THE BETTING THREAD

[Top Flight]

Are there people making a lot of money betting on sports?

[jd82]

Are there people making a lot of money betting on sports?

Yes, they are called bookies

[Sanguine]

Are there people making a lot of money betting on sports?

A tiny, tiny percentage. And the majority of those have a very large bankroll to start with. There are three reasons this tiny percentage of people make money - strategy, knowledge, and luck. Meaning no disrespect, you appear to have none of those in any great amount.

Poker is an easier analogy for me as I know a bit more about it, but globally there are just 200 people who made more than $100,000 playing online poker last year. Over 60 million people play online poker. Their money makes those 200 rich.
The majority of the rest play for fun.

[Top Flight]

Are there people making a lot of money betting on sports?

A tiny, tiny percentage. And the majority of those have a very large bankroll to start with. There are three reasons this tiny percentage of people make money - strategy, knowledge, and luck. Meaning no disrespect, you appear to have none of those in any great amount.

Poker is an easier analogy for me as I know a bit more about it, but globally there are just 200 people who made more than $100,000 playing online poker last year. Over 60 million people play online poker. Their money makes those 200 rich.
The majority of the rest play for fun.

Are there 200 people making money betting on football matches do you think? Who are not bookies?

[Top Flight]

I can certainly improve my strategy and knowledge so that is what I am going to work on. I hope Brosef can help me with this. He seems to know a lot about trading.

They say you make your own luck. If my strategy and knowledge are good perhaps I will get lucky?

[Sanguine]

Yeah, okay.

[Brosef Stalin]

You don't need a huge bankroll to make $100,000* trading sports. Eight to ten
grand would be more than enough due to the fast turnaround

(prolly equiv of hundred grand a year job if you consider you're not paying tax)

[Ouroboros]

TF - if it was not a good value bet pre-game then it is an even worse in-play option if you want to back West Ham, since they would have dived to 1.3 or so as soon as the goal went in.

And indeed, had you then piled in in-play, you'd have lost your money.

I'd start treating betting as a bit of fun, like the (most of) rest of us.

I am treating it as fun. The fun is, can I turn £100 into £1000 over the season. That's the fun. That is not going to replace my income and become my main job. It's just a challenge. I want to see if I can do it or not. Every time I get close, I seem to make horrendous mistakes. I just want to try and develop some rules and the discipline to stick to the rules, not chase losses etc. It's a kind of character development in a way. Can I conquer those human emotions of fear and greed. Can I control myself to see it through.

You are limiting yourself to £100 in total this season? How much are you staking per bet?

[Sanguine]

He's drained £20 on the 0-0 challenge in 24 hours.

[Ouroboros]

Yeah, that doesn't seem like a sustainable rate TF.

If your strategy and knowledge are to pay off then you have to give them enough time to overcome the "noise". You may be right that, say, a given team priced at Evens have actually a 60% chance of winning, but you're still far too likely to bankrupt yourself in the short term if you're betting 10% or 20% of your bankroll each time and you get a little bad luck.

[Brosef Stalin]

Quick note on bet size. It's the size of the risk not the monetary amount.

For example i'd be pretty comfortable placing 50% of my entire bank in pre-match
football betting but would close it out if it moved 2-3% against and defo before kick-off

[Top Flight]

Quick note on bet size. It's the size of the risk not the monetary amount.

For example i'd be pretty comfortable placing 50% of my entire bank in pre-match
football betting but would close it out if it moved 2-3% against and defo before kick-off

Really? That's like spread trading.... I guess your trading the price movements and are not hanging around for the results or for big events to take place during the match. Do you open and close your positions before the games even start?

[Brosef Stalin]

Quick note on bet size. It's the size of the risk not the monetary amount.

For example i'd be pretty comfortable placing 50% of my entire bank in pre-match
football betting but would close it out if it moved 2-3% against and defo before kick-off

Really? That's like spread trading.... I guess your trading the price movements and are not hanging around for the results or for big events to take place during the match. Do you open and close your positions before the games even start?

TF i'm not sure if you're serious, hence not really wading too far into this but
yes as stated position closed before kick off. Depending on what happens
you can either green up or leverage any profits made with further trades.

Trades not placed until last hour when team(/formation?) announced.

[Top Flight]

I am serious.

What you say though is very interesting. You are not really betting, you are trading the price movements. Is my account size large enough though to trade price movements? I would only be making pence on each trade.

[Top Flight]

Also, is the Betfair exchange the best way to trade the price movements rather than a sportsbook bookie? I guess there is more flexibility on the exchange in that you can lay teams as well as back them.

[Brosef Stalin]

I am serious.

What you say though is very interesting. You are not really betting, you are trading the price movements. Is my account size large enough though to trade price movements? I would only be making pence on each trade.

Think in terms of percentages and do some saving

[Top Flight]

This evening, I took Betfair up on their £50 in play offer on Utd V Saints.

I whacked the full £50 on a United win shortly after kick off. Luckily they did win so my Betfair is now up to £101 and I have a free £50 bet to play with.

[double d]

Gone IBRA score 1st and Man United to win 2-0, also Man United -1 handicap single

[Brosef Stalin]

Gone IBRA score 1st and Man United to win 2-0, also Man United -1 handicap single

nice win m8

[Top Flight]

I have put my £50 free bet token on NYCFC to beat LA Galaxy. If it wins my Betfair will be up to £165.