Whether it is possible to earn money from gambling and make a living from betting are questions which seem to bother many punters.
To give the short answer…
Yes, it is absolutely possible to make money with sports betting.
Image: Gualtiero Boffi (Shutterstock)Bookmakers make money; sports analysts make a living from gambling by compiling odds for bookies; some of my own income derives from sports bettors using this website. Programmers earn a living from gambling by developing various betting applications. Manufacturers of gaming machines make money from people’s gambling habits.
I could certainly continue this list as the betting business is a big industry providing many, many people with jobs.
But this is probably not a satisfactory response for sports fans who bet themselves and pursue the dream of supplementing their income, or becoming rich from gambling one day.
However, for these hopeful punters, the answer is also clearly positive…
- Yes: it is possible to develop long-term profitable betting strategies.
- Yes: it is possible to find betting odds which hold value and provide a mathematical edge.
Nothing is Impossible!
The big question is whether you will manage to join the minority, the tiny crowd of betting enthusiasts who finally become successful.
Another question is whether you have the patience (and time) for acquiring the necessary knowledge to win more than you lose, because only knowledge is power; without knowledge there is no chance.
Reliance on luck is not a foundation for lasting success. With luck alone nobody can build a house – only a handful of lottery millionaires can claim the opposite.
Successful Sports Bettors – Examples
In September 2005, in “Expert Betting Advice” forum, a young woman named Maria Santonix started publishing horse racing lay bets. I followed her thread at the time, and I must say that it came across as very authentic. She published daily picks (except Saturdays) and in only 303 days, her initial bank of £3,000 increased to £100,603.78.
The thread has since been taken offline by the operators of the forum, but if you google “Maria Laying System” you will find a plethora of articles referring to her experiment. Naturally, doubt breeds skepticism and most of the responses are quite critical.
It is difficult to find really credible information about betting success on the Internet. In the majority of threads you will read statements such as “I know someone who knows someone who makes his living from betting”.
The only website I am currently aware of which has published quarterly betting results for several years is Alan Seymour’s Sports Arbitrage Review. Alan writes about his experiences as a professional arbitrage trader and has been arbing since 2002.
Famous Last Words
If you have anything substantial to contribute to this topic please leave your comment below. It will warm our hearts and be absolutely great!
As I continue to develop betting courses and tutorials, I would be very keen to learn which specific content you are interested in most.
I thank you in advance for you valuable contribution! Every thought helps to develop this website into a sparkling source of knowledge in the often far too confusing worldwide web. 😛
Tony, I have some thoughts about your comments and I hope you dont mind me expressing them.
First, your quote “I mean I give away my strategy on here and someone actually comes on here and implies I’m not successful.!!!!!!”, when or where did you gave away your strategy?
Second, I am with you about the betting rules everyone follows, I also believe that in order to break the market you need a different set of skills/rules. This is why I explained my method and even published a sample of one of my betting angles/strategies, I dont think is the same advise everyone gives in forums.
Third, I wont insult you by asking some proof to what you say (I will believe in what you say until I see proof you are lying), but you have to understand that as most gamblers are male and think to know better, they also wont believe what you are saying because it goes against the nature of those unwilling to try different things, which I think, is a gambler (loses money again and again on the same mistakes and somehow expect this to pass in the future)
Fourth, have you ever taken into account the psychologial situation the bettor is in? Sometimes people can take high risks, sometimes they cant. This does not undervalue their methods. I think the strategy needs to be connected to the individual, if it does not match it wont matter how successfull the strategy is in the long run, the bettor wont be able to hold it.
Final thought, I am all for educating ourselves and explore different approaches, you may indeed have the BEST way, I really hope you do because it means that anyone that thinks for himself, questions the common knowledge and has a passion for finding his path to success (in whatever way you define it), has a possibility for something really good. And I think you have these characteristics. I hope you spend more time educating us rather than trying to prove you are a winner.
Thanks and I hope you do not take my words in a negative way.
I would like to add a couple more things if I may now that I have cooled down a bit.
When I do my bets,instead of trying to win a really boring safe amount that would entail as little risk as possible I usually try to assess the situation and try to win as much as I believe is possible albeit hopefully without risking much more than about 10% of my bank.
I do this because I am in fact attempting to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the way I bet on football is not only profitable but the best way!
