Arashu

If you’ve been betting for a while and thinking about making the jump I would suggest to thread ligthly. For most people who are winning it’s best to keep sports betting as a profitable hobby. Sports betting as full time income is something that I only think a fraction of a percent can pull off. But don’t feel bummed out, making a small side income I would say is doable for most people who do their due diligience,

Crunching the numbers

Even to just make $50K/year in profit from sports betting is a lot harder than it seems if you haven’t crunched the numbers. If you’re decent sports bettor, you should have an ROI of 5%(less if it’s difficult market to beat i.e NFL, NBA). With an ROI 5% you would literally need to lay down $1 million dollar worth of bets per year. 0.05 * 1 000 000 = 50, 000. That’s close to $3000 worth of bets per day all year round. So basically the only way you’re going to have that kind of turn over is by placing large bets, you most likely won’t be able to find enough winning bets to spread out and limit your variance. Most people who haven’t looked into the math gets surpised but don’t worry, the good news if you can stomach the variance building up a bankroll goes quick if you actually have an edge and not withdrawing from your bankroll because your growth will be exponential. If you’re able to grow your bankroll 200% each year, you will quickly be making a six figure income unless your starting bankroll is very small.  A $10K roll would turn into $270K after 3 years. You won’t get those kind of returns in the stock market, real estate or anywhere else but obviously sports betting come with greater risk(but not as much as you think if you’re betting with proper bankroll management).

Finding the best sport to bet on

My suggestion is to focus on one sport and dominate that sport. Don’t spread yourself out too thin. Betting on sports professionally is kinda like running a business, you don’t want to be doing multiple things at once, it’s better to excel at one thing than to be jack of all trades. I for example focus on MMA, which is still a relatively soft sport to make money from. Unlike NBA and MLB which has been overtaken by number crunchers, MMA still has large edges. By the way I recommend your read our interview with paul the grappler, a guy specializes in betting on mma.

The other aspect of betting on sports is the pscyhological part. If it’s your sole source of income you will definitely hit rough patches, no matter how good you are at betting you will eventually go on temporary downswings that can seriously hurt your mental game. This is why I suggest that most people don’t rely on sports betting to pay their rent but rather just having as side hobby that make money from and time to time hit a big win. Basically, it’s difficult to make a living from sports betting but doable but most people are better off by not doing it full time.