Betting 101 - Newbies READ!
 

So many questions these days.. here are some answers:

Where to Bet:
Buy your bets where the odds is the highest, not where the bookmakers shows you naked chicks on their site. Don't accept a 10% juice, but look for bookies with -105/-105 odds instead. There are loads of dodgy bookies out there so visit http://www.sportsbookreview.com and check what they recommend for your style. There can be a large difference from betting $20 a game to $5000 a game (promos, lines, risk, limits)

Favourites and Dogs:
favourites and dogs are just in your and others heads.. the spreads aren't supposed to give a correct picture of the teams strength, but are made for making sure the bookies gets a fair amount on both sides.. they profit from the juice.. juice is the amount left when paying both sides of a bet.. normally 3-10% depending on the bookie..

Us Against The Bookies?
Nope, don't think of it that way. You are not betting against the bookmaker, but against other players. The bookmaker tries to balance his books and might even buy and sell bets himself to even out the risk. Bookmakers earn the juice. They don't like risk and will always try to have about equal amounts on each side (by moving the spread or odds), so they'll have a surewin.

How Much To Bet:
Make yourself a bankroll and make up some rules for your betting. If you don't, kiss that cash goodbuy. There will be streaks that can seriously hurt you. One safe way to do it is to bet 1-2% per bet and adjust that % only when the bankroll is up or down 25%. Don't wast your cash going all in on games. Chasing losses by loading up after losing days are the #1 of bankrupsy, stay away from that.

Negative Spread:
When you buy a negative spread, your team has to win by more than that spread.. aka -3 spread and your team has to win by 4 or more.. if they win by 3, thats a push and you'll get your money back..

Positive Spread:
When you buy a positiv spread, your team has to lose by less than the spread.. aka +3 spread and your team can win, or lose by 2..

Buying Points:
buying points is simply a way to up or down the spread.. problem is, the odds changes aswell.. so if you buy points, you will get lower odds.. for instance, if the spread is -3, you can get -2 if you accept lower odds in return.. you can also sell points and get higher odds. In the long run, buying points is worthless. You might have a 20% higher chance of winning with buying a point, but you'll also have 20% lower odds.

thanks for the informative post.

Watch boneprone jump in and correct you ... especially on the buying points part ;)

Thanks, good post.

nothing to worry about.. pretty common sence that if you get better spread, your odds will drop..

huge fan of buying points for select games

same here.

noob :winkwink:

no problems with buying points.. but won't make you richer in the long run

If only this thread was started yesterday. :)

I missed the boat on all those games last night cause I couldint figure it out. Later on last night sonofsam showed me the way and I learned the basics.

thanks for the tips:)

nice fine...good post :)

I just learned what a positive and a negative spread is...

:)

Can any of you keep a straight face, and tell us that you actually made money this year betting sports?

50 dollars!





































Okay...that was lame. :disgust

sure.. sportsbetting is pretty much like stocks.. if you do a solid job with your picks and have patience, you'll profit.. if you don't have enough hours or just want to profit, you can pay for the info.. just like with stocks..

Usefull post. Thanks. :)

thanks very much for the information

Recommend any good online bookies?

depends on your style of betting.. have a look at http://www.sportsbookreview.com/Edge...s/Default.aspx and you'll find a list of 6 books listed as A+. For instance, Pinnacle would be best for pro punters and VIP for regurlar punters.. I personally prefer Pinnacle due to high limits and -104/-104 (NFL) and -105/-105 lines (NBA, NHL, NCAAB, NCAAF) ..

Always wondered what this shit meant!

Hmm.

I have always been using www.2betdsi.com and thought of changing but seems that they have a A grade,

Id rather have a 20% better chance of winning something than just losing...

buying point can increase your chances of winning and the point of betting is to win.

would you rather have a 50% chance or a 70% chance? who cares if you win less if you wn instead of lose.

Gamblers always lose. Sometimes it's right away, and sometimes it takes years.

ERROR! the point is NOT to win, the point is to profit. Major difference... for instance, I won only 8/18 (44%) bets last night, but still made 1 units profit..

if you want 70% instead of 50% you pay for that with your odds.. odds and chance is critical to come up with a value and value is the only thing that will keep you profiting.. lets say that the odds is +150 for your team and you would like an extra point, you might endt up with +130... point is, your chance of winning will go up but the win will go down...

about 97-98% lose.. so thats almost true

Nice post, thanks :)