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Sports Betting Guide: How to Bet On Sports For Fun & Profit
Do you realize that sports betting has been going on for centuries? For as long as there have been people playing sports, there have also been people betting on them. The reasons why people bet on sports are always the same; betting on sports is fun and there’s a chance of winning money.
Of course, it wasn’t always quite as easy to get your money down as it is today. We didn’t used to have the option to bet online. Thankfully, these days we all have access to top sports betting sites like the ones you see here.
Recommended by GamblingSites.com
Coming back to why people bet on sports, it’s a lot easier to have fun while betting on sports than it is to make money. That’s why so many people focus on the excitement that this form of gambling brings. In fact, you could say that the majority of sports bettors are what we call “recreational bettors.” They want to win if they can, of course, but that’s not their main priority. They just enjoy putting their sports knowledge to the test and having some fun at the same time. They are typically avid sports fans that believe putting a little extra money on the game will make watching it even more exciting.
Most of these recreational bettors are perfectly capable of making money from their betting, even if they don’t realize it. They typically have more than enough sports knowledge; it’s just that they don’t know how to properly apply that knowledge. They don’t understand the strategy involved, and they’re not really interested in learning about it either.
There are, however, plenty of people who bet with the sole intention of making long term profits. Some of them are extremely successful. There are many professional gamblers around the world who make a very good income from betting on sports. Others just make a decent amount of money on the side. And of course, there are also those who don’t manage to achieve their goal, but who are still determined to keep trying.
In this guide to sports betting we have something for EVERYONE who has an interest in betting on sports. We provide a quick overview of what this guide includes in the “About This Guide” section. The rest of this page is dedicated to explaining exactly what we have to offer in more detail. While we do see the benefits of reading through this page in its entirety, it is possible to skip straight to any one of our sections if you already know what you’re looking for.
Are you a complete beginner that’s hoping to get started right away? If so, please check out our quick start sports betting guide. Here you’ll find a simple outline explaining the most important things you HAVE to know!
About This Guide
To say this guide is comprehensive would be an understatement. We firmly believe that it’s one of the best sports betting resources on the Internet, and it might just be number one. Okay, okay, we might be a little biased. You can decide for yourself just how good it is, but we’re confident that you’ll be impressed.Here’s a quick summary of the four main sections of this guide.Introduction to Sports BettingThis is where beginners should start. It explains the basics of sports betting, and it offers advice on how to develop some fundamental betting skills.Types of Sports BettingHere we look at the various types of sports betting. These include daily fantasy sports, exchange betting and spread betting.Online Sports Betting & Recommended SitesThis section is all about placing wagers online. We offer lots of useful advice, and recommend the best sites in a variety of different categories.Sports Betting StrategyOur strategy section is where you can learn how to take your skills to another level, and start making real profits.
Our strategy section is where you can learn how to take your skills to another level, and start making real profits.
That’s not all we have to offer either! We provide individual betting guides for a variety of different sports in addition to an enormous amount of extra information and advice. Our guide will continue to be a work in progress, as it’s regularly being updated and expanded. We’re always trying to improve it in any way we can.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve never placed a wager before in your life, or if you’ve got years of experience behind you. Nor does it matter whether your primary goal is to simply have fun or to make long-term profits. We WILL help you get what you want out of your sports betting. That’s a promise!
At this stage, you must be wondering exactly who “we” are. Well, it’s no big secret. We’re part of the sizable team behind GamblingSites.com, and our main focus is sports betting. We’re a small group of experienced bettors who have learned what it takes to win over the years. We don’t advertise our names because we’re not doing this for the fame or glory. Plus, we don’t want to attract bookmaker’s attention any more than we already do!
Before we move on to describing the contents of our guide in more detail, here are a few quotes taken from e-mails we’ve received from our readers in the past.
“I just wanted to say thank you very much for all the information provided on your site. Now I understand some of the intricacies of sports betting that I was never aware of before.”
“I knew very little about sports betting but found your guide really useful and easy to understand.”
“Sports betting used to be something I would do on the side for fun, but that’s all changed since I’ve been going through your guide. I take things a lot more seriously now, and my results are so much better.”
