There are some sports bettors who swear by sports betting systems and others who simply feel that they’re a waste of time and money. The best advice that can be given on this subject is that you should try them out and see how they work.
This article will briefly discuss the two basic types of betting schemes and also give you some important tips. First let’s consider the differences between free vs. paid options.
There are a few sports betting systems that are free. These are called the Kelly Criterion, the Martingale System and Arbitrage Betting. Although they’re quite different from one another, they share a few elements:
Briefly, the Kelly Criterion is a formula designed to tell you how much you should wager on a team. The Martingale is a wagering method based on minimizing loses. Arbitrage Betting involves the opportunistic exploitation of moneylines by wagering on competing teams that are playing one another in the same game.
There are many wagering setups that are on sale on the Internet. All are software-based and each one claims to be extremely accurate. They often incorporate some version of the Martingale while analyzing data, matchups and other elements of each contest.
If you’re thinking of getting into this type of betting, here are some useful tips:
Remember that none of them are perfect but many of them can be useful. Sports betting is a highly competitive field, which means you need every edge you can get.
Sports bettors have various options. For live bettors, though, betting systems are usually designed for bets that offer even odds and most live sports betting props do not carry such odds.
Here’s our Sports Betting Tips page.
Martingale, Labrouchere, D’Alembert and Fibonacci are the best known betting methods. Each of these requires bettors either increase the number of units or decrease the number of units they bet based on whether they’ve won or lost their last bet. Along with the fact that all are designed to be used with wagers that carry even odds, none have been found to be effective and mathematicians have debunked all.
The Kelly Criterion would be useful, though. It was developed by American John Kelly, and it takes into consideration the size of your bankroll and the amount of risk involved in your wager. Thus, you may use it for any type of bet. But with live odds changing after every score or play and anywhere from six to more than 15 different bets to play at a time, it would be difficult to utilize the Kelly Criterion effectively.
One safe solution is to follow the basic 5% rule. That is, you never risk more than 5% of your bankroll on any given wager and you often bet less than that amount. The more risky the bet, the less cash you use. This makes the most sense, especially because a lot can happen quickly with live betting. Here are the steps to take when setting your bets with this system
First, you need to decide how much of your total bankroll you’re will to spend on an event. Let’s say you have $1,000 total. If you were going to make a regular wager on the game, our rule dictates that the most you should put down would be $50. Is that the amount of cash you should use for the number of live sports bets you’re going to place on this game?
If it is, then our system is in jeopardy. We were going to apply the 5% rule to all of our bets, but the minimum wager online is usually between $5.00 and $10.00. A $5.00 bet represents 10% of our stake for the game. You could use more than 5% of your entire bankroll for the game, or you may decide to utilize the $50 by breaking it down into minimum wager units of $5.00 each.
The second option would give you 10 units for this one game. This solution is safer than using more of your overall bank, since it’s preserving a major chunk of your cash reserve and you’ve limited yourself to a total of $50.00 for the entire event.
Using your $50 on one game, you may wager in the following manner:
One other choice you may want to make, but many bettors don’t, is to automatically preserve some of your winnings. As an example, if you’re up $50, you put that cash on the side and don’t bet with it. That way the worst you can do is break even. Or if you’re ahead by $100, put that amount back into your bank. That way, no matter what happens you’re ahead of the game.
Whenever you’re betting, it’s very important that you control your wagering. If you don’t you can lose a lot very quickly and either be out of the game or risking more by tapping into your reserve cash. Use the 5% rule to rule over your bankroll and to bet safely.
