone until you are ready to get to work handicapping the next day's set of games. If you start pressing and making bets just to make them then you are not going to hit at 54% and you are going to end up losing money.

Likewise money management is also important. You'll need a big stack in order to wager on a lot of different games, and you don't want one bad day to wipe you out. This is why the pros carry big bankrolls and wager small percentages of their overall stack. Don't go all in or else you might end up going bust. If you are serious about your sports betting, then we hope you take a serious look at this article and see if adding more value bets to your roster wouldn't be a bad idea.

How to Bet the NCAA Tournament

Updated January 2nd, 2008