Your sports betting handbook: Keep it in mind!
You can often hear some very advanced tips and concrete strategies for your online betting. But if you are a newbie or have only been around for a short time, you probably feel at a loss. That’s why we present you with this sports betting handbook with the basics to get you off to a good start. With this little help for sports betting you will avoid all the beginner’s mistakes as much as possible, because the game is not an exact science.
From the basics of how to manage your income, the most suitable types of plays per sport and even some extra tips to get the most out of your bets. This mini sports betting glossary is worth reading a couple of times, bookmarking and even printing out and hanging in your room.
Sports betting manual point 1: The Bankroll
Online gambling should be a diversion for you, never a steady source of income or a means of livelihood. However, even though it involves your leisure time, you should play with knowledge. Number one in your glossary of sports betting terms is the bankroll, the amount of money you have available to play with.
We’re not talking about how much you’re going to bet today, in one play, but the amount of money you have available to you in a given time.
Stake or confidence rating: A great help in sports betting
The stake is a score assigned to a given bet, depending on the probability of success. A stake 1 or 2 would be when you appreciate that a lesser opponent has some chance of an upset, while 9 is close to 100% certainty (a Stake 10 is almost impossible to exist, as we are talking about sports).
To give you an orientation in the manual for your sports betting, this is the stakes table:
- Stakes 1-3: First matches of a season, exact results. Really tricky green light odds.
- Stakes 4-6: Bets with peace of mind, backed by data and with great reliability.
- Stakes 7-9: Very rare. We have insider knowledge or privileged information.
- Stake 10: Does not exist, only in fixed matches.
Sports betting manual: How much to bet
One last concept you should know to define how much money to bet is the full stake, as it will be of great help in your sports betting. The full stake defines the maximum percentage of the bankroll that can be invested in a bet. It is a fixed value, usually set at 10% (going down to 5% if you want to be conservative). The formula to apply is: Stake= (Bankroll*Full stake*Stake value assigned)/10
Practical example from the betting manual
We have 100 of total money (Bankroll) and we are very convinced that our favourite tennis player will win, we place a very reliable bet and assign him stake 7. We have a Full Stake of 10%:
- (100*10%*7)/10= We will bet 7$.
What happens if we are very conservative, but we are still very convinced that it is a very safe bet (Stake 7)? We play with Full Stake 5%:
- (100*5%*7)/10= We will bet 3,5$.
What if we bet on something unlikely (Stake 3)?
- (100*10%*3)/10= We will bet 3$. If we are conservative (100*5%*3)/10= We will bet 1,5$.
How to bet on each sport?
Basically, you should bet on the sports that you have the most data, the most knowledge and the most variables you master. You can place more or less risky bets, as we have seen in the previous point, but always based on knowledge, which will be your great help in sports betting. In this sense, you should also opt for the type of competition and teams whose history you know best.
For each sport there are different variables, but some are common, whether we are talking about athletes (tennis) or teams (football or basketball). Level, form, motivation, field of play and direct confrontations. But also, in every sport, betting is not the same. As an example, we can take the direct result, which in tennis is a relatively feasible bet because it is closer (2-0 or 2-1 for your favourite) than in football, where it is very open and each score is unlikely. Let’s not even talk about basketball…
Some examples from this sports betting handbook as a feasible guide on the main sports:
- Football: handicap bets (subtract one or more goals from the favourite team), betting on halves, more or less than x goals, both teams score (or not) etc. In case of more one-sided matches, you can bet that a team wins both halves, and even which players will score.
- Basketball: Handicap, point totals, winner by half or quarters.
- Tennis: Bets on specific results, number of sets or number of games.
In other sports such as rugby, handball or volleyball there are different variables, but they are not too different from these sports. You can get an idea by following the scoring system with a similar logic and looking at the betting markets.
Handbook for choosing a sportsbook
When choosing where to place your bets, there is one key variable to follow. Choose a bookmaker that will be a help to you in your sports betting and not a burden. First of all, you should make a brief comparison of odds between bookmakers, but above all you should look at which welcome bonuses are most attractive to you.
This type of bonus will be a great help in your sports betting, as it will allow you to make a trial and error and spend your first bets for free.