The most common question we get at AccuScore is, “how can I make money betting on sports.” The answer to that question all comes back to one word, “discipline.”

As strong as we are as a company that specializes in game predictions, clients and players need to build their sports investing approach on a foundation of discipline. Once you can have discipline, there four important tenants to follow to improve your betting.

1. Establish a Bank Roll
Just like you would put x-amount into the stock market to invest, you should apply the same thought process to wagering. As matter of fact, think of wagering as sports investing. The money that you set aside for your sports investing is known as your bank roll.

The size of a bank roll varies per player and is usually based on several components:

• How long you plan to wager/invest
•What you can afford to lose
• How much you like to bet per game

The longer you plan to invest, the more money you should have in your bank roll. Also, you should never invest more than you can afford to lose. Set aside an amount that lets you have a chance to make considerable profits, while not putting your daily expenses at risk.

How much you like to bet per game is an important thing to look at and I detail it below in point #2.

2. Establish a Unit
A “unit” is a fixed amount that you will wager/invest per game. We strongly suggest that you determine a unit that based on your bankroll. We suggest your unit size allow you for 20-bets within your bankroll.

The equation to finding out what your unit should be is simple and needs to factor in the vig. Remember, when you are making a straight bet , you are risking 110% to win 100%. You only pay the vig when you lose.

Lets use a $1500 bankroll as an example:
$1500 (bankroll) / 22 (bets + vig) = $68.18

3. Develop Your Profile as an Investor
Even more important than establishing a bank roll and unit size is understanding who you are as an investor. Real money has a real effect on people, and you need to understand how it will impact you.

Establishing your profile is the first step in taking part in a sports betting system. Sports wagering offers opportunities to that suit each personality. People who lay the points tend to like more security that comes with betting on a favorite . If you take the points, you are more attracted to underdogs and are someone who is attracted to riskier propositions. Why else would you put your money on team that needs charity because they are inferior to their opponent.

Players who make parlays tend like high risk/high reward. If you are a parlay player, chances are you have the personality type to stomach a win percentage that is below 50-percent.. The upside is you can be profitable as a parlay player with a win percentage as low as 40-percent if you are a standard 2-team parlay player.

Teaser bets are often called “sucker bets” because you have to win multiple games to cash a bet and the odds are much lower than what they should be for winning multiple games. Because you are allowed to alter the point spread or total, teaser bets appeal to the ultra conservative player who is looking for a high win percentage and to grind out wins. The downside is because of the odds, you usually have to win over 55% of your teaser bets to break even, which is a tall order.

It doesn’t matter if you like the volatility of a parlay, the safety of a teaser or the direct approach of betting the spread. The key is you make your sports investment based on what you can stomach and who you are. Know your profile and play to it.

4. Find a Betting System (and stick to it)
Gordon Gecko said, “The public is out there throwing darts at a board, sport. I don’t throw darts at a board. I only bet on sure things.”

While there are no sure things in sports, Gecko makes a great point. The public thinks that they can win at sports betting simply because they know sports or used to play. If that were the case, Vegas wouldn’t be expanding and it wouldn’t be so easy to make a bet.

While it might be easy to win a wager while betting on sports, it is difficult to win a lot of sports bets. To be profitable in straight betting, the player needs to win 52.4-percent of the time just to break even. We suggest finding a system and sticking to that system.

The best insurance against variance is the long sample, and when you create a system you are usually bringing in a strong sample size. A player can create his own system or they can use a system they find. At AccuScore, we are always displaying trends which is another way of finding a system. Each day, our trends page highlights dozens of systems that have been successful over varying lengths of time.

During the 2010 NFL Season, clients who used AccuScore’s against the spread selections in the AFC won 66-percent of the time and returned 2410 units (unit = 100). Additional, clients who used AccuScore’s over/under selections throughout the season won at a 56.9-percent clip and returned 2400 units (unit = 100).

When you find a profitable trend, you can convert that into a system which serves as a road map for what games to play. It allows you to get the most out of your bankroll and de-emphasizes a single loss because in the long run you should be profitable.

The number one mistake sports investors make is that they become gamblers. Instead of having a rough day, they press (or chase) their losses. This is a bad habit to get into and increases your chances of busting your bankroll. Be willing to have a rough day and remember the key word is “discipline.”

Sports Betting Articles.