There is only one way to be successful over the long term in sports betting and that is to find and place value bets. Value bets are those where the quoted odds underestimate the real chances of that bet being won.
For instance, if the bookmaker or casino is offering 5/1 on a team winning and the real chances of it happening are 4/1, then that is a value bet.
Naturally finding value bets is considerably easier to say than it is to do. In your search for value bets it is important to eliminate those that are of little value. For instance, it is highly likely that Manchester United will win its next game, so you might feel justified in betting on them doing so, but the odds that bookmakers and casinos are likely to offer are so short that you would need to bet a lot of money to win just a little.
However, if you had adopted the strategy of betting on United to win all through the season, you would have ended up in profit such has been the club’s winning streak of 24 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.
Bookmakers set their initial odds according the relative positions of the teams in the various league tables and standings, and they adjust their odds according to the amount of money that is bet on that result.
This means that there is always a possibility that the posted odds are unrepresentative of the real probabilities, giving you the opportunity to identify value bets.
To do so you need to take account of many factors such as the current form of the various teams, any important events such as injuries to key players, and morale issues, the past head to head results of the teams, crowd effects, the importance of the event and whether key players are being saved for more important matches.
The difference between sports betting and playing online casino games is that in the latter the outcomes of games such as roulette and craps are down to chance, and in slots in luckynugget even more so. Arguably poker is the exception as that is a game of skill, but with sports betting the aim is to reduce the importance of chance and to use your investment skills to identify winners.