And no one ,but NOONE ever listens to anything I say because what I do breaks all the ‘rules’ of betting( apart from money management).
So I know that I have to make a very large amount before anyone will take notice.
But why do I care so much about this issue?Surely I’m an idiot for wanting this method to be known?
Well first ,I have enough money to last me the rest of my life.
Second,I have become utterly utterly FASCINATED by gamblers.To the extent where I am just SO incredibly curious to know just what gamblers would do with my method.
I believe I could give this away and still make money because of the,er,characteristics of the average gambler.
(The main characteristic of course is that they are MALE.And thus they all think they know better.:) )
Going back to my original post.Last season ,if Burnley had ended up bottom of the Premiership I would have made a £1million PROFIT!!!
Ladbrokes would have had to payout the maximum £1million to me.
Now what’s interesting about that is that they have made major rule changes which may or may not be due( in part) to my bets.
Because I deliberately went after Ladbrokes as they had a £1 million limit on the Conference North and Conference South and I knew I could easily best them on these markets.
Their current limit is now £100,000.
Also,if Derby had gained just one more point and reached the playoffs I would have won an extra £190,000!
This season I’m attempting a £500,000 profit although of course that will be a huge challenge 🙂
Cheers
Hi Tony I think I have a similar system can I email it to you for your opinion? thanks.
i really enjoyed your contributions. You have shown that impossible is not in your dictionary. Am a struggling punter and i will need your help. kindly send me the strategy and little explanation if required. I Will b looking forward my email kareemsaheed45[at]gmail[dot]com
Hi Tony…I m a struggling punter.could you share some of your winning tips.Thanks in anticipation.
Hi Slevin,
I had to comment on your comment as you say you have failed to see any successful strategies in the comments.
Am I to infer from your comment that you think I’m some kind of fantasist then?
Have you actually ever tried my way? If not,how can you possibly know that it doesn’t work!?
How much do I need to make this year to convince you?
That’s a serious question and I take this opportunity to ask EVERYONE.
Because make no mistake here people.Im not mucking around.Im FED UP of reading abject nonsense on the internet about how hard it is to make money from betting.
In the last 2 years * I have made a profit of £500,000.
SO,can people please let me know how much money I need to make before we can all agree that my strategy is in fact the best one.
Once I’ve achieved this then I daresay, from what I’ve seen on forums,that 95% of gamblers will carry on betting against each other on 90 minute markets.
But I will be able to help those who want to be helped.
* As I’m honest let me point out that the season before I lost £15000 (from a £180,000 bank).However,in the last game of the league season Brentford hit the bar with a last gasp penalty and the other team went up the other end and scored the winner.
If that penalty had gone in and Bees had held on for 30 seconds I would have made a £130,000 profit.
In fact I had another chance to make £130,000 profit when Brentford hot to the play off final but they lost to Yeovil.
Cheers
Please excuse the tone but,honestly,I find gamblers utterly impossible at times.
I mean I give away my strategy on here and someone actually comes on here and implies I’m not successful.!!!!!!
I give up.
I fail to see any successful betting strategies in the article or in the opinions ? Unfortunately i ve been betting for 6 years and ive tried almost anything but i still was not able to discover a betting strategy that brings me CONSISTENT profit.
Hey Tony,
Wonderful comment… I have created a post on my web blog for update, picks and relevant information ahead of major football season! As part of my preparation for the upcoming major season….I have decide to educate punters who are ready to be making MEGA PROFIT betting and focusing on goals markets all through the season…. @ safepunters.com/making-a-small-fortune-betting-on-goals-markets/
Making A Small Fortune Betting On Goals Markets
I’ve decided to help the betting community with a winning trends for the upcoming football season…And, I believe this is going to be a golden opportunity for those planning to be making a living betting on football matches.
Good luck
Hi Harrison,
Where will you be posting these trends please?
How easy is it to spot these trends do you think? What skills do you need?
Cheers
Hello Jake, I use momentum as well for inplay betting. For short term, I dont trust statistics, only psicological factors. I still think you have to measure your bets in terms of probability… for example. The argentina-paraguay match of Copa America, I saw a big opportunity in the 2-1 score at the 75 minute. The market offered Argentina at 1.11 for laying. I was confident that Paraguay had a bigger chance of scoring the equalizer, they had a lot of momentum (which is judged subjectively). I did not see a powerful Argentina, I thought this was a lot like a coin toss and I placed my lay. If I do not think in terms of probability, I would have been disappointed if my bet did not come through and I would have over reacted if my bet won.
