Most novice gamblers end up losing their proverbial shirts year in and year out, most failures can be directly attributed to poor money management practices but many more failures are also due to a complete lack of knowledge with regard to how to handicap that particular sport and the factors/situations that come into play week in and week out.

First of all a “Point Spread” is defined as a number placed on an event for wagering purposes and is often expressed in terms of the amount of points one side must spot the other side as a means of evening the playing field for both the favorite and underdog, in most cases a money-line is also attached to the same event so that one may simply wager on either the favorite or underdog to win without having to lay points, keep in mind that its usually football and basketball games that have point spreads.

If there is only one bit of advice that you take from this article, I hope it is this…Keep your eyes and ears open!! I bet you’re wondering “huh” right about now aren’t you? When I say keep your eyes and ears open I am referring to the radio, the TV, and the local newspapers in your area, often local team beat writers glean information from team players or team sources and use that same information for their local radio or TV shows or for the articles that they write for the local newspapers, this same information can be very valuable to you as a gambler if you are able to dissect what is important and what is not and then act upon the important information before the rest of the world does, this gives you what is referred to as an “edge”.

Get in the habit of having the local sports talk shows on the radio when you are driving or working at home on your computer, know what time the local nightly sports show comes on television in your area, pay special attention to the sports section of the local newspaper each morning over coffee or breakfast. The idea is to absorb as much information as you can through out the week and prior to game time, know who is returning from an injury or who is nursing a nagging knee or ankle injury that may slow them down, know if there are any “cluster” injuries along the offensive or defensive lines which can impact the upcoming game, know if your local team is playing at home and if there are any possible weather concerns.

The point of the matter is that you have a wealth of information at your fingertips with regard to the local college and professional teams in your area and in most cases this information can be accessed by you before the rest of the betting public learns about it and you can use this to your advantage, by no means am I saying to disregard the rest of the teams in the league and not care what is going on with them, what I am saying is that if you want to defeat the posted point spread you have to look for edges and often an edge can be found by concentrating on local information about local teams.

I advocate using multiple “outs” for placing wagers as a means of garnering the best possible point spread on any game you intend wagering on, in this day and age a gambler has access to many off shore sports books and it’s a good idea to utilize at least three or four of these for line shopping purposes, but remember to do your homework before simply signing up with just any off shore sports book, most are reputable but some are not.

However it is also a good idea to have a local book that you can place wagers with for the express purpose of wagering against local teams, remember that local teams are also generally popular teams to wager on for the local run of the mill gamblers in your area, meaning that you must usually lay a higher point spread number if wagering on a local team thru a local book, thus the rule of thumb is to use off shore books when wagering ON local teams but use local books when wagering AGAINST local teams.

If you want to defeat the point spread you have to remain ahead of the proverbial curve, this means that you must out-work other gamblers with regard to having and acting on information before they do, I personally do a ton of off-season work and I recommend that you do the same, for example, it’s a good idea to go over each teams schedule as soon as it is released for the upcoming season and finding potential bad spots for each team.

By bad spots in the schedule I mean taking note of the potential pitfalls or scheduling quirks that might affect a teams performance, for example, when a team is playing on the road for a third straight week, or when a team has played two or three straight divisional games and are in line to play a non conference team next, or if a team is playing on a short week because they just played on Monday night or if a team has been bouncing back and forth from the east coast to the west coast or visa versa.

Know in advance to the start of the new season by studying the schedule if a team is revenge minded against another team for an embarrassing loss or for knocking them out of the playoffs the previous year, try to study and concentrate on historical data from past divisional match ups, the reason is because divisional teams face each other at least twice yearly which means that often you can find a team that for one reason or another continues to dominate another.

Know in advance to the start of the new season what players a team lost to free agency or trades and what players they added via the draft and/or free agency and don’t forget to consider any coaching changes, a complete turnover in coaching staffs is a hard thing to overcome and often means that a team will struggle in the early going of a new season because that team is still trying to learn a new system.

The astute gambler will then take all of the information he or she has gathered during the off season and will prior to the start of the new season make up a set of power ratings which are then updated on a weekly basis once the regular season starts, a smart sports gambler will have a set personal schedule that they adhere to once the season is under way, keeping in mind that your off season work has already pinpointed potential scheduling problems and you have a set of power ratings in place, you can now use this information to better evaluate the opening Monday morning lines for the next week.

Monday morning is also a good time to check the injury reports of each team as well as advance weather reports for the upcoming weekend’s slate of games, as the week progresses you want to continue to monitor the posted point spread as well as the latest injury and weather reports, if you have already isolated a contest that has perceived value to you and that team is listed as the favorite it is usually best to make your wager as soon as possible, on the other hand if you like a doggie in a particular contest its best to wait until almost game time to place your wager.

