053 Make money with Online Gambling – Sports Betting

Making money by betting on the outcome of a sporting event is an activity as old as sports itself. If you want to try it, here are some tips that will help you understand how sports betting works, and especially to maximize your chances of success. This is the second article dedicated to online gambling.

What is sports betting?

Sports betting allows you to bet money on the outcome of a sporting event such as horse racing, soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball, moto GP, football, formula 1, etc. These bets used to be made exclusively through sports betting agencies, either private or sometimes linked to the state, or even unlicensed and sometimes unauthorized bookmakers.

Today, there is a multitude of online betting sites on the Internet, easily accessible via a smartphone, tablet, or computer, which allow everyone to make predictions on events taking place around the globe. It is therefore mainly these that I will talk about in this article.

How does online betting work in practice?

Well, first of all, you have to register on one of these online betting sites and then fund your pool via bank transfer or credit card. Then, when your account is credited, you can choose the match, race, or game you want to bet on and decide how much you want to bet. Once the bet is validated, all you have to do is pray to the gods of gambling to be favorable to you.

If your prediction was right, bingo, the amount of your winnings will be paid into your prize pool. If, on the other hand, you screwed up, you will lose your entire stake and you can always, if it helps, curse the gods who apparently were not listening to you enough.

Beware of addictions!

Like online casinos, this kind of site can quickly become addictive! Gambling addicts are numerous, and it is even a disease that has a name: “gambling addiction”. People who suffer from it develop a compulsive and irrepressible addiction that often plunges them into great psychological distress, but also financial difficulties.

If you think this could happen to you, then run away from this kind of site. There are plenty of other ways to make money. And if you are already a victim of this evil, here is the link to the help center for the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. For the others, a small Internet search will help you find it quickly.

How much can you win with sports betting?

The potential winnings depend on the odds generally associated with each game or race that you can bet on. Be careful. When I talk about odds here, I’m talking about the official index which varies according to the geographical area where you are. There are three main indexes: money line odds (MLO, in the US), fractional odds (FO, in UK), and decimal odds (DO, in Europe).

So, these odds are a numerical index that indicates the chances of an event occurring (a team’s victory, number of goals scored, order of finish of a race, etc.). The higher the odds, the more unlikely the predicted outcome seems, so the lower your chances of winning, but the greater the potential payout if you win.

For example, let’s imagine a match between Real Madrid and Sao Marino, who, I feel sorry for them, are last in the UEAF rankings as I write these lines. The odds of a hypothetical Sao Marino victory should be very high. If you bet on Sao Marino, you will have little chance of winning, but if you win, it would be the jackpot!

As you can see, it is these odds that determine your potential winnings if you win. So how does it work exactly? It’s pretty simple. To use my example, which leaves Sao Marino with little chance of winning, let’s say you bet €10 on them anyway and the DO odds are 100. If you’re right, you’ll win your bet multiplied by these odds ($10 x 100), so $1000.

The minimum DO odds are 1.01 (there are no maximum odds). The odds have the following meaning: 1.10 means 91% chance of winning, 1.50 means 66% chance of winning, 2.00 means 50% chance of winning, 1 chance of winning out of 2, 5.00 means 20% chance of winning, 1 chance of winning out of 5, 10 means 10% chance of winning out of 10, etc.

You should also be aware that in pari-mutuel betting, such as horse racing, the odds are determined by the total number of bets placed, whereas in most other sports betting, the odds are fixed.

View of a baseball stadium filled with fans at a game You can bet on baseball games, but not only: NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, Soccer, CFB, Golf, Tennis, NASCAR… there are plenty of choices. Photo: Jakob Rosen

Who can play sports betting?

As with the casino, almost anyone can bet online, but there are exceptions such as:

  • People under the legal age, often the majority, which seems logical.
  • Those who live in a country where this practice is simply forbidden (although using a VPN is still possible).
  • Professional athletes (and their relatives too, sometimes), for the obvious reason that they could influence the outcome of a match or race to their advantage.
  • People who have had legal problems related to online gaming and are therefore “blacklisted”.

How to find a good online betting site?

There are a lot of sites that allow you to bet online, and even if most of them are reliable, there are some others that are quite suspicious, not to say sometimes dishonest. But then, how to know if a site is reliable or not? The first reflex would be to look at the reviews left by users on Trustpilot, but unfortunately, they are not really representative because many of these reviews are the expression of a deep frustration after a more or less heavy loss.

There are also sites or blogs that display rankings of the “best” online betting sites, but here again objectivity is not there since it is very often the sites with the highest commission (the links displayed are affiliate links) that are displayed at the top of the list, and therefore not necessarily the most reliable.

No, as with online casino sites, it is best to make your own opinion. If a site interests you, sign up and bet a few dollars to see how it goes. If you are happy, you can then place more bets, and if you are not happy, try another one.