I have seen this kind of opportunities come around almost every weekend, the main problem is to be patient and disciplined, which is my main problem regarding live betting, sometimes you WANT to see an angle. I have decided to specialize for games that have 0 to 1 goal difference for laying the winner or backing a winner in a draw, and only in second half using high odds (more than 2.4).
For prematch betting, its a lot easier for me to follow the plan, I do not even watch the games I bet on unless I want to make a live play. This is were I follow 100% my model and where I find statistics to be reliable.
I hope this season I can achieve results like yours in my live betting. Good luck.
Hey all,
I’ve been betting for about 2.5 years now. I’ve made around $7000 off of roughly $1300 in deposits. My strategy primarily consists of moneyline and in-game bets (typically next goal). I don’t suggest in-line betting unless you know the sport inside and out and can gauge the momentum. Occasionally I bet on futures and playoff series lines. The latest bet I’m riding out was actually Golden State’s series price for the NBA Championship when they were trailing 1-2 after game 3 in the series. They are now leading 3-2 and I was able to hedge my original bet at a fraction of the cost. As it stands, I can’t lose money on that bet at this point. I do also sometimes find value in placing bets on an anytime goal scorer. And I try to stay away from parlays altogether unless I want the amusement a Lotto ticket provides. I certainly don’t account for them in my traditional strategy.
My real expertise comes with South American soccer though. I have a good knowledge of the Portuguese language so I have a competitive advantage with betting on the Brazilian Serie A league– a league that I also avidly follow. I’m a firm believer that sports betting is really only 40% statistics. The other 60% I believe is energy– think “Metaphysics of Competition.” That may sound like baloney to a lot of people but it’s what I’ve personally found to be true. If you follow team and league news, you can find some great insights as to the mentality of certain teams and how they’ll likely perform in upcoming matches. I also adhere to the Law of Opposites in regards to betting. If a team has blown out their latest opponent, often times they will struggle with goals in their following match. That’s not to say that they will lose, but it often sets up great odds for the over/under bet. At times this can seem contradictory with patterns though. Another thing… I bet very selectively. Sometimes I’ll go a week or two without finding anything I’m confident on. The way I see it, I’d rather wait and make money, than bet, take some losses, and come out with less marginal profit.
Just recently I was given a $10 freeplay through an online sportsbook. The original bet had to be on a baseball game. That was pretty much 50/50 for me because I don’t really know a great deal about baseball other than it’s almost always about the pitcher. I won that bet and have turned $9.09 into $45 since. It’s basically taken a month. I started a tumblr to document my progress of my ultimate goal of $3000 dollars. I’ve been posting privately though because I’m afraid my sportsbook won’t give me an eventual payout if they were to find out that I was making my bets public per screenshots.
To answer the forum question then: yes, I do truly believe that it is possible to earn a living off of sports bets, but I think it’s a lot to due with mentality and finding your niche in the sports world.
Hi,
I’d like to pick you up on a couple of things you said in your interesting post if I may.
1) As far as I’m aware it’s rather well known that when a team scores a lot of goals in a game then it’s just as likely to score just 1 goal in it’s next game as it would have been had it scored just once. Thus I’m finding it very hard to believe that there are very good opportunities to be had on the over/ unders when this occurs.And even if there were ,once again,I must express my surprise that you would give this away on an open forum.
2) You dont need to know anything about South American football to make money from betting on it.
I know absolutely nothing about it ( well apart from the league tables and the upcoming fixtures and the current prices) yet I also expect to profit from it just by betting in running on the outrights.
The point being that you could to.
Cheers
Hello, I looked for a way to upload a table I made with Excel. I published the games I have for one of my Spanish La Liga betting strategies/angles. All I can say is I use a similar method like the one soccerwidow describes here https://www.soccerwidow.com/football-gambling/betting-knowledge/value-betting-academy/odds-calculation-en/inflection-points-football-betting-odds/
I have used this technique before I even knew its name, I have to thank this website for explaining me that what I do, its not crazy 🙂
I use my ratings combined with odds and what the betting public is buying. I have to say that some strategies can be exploited only using betting odds, I use oddsportal for my data input. Soccerwidows tables are a great start by the way.
