What Are Good Sports Betting Strategies? Sports Betting Tips And Tricks

If you talk to bettors, most have their own sports betting strategy on how to make money sports betting. A lot of betting strategies on the Internet today are garbage, but some are genuinely helpful.

The strategies outlined below are of the helpful variety and while we can't promise they'll transform you overnight into a winning bettor, it's a great start toward you learning how to get better at sports betting. We say that confidently because many of the tips on this page are right from the toolbox of professional bettors who have learned how to bet on sports and win.

Can you make money sports betting? Yes, but it's not as simple as searching, "How to be good at sports betting" and most people fail on the journey which is a lot harder than it looks. The tips and tricks below are foundational pieces to being a winning bettor.

Beginner Tips For Sports Betting

First, we'll start with some basic betting strategies for beginners seeking tips for sports betting. Toward the bottom of the page is the juicy stuff where you'll find strategies for more advanced sports bettors who have been wagering for a while and are looking for an edge.

Don’t Sleep on the Moneyline

Moneyline betting is perfect for first-time bettors because you simply pick a winning team. Below is an example:

LSU Tigers (-250) vs Auburn Tigers (+210)

The favorite, LSU in this case, is identified by the negative sign (-). The underdog, Auburn, is identified by the plus sign (+). This means that LSU is favored to win the game and Auburn is the underdog.Since Auburn is less likely to win, their payout is higher than LSU’s if they secure the victory. Our how to read sports odds page explains the payouts further. 

Below are some sports betting tips when betting moneylines:

• Consider rest advantages. Is one NFL team off a bye? An NBA squad playing back-to-backs? Is your starting NHL goalie fresh?
• Beware of injuries. There's nothing worse than putting in an MLB bet and later learning the cleanup hitter is out of the lineup nursing an injury you were unaware of.
• Use our free MLB Underdog report, which lets you know which dogs have been cashing this season

Learning the Point Spread

Point spread betting involves more than picking a winner. Bettors choose which team will win by a margin set by oddsmakers.The favorite must win by more than the set points to 'cover' the spread, while the underdog can win outright or lose by fewer than the spread margin.

For example:

Kansas City Chiefs -4.5 (-110) vs Denver Broncos +4.5 (-110)

The Chiefs are the 4.5-point favorite and would need to win by five or more points. The Broncos are the 4.5-point underdog and would need to win or not lose by more than four points.

Below are some betting strategies when betting point spreads:

• Investigate how each team has done recently ATS (Against The Spread). You're welcome to use our NFL ATS standings. 
• Bet games earlier before the spreads have been sharpened by pros
• Beware of key numbers like -3 and -7 in the NFL. There's a huge difference between a spread of -2.5 and -3 or +7 and +7.5.

Betting the Total (Over/Under)

Unlike point spread and moneyline bettors, those betting totals don't care who wins the game they just root for offense or defense.For example, in an MLB game, over bettors cheer for home runs, while under bettors in an NFL game prefer punts and missed field goals.

Below are tips for some of the best betting strategy when betting totals:

• Wind blowing in at an MLB game is great for the Under, while wind blowing out helps over bettors
• Bad weather, and especially winds over 20 MPH can make football unders more likely
• Beware of injuries to offensive stars. Make sure the big bats are in the lineup or an NBA star isn't taking the night off
• When betting college basketball totals, the tempo metric at KenPom.com is very useful
• Beware of key numbers like 41, 43, and 47 in the NFL.

Avg. Point Total by Sport

Specialize in a niche Sport

If you’re new to betting, try specializing in one sport. The reason? You won’t spread yourself too thin by trying to bet many sports at the same time. Narrowing your focus can give you a betting edge since you’re not researching every game played and putting money on everything. The more niche the sport the better, because it's tough to outsmart an NFL oddsmaker, but if it's actually realistic you might know more about eSports or handball than them.

Try Pick Service Sites

For a new bettor, pick service providers can be very useful, but beware there are a lot of scams and bad services out there. We've done some heavy lifting for you and helped you identify some trusted pick service providers that offer good customer service and thoughtful rationale for each pick they recommend. Hopefully you can learn some strategy from the pick service handicappers as you receive their picks.

Also, try our free NCAA Football Computer picks.

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Advanced Betting Strategies

Every bettor wants to learn how to win sports betting wagers and we hope the sports betting strategies below are a great spark for you. Read these strategies carefully, and that combining strategies can be more effective than just one strategy alone. 