The first thing to check when researching is whether the site has an official certification. This is usually highlighted, so you should be able to find this kind of info easily enough in the footer or in the navigation menu.

It is also worth choosing the sites with the highest welcome bonus: Most sites offer to refund your first bet if you lose it (either by allowing you to get your money back or by offering you to replay it). And don’t forget to check the odds index as well, as they sometimes differ from one site to another.

Among the sites I visited, here are the ones that seem to be the most interesting and reliable:

How to get the most luck on your side?

Of course, you can’t control the outcome of a sporting event, but there are “techniques” to maximize your chances of success. Here are some of them.

  • To be able to predict the outcome of a sporting event with as much accuracy as possible, it is important to be familiar with the news of the sport you want to bet on. To do this, find out the rankings of your teams and players (championships and world rankings), the physical condition of each of the sportsmen present (for example, an injury to a key player of a team can play a big role in the final result; also watch out for red cards and chances of suspensions of a player), the weather (a soccer match between an English team and a Spanish team in rainy weather can be to the advantage of the English team, which is more accustomed to such conditions, for example) and the stakes of the match. You can also consult some statistics such as the history of the confrontations and the recent form of the players/teams. You should also know that online betting sites sometimes provide this kind of information.
  • Some specialized tipsters, which you can find on social networks and especially YouTube, give advice on certain sports, and sometimes even venture to make predictions. Don’t hesitate to check their success rate. This option is ideal if you are new to online betting and don’t know much about sports.
  • To ensure minimum losses and a better chance of winning, it is often better to choose low odds. The odds are set by professionals who have more information than the bettors, so they are particularly reliable. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should never try for high odds, which allow you to win higher sums, even if your chances of winning are lower, but do it only once in a while.
  • You should also know that there are so-called “double chance” bets, which allow you to bet on two possible outcomes for a single match, on three possible outcomes (win, loss, draw). So try it out.
  • It is important to manage your money well. You can decide on a certain amount not to exceed each month and stick to it. It is also important not to bet all of that amount on one bet: In fact, it is best not to play more than 20% of your capital. To monitor your activity and know where you stand, don’t hesitate to keep a notebook in which you record your bets, their outcome, and your winnings and losses.
  • Live betting is an interesting option to avoid taking too much risk: You just have to rely on what you see, and you can bet on small actions such as the name of the scorers, the exact score, the number of goals of a team… The odds are updated in real time.
  • It is best to avoid betting on your favorite team or player as you run the risk of being guided by emotion and not making a logical choice.
  • Finally, it is important to always remain calm and clear-headed. If you experience a big loss, don’t rush to play again without doing the necessary research as this could cause more damage. Similarly, if you win big, you need to keep a cool head and be aware that your luck won’t last forever.

Conclusion

So, do you have any chance of winning by betting online? Well, compared to online gambling such as casino or lotto, your chances of winning are quite real here, as long as you know enough about the teams or sports you want to bet on. Of course, the higher this risk factor is, the higher your winnings can potentially be, as we have seen, but this has nothing to do with pure chance or even with algorithms that almost nobody knows how they work.

Online betting is therefore the right thing to do if you have no particular needs, just want to win a few dollars from time to time, in a fun way. If, on the other hand, you are only interested in betting on sports to make money, there are other, less risky ways to do so.

EcoTips

Environmental and climate change issues are more than ever at the heart of the concerns of this 21st century, which is why I am proposing a few ideas that will enable you to limit the negative impact that the implementation of this idea could have.

These solutions that I suggest are sometimes largely insufficient to compensate for these negative impacts, such as carbon offsetting. Unfortunately, there is not always an ideal and 100% efficient solution, far from it. And if you have others, please do not hesitate to share them in the comments below.

The comments here are the same as in the previous article on online casinos. Online betting sites are hosted on servers that consume a lot of energy (mostly fossil fuels). And here again I couldn’t find an eco-friendly solution, so I would advise you to limit your online gambling consumption as much as possible.

Pros

  • More chances to win than at the casino
  • A fun way to win money

Cons

  • The risk of losing is sometimes high
  • Beware of addictions

Disclaimer, please read this Legal and administrative aspects of the ideas you'll find on Sweekr are rarely discussed because they vary greatly depending on the country you live in. I would advise you to check with your local government before starting any business. Keep in mind that if you make money, the state will ask for "its share" in order to guarantee the proper functioning of schools, hospitals and other public services. Therefore, you will probably have to acquire a micro-entrepreneur status, or any other similar.
Also, be aware that this post may contain affiliate links, and I may get compensated a commission at no extra cost to you if you click on the affiliate links and subsequently make a purchase. This will help maintain the site, so thank you.

This article could be completed or improved with your help. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any question, a relevant remark, a feedback, additional information or spotted any error.Go to comments

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