My ratings refine my selections, providing me with higher yields, but I have found that its possible to win using those inflection points without any rating whatsoever.
Anyway, since I cannot upload the file or an image showing my table, I can email it to anyone that is interested. I already posted my email, but this is it anyway
rodolfotg [at] gmail [dot] com
Thanks and good luck
For people who don’t know what Rod is talking about, here is the Inflection points article.
Rod, feel free to email your table and/or screenshots to us, and we upload it for you and publish it here in form of a comment.
Best wishes, Soccerwidow
I made a simple table to show the results from one of my strategies. I hope this gives us more insights into this kind of approach. I rate the teams based on past 4 games for each team and their last 3 games at home/away respectively. Then I use 3 groups (M,R,E) to scale the ratings.
Here is the table for download: LaLiga (Excel)
@ Joe F
I had to reply to this for 3 reasons,
1) It made me laugh
2) I’d like to ask Joe if he thinks he has a special talent for reading games? Presumably yes since otherwise anyone with money to lend to do the same thing?
Thus how does he believe he got this talent?
3) Because,coincidentally enough,I have JUST started an in play thread on a gambling forum!
In the introduction I point out that last season I seem to have lost count of the number of times I watched a game and thought that the outsiders were playing much better and then they took the lead.
But I also said that I did not expect the thread to make a profit because it can’t possibly be that easy ( can it?).
Because if it was any value in the prices would disappear.
Hi People,
I made £20,000 from £2,000 in 2 months about 2 years ago on bet365 in-play football/soccer. I spent all off that now but now considering making a living out of betting in-play which i believe i can do easily. Unfortuately i don’t have any money to start this, so if anyone would like to sort me out a loan of £1500 or would like to team up to make money or if anyone needs live tips, then don’t hesitate to email me liljoe33[at]hotmail[dot]com.
Many Thanks.
Hey zikoro
I’m intrested
Hello all..am a student, football betting is really great and you can
make a living with it. Well I have this strategy that have been working well for 8months now
And I have been making lots of money from it.
By mathematical increasing process ..the more you play the more you grow
If anyone needs the strategy, you can reply back and I will teach you hear.
All I want is the standard of life to grow.
Hi zikora,
Did I understand correctly?Are you saying you are willing to disclose the strategy thst has made you a significant amount of money on this forum?
Perhaps instead you could give a clue as to what it is? But either way,I’m interested!
Cheers
Please help me! Thank you.
My email is curlyti[at]yahoo(doc)com
Hey Junah… I also found this in Romania. The problem I encountered was the liquidity for this leagues. I will take the recommendation from RightWinger, get some matched betting and open accounts on more bookmakers, this will help with the liquidity aspect. But it still presents a problem for me, because I am trying to automate as much as possible, I only found that betfair and pinnacle give users the tools for developing an automated betting solution within their sites. Unless I dont use the closing odds variable, I wont have to wake up at 3 am on a saturday to place my bets (I did this for all this season, it really disturbed my mind). I will look into this “market inefficiencies” and develop a sustainable strategy. Thanks Junah.
Hello everyone, its good to know there are people making a living with betting/trading sports. I wanted to ask, which approach have given you more success, calculating the odds of an event to find value, or looking into how much money you could have done if you bet always on the X, Over, etc, regardless of the odds in a given situation?
For example, I have great success in the spanish primera division betting on the outsiders, the odds range from 4 to 8. I dont know the “real” odds for a given game (in comparison to the bookmakers odds), all I know is that using my rating criteria, betting on the visiting team in this odds range I will win money.
Thanks
Rod, if you bet on outsiders with long odds, have a look at the South African Premierleague. Many outsiders winning there!
Hi,
I’m sure it’s me but I’m a bit confused.
First of all,if you genuinely believe that you may have found value by in La Liga why would you tell others about it?
I strongly advise you not to do this!
If there is any truth to what you say then that value will be gone by the end of next season.
Unless no serious gambler believes you.Lets hope so!
Secondly ,you mention your ‘rating criteria’ yet also say you don’t ‘know’ the ‘real ‘ odds in the games you are betting on.Of course no one can ever know the real odds but I took you to mean that you are betting on any team that is in the price range regardless of ratings?
So I’m confused as go whether you are using ratings at all,thsts all.
Good luck.Cheers for the tip!