The reasoning has to do with the way “Joe Public” bettors wager, which is usually on the listed favorite, by placing your wager early in the week (if you like the favorite) you are locking in your line before the general public has a chance to move the point spread upward, on the flip side if you like the doggie you want the public to drive the line upward so that you can get as many points as possible.

I could go on and on with this article but the end result would resemble a book, hopefully you will take some of this advice to heart, the one item that I did not touch on in this article but is probably the most important aspect of gambling is money management, without some sort of game plan with regard to protecting your bankroll you will surely lose your shirt and not be around placing wagers at seasons end.

Please refer to another article that I have already written simply entitled “Money Management”, the article explains in detail the system that I personally utilize as a means of protecting my bankroll over the course of a long season, one last bit of advise, remember that the betting public is generally wrong which is the reason Las Vegas is still standing, meaning that you should do your homework and follow your instincts and not those of the talking heads in the media or those of your drinking buddies.

Over the past 35 yrs plus, Jim Campbell has been on both sides of the Sports Investment Business, as a entrepreneur that ran his own business, to building and maintaining a private clientele base that greatly benefits from his superior handicapping expertise in the sporting arena.

What is the most difficult “easy” way to get rich? Sports betting! Thousands and thousands of gamblers lose all their money by betting on sports while only a handful are constant winners. Then how can you win at sports betting?

Losing all Your Money and Possessions at Sports Betting

The simplest way to approach the subject on how to become a rich and winning sports gambler, is to take a look at why most gamblers LOSE!

By far the biggest reason why most men and women placing bets on sporting events, are losers, is that they do it merely for the excitement. They just want to make watching the ball game more exciting experience and no need to mention that these people are NOT winning any money in the long run..

The other type of LOSERS are the young guns that enter the field of sports betting thinking that they are some type of gurus that know all about sports. These guys believe to have knowledge that nobody else carries. No surprise that these sports “experts” will fall out of the arena pretty quickly.

Ok, enough of those losing gamblers.

How to Win at Sports Betting

Where there are losers, there also must be winners. And sports gambling is no exception. However, winners are quite rare in this field. Only few percent of all people betting on sports, are winners in the long run.

I am quite sure that you agree with me when I say that isn’t very much. Then how do those few people make tons of money by just placing bets on different sport games like those of MLB, NFL and NBA? Well, they are smart and they do not try and do it all on their own. And for most of all they treat betting like BUSINESS!

They do not do it because it is exciting, they do it because they get hefty income out of it which allows them to live their life the way they wish. If you ever want to become a professional at sports betting, you too must learn to treat it like any other work!

The other reason is that the winners are realistic! They do NOT think that they can figure out everything on their own. They are smart enough to get help from the professionals that know a LOT more about sports than any ordinary sports fan. They basically take advantage of their knowledge and because of that they are making lots of money in the long run.

So basically if you wish to become a sports betting winner, you must learn to treat it like business and get assistance from the betting experts..

Why should you contemplate sports betting with basketball picks as a practical, money-making opportunity? Like me, you’ve likely heard of betting with basketball picks, and how the pull of gambling-specifically online gambling may have washed away so many peoples fortunes. But sports betting can also be incredibly lucrative and rewarding to a bright bettor…allowing you to generate an extraordinary income…in far less time than what you could have ever thought possible!

Imagine if there was an easy, template-style, idiot-proof way to profit on sports betting, online gambling, and basketball picks. Actually, there are profitable strategies so innovative that a complete sports betting rookie could employ it to bank tens of thousands in rocket-fire, huge profits in just a few short weeks-efficiently.

Whereas there are many useful tips to create a exciting, scientifically based income from precision sports betting and basketball picks wagering, there are some exact rules to start with. Produce the wagers with minimum downside to you and weather the storm in bad times or slumps. How to comprehend streaks, slumps, and going nowhere fast in sports betting is a mathematical and statistical training well worth the effort.

Pick a sport to wager on and whether you will head to Vegas or engage in online wagering. Professional and College Basketball fit the bill. These sports get a great deal of action and there is a lot of research that can be had from basketball like: news, sports services, TV replays and sports websites. Place basketball picks and wagers with the smallest casino advantage. Spreads and Totals are the wagers with the least disadvantage. The 11/10 betting structure is typical for spreads and totals. The disadvantage seems substantial but this is not automatically so.

Figure out the break even point for spreads and totals. The method for determining the break-even point is: 11 / (11+10) = 52.38%. Winning more than 52.38% out of 100 games is rewarding, and when considered this way the casino edge for sports betting and basketball picks doesn’t seem too large. Do a few simulations of win percentages. These will show a pattern of wins and losses. Suggestions are: 50%, 54% and 57%. A free online random number generator is the top choice, because you want to remove as much of the guesswork as possible.

