In this post I am going to examine the basics of Sports Betting Trading. I will be looking at the different sports that you can bet on and the various trading techniques that are used. Serious money can be made through sports betting trading, with the most successful traders pulling in hundreds of thousands a year. Now, I am not saying that after reading this post you will be a professional sports bettor, but simply trying to point out the potential that exists with this type of betting. The more successful practitioners make a great income and sports trading becomes their full-time job, working from home, for themselves earning a tax-free income. Of course, full-time betting is not for everyone, plenty of people make a success of sports trading and treat it as a lucrative second income, only trading on weekend and evening events. There is no doubt that sports betting trading is tricky to get the hang of, and difficult to profit from. However the rewards can be pretty impressive if you can get it right. I hope that this post will give you an overview of sports betting trading, and to give you enough information to decide if it is something that you may want to try yourself.
The Basics:
The basic premise behind sports trading is the same regardless of the sports, and has many similarities with any other sock market or currency trading. This kind of betting strategy can only be carried out on a betting exchange such as Betfair or Smarkets.(I will be looking at betting exchanges in a future post). It differs from traditional sports betting because you don’t just place a bet and hope for the best, the place a bet and then manage it in order to ensure a profit. Ideally you want to enter a bet at a certain point (whether it be a back or lay bet) and then exit the trade when in a winning position. In order to enter or exit a trade you need to place a back or lay bet please see this post for more information on lay betting. If you enter a bet with a back bet the odds need to shorten for you to be in a winning position, if you enter with a lay bet the odds need to lengthen. I will use an example to explain this further. Say that you enter a bet at odds of 10/1 with a back bet, the odds (for whatever reason) then come in to 5/1, if you then lay off this bet at 5/1 you can make a guaranteed profit regardless of the outcome of the event. On the other hand, if you were expecting the odds to drift and place a lay bet at 10/1, let it drift to 15/1, and then place a back bet to ensure a profit. Obviously with both of these examples you would be looking at a loss if the odds move the other way, the size of this loss depends on when you choose to trade out. There are various different permutations when sports trading, and the punter has a lot of options on how to play different situations.
How much profit/loss?
One of the interesting things with sports betting trading is that you can manipulate the profit or loss depending on your situation or attitude towards risk. This is done by adjusting the size of the lay bet that is placed to trade out of the bet. For example, if you are looking to just make a guaranteed profit then you would place the bet so that it leaves equal profit on all outcomes. Alternatively, if you are looking for a bigger profit margin, you can leave the profit on one outcome and be break even on the others. In this situation you would not be able to lose money at least break even on all outcomes, with more profit on what you believe will be the eventual outcome. Of course, the opposite is true when the odds have moved against your trade and you are looking at a loss.
When to exit a trade is a key question, as it is with any type of commodity trading. If you are in a winning position do you let in run and hope for a bigger profit, or do you get out early for a smaller profit? Conversely, when in a losing position, do you get out early and cut your losses, or do you hold on in the hope that it will come back potentially suffering a much greater loss if it doesn’t. This is where experience and clear thinking become incredibly important for sports traders. The most successful can remove themselves from dangerous situations with minimal losses, while ensuring maximum profit wherever possible.
Why do the odds shift?
Odds movement can happen for a variety of different reasons, depending on the sport you are betting on, and what time period you are targeting. For example, odds move for different reasons in horse racing when betting pre-race, or in race. The same can be said for pre match, and in play football trading. One obvious example is a goal being scored in a football match, this will cause the odds on the team scoring the goal to shorten considerably. The hard part is working out who is going to score the goal and when! On the other hand, what causes the odds to shift pre race when betting on the horses? This is not an easy question to answer, there are a huge number of factors that can affect the odds. Weight of money, interview with the trainer/owner, horses behavior before the race, hot tips, the list is endless really. In fact there are quite a few traders who simply trade pre race based on the movement of the odds and patterns that they identify. Once you start to understand these factors then it is possible to make some serious money from pre race trading.
This has been a very brief but hopefully informative introduction into the world of sports betting trading. Although fleeting, I hope that that this post has peaked your interest. It is hard work but it is possible to make a part or full time income from sports trading with a lot of hard work and a bit of trial and error. In the coming weeks I will be adding updates to my blog with a more in-depth look at various sports trading strategies, along with reviews of some great products that can help you master this money making opportunity. If you want to be notified of these updates by e-mail then sign up to my email notifications. If you are eager to get started with some sports trading then please check out my brief review of Goal Profits and Assured Soccer Profit, they are great services if you are a novice or experienced football trader.
