It’s time to dig deeper into what truly makes for a winning bet.
All sports fans, from football to horse racing, want to place successful bets. After all, it’s a no-brainer. However, as many people have found, it’s quite difficult to win on a regular basis, especially if you’re placing big bets like parlays. Despite this, though, there are certain things you can do to slightly tip the scales and give yourself a greater shot at turning an average bet into a winning bet — and you can’t ask for much more than that.
So, before placing a winning bet, what should you do? Great question! Below, you’ll find 5 top tips that are going to transform your overall betting experience and hopefully start landing you more wins, whether you’re playing on a budget or living the life of a high roller.
Let’s begin.
Top Tips for Placing Winning Bets
1. Use a Bet Calculator
Before anything else, start using a bet calculator. With a bet calculator, you can check what the potential winnings will be for all types of bets, whether you’re placing a simple moneyline or a 10-wager parlay. Best of all, you can enter any type of odds, from fractional to decimal. Once you’ve done the calculation, you’ll know for certain how much money you’d walk away with if the best was successful, which is a great way to identify if there’s any genuine value there. You don’t have to pay to use a bet calculator, either, as there’s a free betting calculator on bettingtools.com available for everyone to use.
2. Build Parlays with Low Odds
One of the most profitable niches in the betting world right now is to build parlays consisting of multiple wagers with low odds. Essentially, what you’re doing is betting on multiple different outcomes that are all extremely likely to happen. The logic behind this is that you’re playing it safe while still opening up a healthy profit margin, which is why it works so well. For example, as a starting point, build a 3-wager parlay consisting of bets with odds that are at least -300 or shorter. This way, you’ll still be able to make a decent profit despite the odds being relatively safe.
3. Use Bonuses and Free Bets
In today’s world of sports betting, bonuses and free bets are everywhere. As a fan of sports betting, you should jump at the opportunity to use them, as you essentially have everything to gain and nothing to lose. For instance, with BetMGM at the moment, if you deposit at least $10 and bet $5 or more, BetMGM will refund your wager (up to $1,500) if it loses. Essentially, you’re getting a chunky free bet here, which is why thousands of sports fans have joined BetMGM specifically just for this offer. Of course, if your bet wins, then you get to pocket some profit, so it’s a win-win situation.
4. Conduct Research
No matter which sport you’re betting on, all of your bets should be backed by hard data. If you ask yourself why you’re placing a specific bet, you should be able to explain in clear detail the data-backed logic behind it. Something that pro bettors do is draw their bets from player statistics, team statistics, and historical data, which are great guidance points when you’re looking to place successful bets (or even do some matched betting). For example, Patrick Mahomes is currently the odds-on favorite at +500 to win MVP in the 2024 NFL season, which is based on the fact he won the accolade back in 2022 and is coming off a strong 2023 season for the Kansas City Chiefs. Therefore, if you were to bet on Mahomes to be the MVP for 2024, there’d be some credibility behind it, which wouldn’t be the case if you bet on someone like Caleb Williams at +5000 odds.
5. Place Live Bets
Some of the most lucrative bets that get placed are ‘live’ bets. These are bets that you place while a game is actively taking place, so there’s an added element of thrill and excitement. A good strategy here is to look at the over/under odds for a live game and wait for them to increase as the game progresses, as they can shoot up pretty quickly whenever a game gets off to a slow start. The only downside to live betting, though, is that you generally have to watch the game via streaming (so that you have a good understanding of what’s going on) and have a generally good instinct for how the game is going to play out.
Bonus Tip: Look for Odds Boosts
Odds boosts are now a common thing with most major sportsbooks and betting sites. Although there’s no guarantee of when exactly they’ll be made available, it’s quite common for odds boosts to be released whenever there’s a big game taking place. And if you aren’t sure what odds boosts are, they’re odds that have been increased to create a bigger payout, despite the overall likelihood of the bet remaining the same. What this does is open up excellent profit opportunities, especially for patient bettors who only like to place bets when there’s genuine value in the odds.
Final Thoughts
Not every bet you place is going to be a winner — that’s a fact. However, you can drastically improve your chances of placing winning bets and reducing your losses by following the top tips provided in this guide, which are specifically designed to encourage smarter gambling. From using a bet calculator to taking advantage of available odds boosts, make sure to follow along with the steps provided here so that you can take your betting experience to the next level.