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Sports betting seems pretty straightforward – you pick a team or players, you wager on their performance and hopefully you win. Newbies to the sports betting world often want to vote for their own team. Let’s be honest, everyone thinks that their team is the better option. But betting is all about making calculated bets that go beyond the colors you wear in front of your television.
The real secret to scoring big with your bets lies less on your favorite team and more on your ability to understand their performance odds against the opponent. In order to determine which bets are likely to yield the best results, you need to do your research.
What is Research?
When people think of the term research they think it revolves around reading online content and blogger opinions about which team is the right one to bet on and by how much – this is false. Sports betting research is a labor intensive practice that will only benefit you in the long run. Think of your research efforts the way that a coach does – as a labor of love.
Coaches watch tapes of games past and present of themselves and their opponents to learn the strategies that each team is using. They watch players to discover weaknesses and strengths and match their plays accordingly. Coaches do not watch games for sport, they watch them to learn. That is the type of research you should also be doing if you want to be an educated sport bettor.
What to Look For
When you are watching games, there are several key things to look for:
- Does a player start to slow down after too much play time?
- Is one player always in the game – therefore the strongest of the team?
- When matched with one opponent on a team, does your favorite player also improve or worsen his performance?
- What type of plays are the teams using against certain opponents?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of each player on the team?
- What are the typical points ranges per game?
In addition to analyzing the games, you also want to follow player news and the game schedule. Have there been several games close together with a lot of traveling? Then the players might be worn out at the next game. Players often feel more confident on their home turf. Is one player sick or injured? Ask yourself how this information will impact the team performance.
What to Do with Your Information
Keep a notebook of the information that you uncover. Be sure to date it so that you can look back over an entire season(s) and identify playing trends. When you are ready to place your bet, use the information you have collected to make an educated guess on the odds. If you are just starting with this strategy, be sure to keep your bets small and fine-tune your system until you start seeing the results that you want. Be diligent with your research and your results will be steadily in your favor.
