Quote:
Originally Posted by Drewphish2
1. I read that a good roi for sports wagers is 3% And most pros are happy with 2%. This is where im somewhat a bit confused. I had thought it was possible to make a living betting sports when betting 500/game. But then when i read that 2% roi on every bet is good... that means each $500 wager means $10 profit. So that means if someone just wagers 100 games a month... with a 2% ROI... that means profit is only $1000 a month... obviously not enough to make a living.
So are there ppl that bet sports for a living when only wagering $500 a game? I always thought $500 was a decent size for a wager and if you bet that amount per game, that is enough for your sole source of income. I had thought someone who bets that much per game could make 40k a year which would be 80 units a year... which i found out is very very hard. But are there ppl that do it for a living with $500 units only? I look at bet sizes and volume. So if someone bets $500 a game but makes 400 wagers per month with a 2% ROI... that would $4000 a month... certainly what is called a living as that would be around 50k a year. But the problem is finding 400 wagers a month as that would average a bit over 13 games a day. Are there guys that do this and find that much wagers a day?
2. I always thought people who bet huge amounts such as 5k a game if they were pros and winners... these guys had to be making mid 6 digits. Of course little did i know... a 2% roi would be $100 profit. And say this person only wagers 30 games a month and thus very selective... thats only $3000 a month. that sounds pretty scary that a 5k player when betting 30 games at the end of the month with a good 2% roi would only make 3k a month. Is it bad that i look at it this way?
But if they wager 100 games a month, that would be 10k a month. But thing is always thought those big bettors would be making much mroe than that assuming they are very good.
3. How much would you say the pro sportsbettor averages per bet? Of course there are big timers like Billy Walters etc but then theres the joe sharp but he isn't a big timer. Would you say its probably 500-2000 most likely with 1k being the average amount? It definitely seems strange to me that a 1k a game bettor... if he was up 30 units for the year... which is very good for sportbetting... he would be only up 30k a year... and thus thats less than average salary for a person. I can see why ppl say betting sports for a living is very hard. But what about guys like Teddy Covers etc. I know he's a tout and sell picks but guys like him who don't sell picks, how much do guys like him bet per game and make a year? I watched a vegas video on youtube and he was at the M resort i think doing live betting and they were interviewing him and then he mentioned he made 200 dollars in 8 hours of work and said thats not bad. Because thats 25/hr and for a guy like him... i always thought those guys made a ton more than that.
4. Bankroll Question. I always been a bankroll nit. With 20k bankroll, i would never bet more than 200 a game. If i had a 5k bankroll, i would never bet more than 50 a game. Of course i dont bet that small anymore but i read 1% is the proper amount that should be bet for pros. For recreationally players, they can bet 3-5% but those who are serious but not pros, they should never go higher than 2%. But for pros... most be 1-2%? Would you say that is accurate?
5. Bankroll Question. I know why a bankroll is needed. If you have a 20k bankroll and bet 2k a game, you can bust your bankroll pretty quickly after going 0-7. Thus you shouldn't bet more than 400 a game max usually with a 20k roll. What i want to know is what is the highest percentage of your bankroll that should be risked per day? I use to bet lot of games for $300 each with a 25k bankroll but i think the most i ever had risked at one day was $2100 or so. By let say bankroll is 20k... if you are betting 400 per game and risking 2 percent per game... is there a set amount of games you should not bet more than? Of course if you find an edge in a game, you have to bet it but what percentage of your bankroll should you risk max in a day?
The other thing that i wanted to know is this. When i was betting $200-$300 a game, my sportsbook bankroll was always 20k-30k. It usually was in the 25k-30k area. The thing is a bad day would be -1000 and thus it would go down fro 26000 to 25000. But the thing is isn't keeping a huge bankroll for sports a lot different from online poker? Because if you play online poker, you can have downswings and you can lose a lot of them whether mtt, sng or cash. But for sportsbetting... i always felt like my money in the sportsbook was idle. I always thought... whats the point of keeping 25k-30k online when im betting 300 game. I didnt have any huge downswings b/c im very picky with my picks and rarely bet more than 400 per game but i felt like for sportsbetting, you basically keeping like 90% of your bankroll idle in the sportsbook and it not earning any interest. Im sure some of you guys know what i mean by this
This is an old thread but an interesting one. YOU HAVE ME MIFFED. 500 a game to make a living? It depends on what standard of living you want. I used to earn 15k per annum as a cook. As soon as I was able to match that with sports betting I quit full time work and only work part time to continue paying my tax stamp.
The golden rule of thumb for wagers in relation to overall bankroll is 1-5%. At least for me. So lets say you have a 5k bankroll. The largest bet you want to be making is 250 units per bet and so forth.
Now we all know that the average gambler will never be able to stick to this golden rule. Little wonder why 98% of sports bettors fail.
Money management is the single most important deciding factor as to whether you finish a betting season in the red or black. MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT THAT.
It's even more important than your win rate. Example it's said that a sports bettor who plays the spread on say the NBA must win at least 52.4% of their bets just to break even.
I've had seasons where I only won 40---45% of my bets at an average of 1.80 per bet and still made a profit. When I go above 55% I really go clear.
The reason? MONEY MANAGEMENT.
The number one mistake made by all gamblers is trying to run before you can walk. The fools who risk 10,20,30 or more percent of their bankroll on a single bet are doomed LONGTERM.
If you even win three times in a row. Understand you have done extremely well and at least half your bets until you lose. The secret of success in this game is to win more than you lose. And that doesn't have to mean in terms of individual bets.
But more how much you win in relation to how much you lose on any given bet.
Example I win only 40 bets out of a 100 at an average of 1.80 return to every 1 unit bet. But over 50% of my losing bets were less that 50% the size of my winning bets. Did I make a profit or loss?
If more gamblers both understood and executed this kind of money management. That elite 2% of winning sports bettors would grow to over 10%.
But the statistic will never change. Most lack the discipline to ever stick to anything.
Last edited by sentinel2015; 03-15-2014 at 10:53 AM.