Arbitrage betting

The safest sports bets and the best way to bet on sports involves from a risk-reward standpoint is arbitrage betting. If the Thunder and Celtics were playing and one sportsbook offered you +105 odds on the Thunder while another offered you +110 odds on the Celtics. You could bet equal money on both sides and be guaranteed a chance to win. This would be a form of arbitrage betting.

Believe it or not, there are regularly win-win opportunities like this out there and the Outlier Pro app helps you identify them and explains how much to wager on both sides to maximize your advantage.

There are professional bettors who strictly make a living with arbitrage wagers and feel it's the best way to sports bet, but the downside is it requires patience, acting quickly before lines move, and a willingness to stay glued to your phone. 

Make your own Lines

Instead of letting sportsbooks dictate to you what a point spread or total is, do research first and come up with your own number before checking to see where oddsmakers landed.

For instance, on Sunday night when many sportsbooks release their NFL point spreads for the following week, pick out a game, analyze the hell out of it, and then write down what you think the spread should be.

If you think the spread should be Eagles -10.5 vs Dallas and the bookmakers made it Eagles -7, you should be asking why your number is so far off. Investigate further and check for blindspots. If after further investigation a successful bettor thinks the number should be -10.5, then the Eagles -7 is a wise bet.

Always shop Around

If you are betting with one sportsbooks you're loyal to, you're doing it wrong. There's a reason that professional bettors have more sports betting s than Tom Brady has Super Bowl rings.

Having multiple betting apps allows you to "line shop" for the best point spread, or the lowest vigorish on your bet. The 10 best sportsbooks could have four different point spreads and three different totals for the same college basketball game and you want the opportunity to grab the best one for each bet you make.

ing for multiple sportsbooks also gives you the opportunity to cash in on various welcome bonuses and promotions.

We've vetted the sportsbooks below and they're a great place to start if you want to increase your number of sportsbooks.

 

Chasing Steam

This strategy comes with a couple of big caveats so don't blindly following this strategy with every bet.

"Chasing steam" or "following the money" involves monitoring line movement closely to see which way sharp bettors are moving a line and essentially betting that number with the assumption that it's a good price if wise guys are moving it.

It's important to understand why a line is moving. If an NFL game is moving 2 points Monday morning, there's a good chance that's because of respected money. If HEADS went from -110 to -105 for a coin toss bet on the Super Bowl, that's not sharp action or inside information causing the move.

Also, if you're going to chase steam, don't make your bet at a sportsbook after the line has adjusted. Instead, identify a slow moving sportsbook where the line hasn't moved yet and grab a better number before it adjusts. Yet another reason why it's important to have multiple sportsbooks. 

Fade the Public

A tried and true strategy for sports wagering is fading the public. This strategy is most effective in games with a lot of betting volume like NFL regular season games or March Madness contests.

Of course you can't fade the public unless you know what the public is betting and tools like betting splits or money percentages show you exactly what percentage of bets and dollars are bet on a particular team. Betting splits help you identify "Pros vs Joes" games where most of the public is on one side and most professional bettors are on the other.

The premise behind fading the public is that the public typically loses long-term (hence sportsbooks being profitable) so if you fade the public consistently, you'll win more often. There's more nuance to fading the public effectively so check out our guide to fading the public.

Find +EV Bets

Would you bet a coin toss at +120 odds? You should answer yes because +120 odds on an event with a 50/50 chance of winning presents positive expected value (+EV). The best sports betting strategy involves consistently finding +EV bets.

Calculating +EV with sports betting is a little more complicated because of different variables and it's a lot harder to calculate a teams chance of actually winning compared to a coin toss which we all inherently know is 50%. Outlier Pro is a fantastic tool that calculates +EV bets in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for you.

Use Analytic Sites

For College Basketball bettors, websites like KenPom.com and BartTorvik.com are invaluable. NBA bettors feel the same way about CleaningTheGlass.com and MLB bettors glean a lot from FanGraphs.com.

We always recommend having more than one source of information for your bets, but these resources will put you light years ahead of beginner bettors.

Get Ahead of News

Did a star quarterback just get hurt or traded? Does the latest weather report suggest high winds? Is there a flu going around the locker room? Sports betting occasionally gives us the opportunity to hear news and put a bet in before oddsmakers have a chance to adjust. This is a great way to get closing line value and potentially even create a "middle" betting opportunity.

It's getting harder to beat oddsmakers to the punch these days, but setting alerts on your phone for key sports news websites and X s helps. Just make sure the line hasn't already moved before you bet because any value may have already been sucked out of the wager by the adjusted line.