When choosing picks, analyze the data with the amount of your bets and basketball picks wagers made in a particular time period. A bettor on vacation has a small window and he might make just 10 wagers on basketball. Divide the statistics in subsets of 10 and analyze the results in terms of profit. With enough sports betting and basketball picks wagers, you can work the data additionally by making graphs and tables. Long term results will confirm many long winning and losing streaks. When succeeding do not quit your day job and when losing – persevere. Be disciplined and educated and you will profit and have fun.

Casinos and on-line sports book operations are in the business of making a profit. They take bets on sporting events because they make more money than they lose in the majority of cases.

In some instances they take a beating but overall they make real money in the sports betting industry. Considering the big picture, that is why Las Vegas stays in business. They obviously take in a lot more than they pay out.

One recurring question in the world of pro sports gambling centers around how the casinos and sports books handle gamblers who are consistent winners. Do they ban them from betting? Can they prevent the bettors long term success?

In the real world, such concerns are over blown, as long as the gambler is not cheating or betting illegally. Always keep in mind that wherever you find winners, there are also losers. In most cases, there are two side to every bet and the house knows well how to protect it’s interests.

More to the point, the house virtually always wants a winner to come back and play some more. After all, how else can they eventually win back their money. When you ban a winner, you essentially send your lost cash away, never to be seen again. That is not a good bet.

Furthermore, remember that such large sums of money change hands from bets placed on pro sporting events that the winnings of one single gambler, even if it is in the tens of thousands, tends to be chump change compared to the size of the entire pot. Winning good money while betting on professional sports can, and if done right is, a very lucrative pass time.

Any sports gambling enthusiast can, under the proper conditions, make a lot of money on games in the NBA, Major League Baseball and the NFL. Will doing so get him run off his sports book or banned from a casino? Not as long as he plays by the rules, places honest bets and gains honest winnings. As noted before, the reality is that there will be a sincere desire to get that winner back again for even more gambling.

Getting to the point of being a consistent winner while betting on pro sports is no simple chore. There are lots of bettors but very few of them win with regularity. However, there are some that do and that is worth investigating.

There are basically two ways to become such a consistent winner. The most common is just plain trial and error. This route can take a long time, cost a lot of money and carries no guarantee for success. Someone trying this path may or may not succeed.

The quicker, easier and far less costly way is to find a well established, highly successful, proved and guaranteed betting system. But the key here is to do careful research. There are lots of claims made by folks who will make a lot more money selling you their program than they will ever make actually using that program themselves. Remember, buyer beware.

There are some important characteristics to look for when seeking a pro sports betting system that provides you with the opportunity to win big. A short list of some of the most important factors follows.

1. Get a system that connects you with a reputable, reliable on-line sports book.

2. Use a program that both provides you with picks and supplies the detailed system related information you need to make your own picks as well, leaving you with two valid options for picks.

3. You need to find a system that has a well established track record of winning a high percentage of bets placed. Figure at least two thirds as a target percentage. Keep in mind that in the long run just about anyone should be able to win half of their sports bets so making two thirds your minimum win percentage makes sense.

4. Importantly, a well tested system provides a template that can literally be run in your spare time and will not require a ton of your time and attention. Anything that does undoubtedly puts far too much of the burden on you and begs the question of what it is you are paying for.

5. Find a system that is based upon straight wagers and not a lot of convoluted gimmicks.

In sum, there are ways to win enough money on pro sports betting to eventually quit your day job should you choose, or at least be able to spend the bulk of your time pursuing your personal interests. Seek a betting system with the characteristics listed. One such opportunity can be reviewed by following the link below.

Once you achieve that kind of success, there is no need to worry about being banned. In fact, expect the opposite treatment to come your way.

Football is a man’s game and all men like nothing more than winning some pennies from a sound football bet. If you already have a full-time job, the chances are your not going to have a great deal of spare time. Unfortunately, it is an essential requirement to carry out research and analysis on the forthcoming fixture list. If you are not able to do this for yourself, there is a solution available.

Plenty of hardworking individuals enjoy placing regular successful soccer bets. They win money using a football betting tips service. The information is relayed to them and they act accordingly. The notifications are in the form of text message, email or a private web page. Once this information has been received, there is a simple task of placing a small number of bets.

It does not matter how many hours a day or how many days a week these people work. They do not spend valuable time analyzing past results or previous records. Nor do they have to keep up-to-date with the latest team or injury news. That is the beauty of using a quality betting tips service. All the aforementioned tasks which are very time consuming are effectively outsourced to someone else.

Of course, this kind of information service does not come free and easy. You can expect to pay some sort of fee for the privilege of receiving such profitable info. The majority of these providers offer numerous payment packages. This may be in the form of a weekly, monthly or annual fee. Some vendors offer a one-off payment in exchange for lifetime membership. However, the latter choice can be on the expensive side.

The length of your subscription or membership is largely irrelevant. You simply choose one that suits your budget and personal circumstances. The euphoria you experience when realising how much money you have won is hard to describe. They say gambling is a mug’s game. Try telling that to those who win money using a football betting tips service.