Selectively was mentioned earlier as a key factor in winning money from sports betting. Alongside this, I would add specialisation. While selectivity means not betting on too many selections, specialisation is all about zeroing in on a small number of sports where you feel you have an edge, or on one particular area of a sport. For even the most avid sports fan it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything across a myriad of different sports. Far better to look at one, two or possibly three sports where you feel your knowledge is greatest, or where there are inefficiencies within the pricing of markets.

 

At all the betting companies I’ve worked at, it was very rare to find a customer who excelled at everything. A customer might have their stake-factor reduced on Basketball, but as a sportsbook, you’d be happy to take their Horse Racing business all day long. Another account might be a significant winner on Golf but give it all back on Football.

 

To facilitate specialising, it always helps to have detailed betting records. You don’t need to be an expert coder; a simple Excel sheet will suffice. Simply, adding columns to the sheet with the sport, and type of market (1X2, Handicap, Total etc.) can show you where your strengths lie. You might enjoy betting on the Premier League but if after a significant sample size of data, your numbers tell you that you lose on it, but win on Test Cricket, it’s time to give the EPL a miss.

 

As another example, there are so many Horse Racing fixtures that keeping up to date with all the salient information across every Flat and Jumps meeting is nearly impossible. But, a bettor with an edge on the sport can maximise this further by deciding to only look at a smaller area, like Hunter Chases, Flat Handicaps at up to a mile etc. For instance, in the early days of the All Weather, many sharp bettors concentrated solely on these meetings, with a smaller pool of horses comprising the fields for most races, and knew each horse’s characteristics and preferences, as well as the unique characteristics of each track.

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