Have you watched a sporting event and wondered how to become a professional sports gambler? Maybe you’ve even placed a few bets. And maybe you feel like you might be able to make money doing it.
Anyone can become a professional sports gambler. But being a pro and being a profitable pro sports bettor can be two different things.
Want to know what it takes to be a profitable professional sports gambler?
This post has everything you need to know to start.
But this is just a starting point. Your path to profitability can be long and difficult.
What Is a Professional Sports Bettor?
My description of a professional sports gambler is someone who makes most of their income from sports betting. But you could also call someone who spends more time betting on sporting events than any other type of work a professional gambler.
It’s important to recognize the difference between the two descriptions. Anyone with enough money can spend more time placing wagers on sporting events than doing anything else, but it doesn’t mean that they can make money doing it.
In this post, I’m discussing how to become a profitable professional sports gambler. If you have a lot of money and just want to call yourself a pro gambler, then you don’t need to know anything else I have to share with you.
But if you’re interested in how you can make money as a professional sports bettor, this post has a lot of important things you need to know.
Before you move to the next section, I need to share a sad bit of news with you. Most sports gamblers never make any money. A small percentage of sports bettors make money, and you might be able to join this group, but it’s not going to be easy. And most people reading this information are never going to be a profitable pro.
I’m not trying to discourage you from trying to become a professional sports bettor. However, if you find that you’re good at it, there are few better ways to make money in the world.
What Skills Do You Need?
The skills you need to learn to become a professional sports gambler are often called handicapping. But handicapping is a general term, and you need to learn a lot of different skills under the handicapping umbrella.
Here’s a list of skills pro handicappers develop:
Analytical – The first skill you need to become a pro handicapper is to be able to look at everything in an analytical way. You can’t let emotion play any part when you handicap games.
Visual – Good sports bettors can watch games and understand what things are important and what things aren’t important. Important things that happen in a game are things that help you become a better handicapper.
Mathematical – A great deal of what you do as a handicapper involves statistics. While you don’t have to be the best math person in the world, you do have to use math skills to become a good sports gambler.
Research – If you don’t enjoy researching things about sports, you’re not going to last long as a pro sports bettor. You need to spend a lot of time researching and looking at statistics, and after you handicap games, you have to research to find the lines that give you the most value.
Testing – You have to be committed to testing things as a pro sports bettor. You have to test theories, models, and systems, and you never get to stop testing new things.
Constant testing requires persistence and dedication. Testing is one of the most boring things a handicapper does, but if you don’t test a lot of variables, you have almost no chance to make a profit.
How Do You Acquire the Skills You Need
The best way to improve any skill is by studying the skill, learning as much as you can about it, and then practicing the skill. The same is true when you’re trying to build your sports gambling skills.
When I listed the skills you need in the last section, I didn’t talk a lot about sports. If you want to bone up on Sports Betting 101, I offer that on this blog, too. So look over the list of skills again and see how each skill relates to sports in your mind.
The best way to start is by watching games, looking at statistics, trying to predict the final scores of upcoming games, and looking at lines at the sportsbooks. Then, keep track of how you do, and learn from every game you handicap.
I recommend practicing without making real money wagers for at least a couple of months. Then, you can track your results on paper without betting real money while you learn what skills you need to improve.
Defining Value
The key term you need to understand when you’re learning how to become a professional sports bettor is value. Pro gamblers make bets that offer value, and if they do this enough times, they profit.
You can’t determine if you’re good at finding value by betting on a few games. The only way to see if you’re good at finding value is by handicapping and betting on 100’s of games. I recommend betting on paper when you start because it can be expensive to bet real money when you’re not finding value.
The easiest way to understand what value means is by using an example. If you handicap a game and predict the right side to bet on, if the game was played 100 times, you’d win at least 53 out of the 100 games. If you can do this consistently, you’re going to make money as a sports bettor.
Of course, the problem is that each game is only played one time. So you have to make bets on 100 or more games to see if you’re finding value most of the time. Of course, just because you lose a bet doesn’t mean that you didn’t find value. But if you don’t win at least 53% of your bets, you’re not finding enough value.
Should You Quit Your Day Job?
The worst thing you can do when you start betting on sports is give up your normal source of income too early. Even if you win 60 out of your first 100 wagers, it doesn’t mean that you’re ready to make a full time living from sports gambling.
Being a professional sports gambler is stressful. When the bills only get paid if you make money from the best you place, it creates a lot of pressure and stress. And stress and pressure don’t help you handicap games effectively.
I recommend having at least 12 months of positive results betting in sports before thinking about quitting your day job, and 24 months is better. Betting on sports can be up and down, even if you’re good at finding value.
I also recommend having money to pay your bills for at least 12 months in reserve, and this money needs to be separate from your bankroll. And you need to have a big bankroll if you want to make enough money to live off as a sports gambler.
Bankroll – The One Thing You Can’t Afford to Be Without if You Want to Know How to Become a Professional Sports Gambler
The one thing that every professional sports gambler has is a bankroll. Without a bankroll, you can’t make bets, and if you’re not making bets, you’re not making money.
Your sports gambling bankroll needs to be kept separate from the rest of your money. Of course, you can take money out of your bankroll when you make money to use for other things, and you can add money to your bankroll if you need to, but your sports betting bankroll is the life of your professional career.
Your bankroll not only gives you money to use to make more money, but it’s also a tool that helps you track your progress. If you’re finding value, your bankroll grows. If your bankroll is shrinking, you’re not finding enough value.
I see too many sports gamblers try to operate without using a bankroll. It might not seem like it’s important, but if you’re not using a bankroll, you’re not a professional sports gambler.
When you learn to find value and your bankroll is growing, I recommend leaving a percentage of your profit in your bankroll so you can have more money to use in the future.
Conclusion – How to Become a Professional Sports Gambler
If you want to be a professional sports gambler, all you need is some money, and you can start. But if you want to make money as a pro sports bettor, there are a few more things you need to learn.
Don’t make the mistake of quitting your day job until you have a long record of success betting on sports. If you haven’t been making a consistent profit for at least a year, keep working.
When you build your handicapping skills so you can find value, all you need is a bankroll. Then, with the skills to find value and a bankroll, you can make a profit consistently.