A new era of sports betting has arrived, and with it comes the promise of making money. While there are plenty of stories of people turning $5 into $100,000 with a single parlay, the reality is that profiting from sports betting requires a significant investment of time, effort and money.
The most basic type of bet is a straight bet, in which you make a wager on a single outcome. For example, if you believe the Toronto Raptors will win against the Boston Celtics in an NBA game, you would place a straight bet on the team to win. The next level of sports betting involves placing spread bets, which involve a number being assigned to each team that handicaps or favors one team over another when two teams play each other. This number is typically in increments of half a point (.5) to avoid the possibility of a tie.
Then there are prop bets, which give you a vested interest in specific outcomes such as how many points a particular player will score. These are a bit trickier to master, but the key is to look for bets with value. The goal is to find bets with a higher probability of winning than the odds reflect, which can lead to big profits over time. To do this, you should keep near-obsessive records of all your bets, including losses and wins. You should also be willing to adjust your maximum bet size based on your luck, with maximums being raised when you experience a string of losses and decreased when you start winning.