“You guys are awesome! I used to lose way more football wagers than I would win, but now, thanks to you, I’m winning just about as often as I lose. I still have a long ways to go before I would be able to consider myself profitable, but now I actually believe that I’ll get there someday.”
In the interests of balance, we should point out that not EVERY email we get is positive. Here’s an excerpt from one reader who wasn’t too happy with us.
“Why do you ALWAYS talk about the Patriots and Steelers so much in your football betting guide? We’re not all in love with those teams you know. How about a little less bias? Go Falcons! Rise up!”
To be fair, we didn’t really feel like we’d mentioned the Patriots and Steelers that much. However, we wanted to show our disgruntled Atlanta Falcons fan that we care about his concerns, so now we go out of our way to make sure we don’t focus too heavily on any specific teams or players.
Introduction to Sports Betting
One of the most appealing aspects of sports betting is how simple it is at a basic level. We try to predict the outcome of an event and then wager our money accordingly. We win when our predictions are correct and lose when our predictions are wrong.
Although the fundamental concept is very straightforward, there’s obviously more to it than just making predictions and winning or losing. Before you put your hard earned dollars at risk, there are a few things you need to understand. That’s exactly why we’ve put together this section of our guide.
Let’s go over what you can expect to find in this section. In the first part of our introduction, there are several articles on a range of different topics. Here are a few examples.
- Why Bet On Sports? – A look at the many valid reasons for choosing to bet on sports, along with a couple of reasons for choosing not to.
- Betting Facts & Betting Fiction – We list some important facts that every good bettor should know, and dismiss a number of myths that get repeated far too often.
- Betting for Fun vs Betting for Profit – This article explores the relative merits of the two approaches to sports betting, and offers some advice for each one as well.
- The Biggest Challenges of Sports Betting – Think you’re ready to start betting? You might not be so sure after reading this article, where we look at the biggest challenges you’ll face.
There are also articles covering the legalities of sports betting, how it compares to other forms of gambling, the risks and rewards involved and more. In the second part of the introduction, we focus on the important information you need to actually get started. We’ve listed a few examples below.
- Getting Started: The Basics – This is a detailed article covering all the fundamental aspects of sports betting, such as the components of a wager and the role of bookmakers.
- Types of Wagers – Some wagers are incredibly simple, and some are more complicated. While using them all won’t be necessary, it still helps to understand how each one works.
- Understanding Odds & Calculating Payouts – Odds are a key component of any wager or selection, so it’s crucial that you properly understand them. This article explains what you need to know.
- Making Your Selections – This article covers how to make your selections. It includes a practical explanation of what to do, and some advice for making selections the right way.
The final part of our introduction is especially valuable. It features lots of advice that will help you develop some basic betting skills. This is useful for those who want to bet for fun, and essential for those who are betting for profit. Here’s a small selection of what’s included.
- Top Tips For Beginners – Following the tips in this article will ensure that you form good habits from the moment you get started.
- Common Betting Mistakes – Here we list several mistakes that are commonly made by novice sports bettors. We also offer advice on how to avoid them.
- Bankroll Management & Simple Staking Plans – Bankroll management is one of the most vital skills you need when betting on sports. This article is EXTREMELY important.
- Finding Value in Betting Odds – Identifying value is another skill that’s absolutely vital. Learn more about the concept of value and discover why it’s so significant in this article.
Types of Sports Betting
In this section of our guide, we explore the different forms of sports betting. There are more of these than you might think! The “traditional” form is fixed odds, and that’s the primary focus for most of our guide, but there are several other forms of betting that you should be aware of.
One of the forms we mention in this section is daily fantasy sports (DFS). DFS contests have become incredibly popular in recent years, especially in the United States. Not only are they a lot of fun, but they’re also a unique way to put your sports knowledge to the test and make some money. DFS is COMPLETELY different from fixed odds betting, and in some respects it carries a lot less risk. We actually dedicated a whole section of our website to DFS, so please check it out if you’d like to learn more.The other types we cover are as follows.
Online Sports Betting
Placing wagers online wasn’t even an option when we started betting on sports. Now, though, virtually every single one of our wagers is placed online. There are just so many advantages of betting this way, that it rarely makes sense to do anything else. It’s fast, it’s convenient and it’s VERY easy. You don’t even need a computer these days, as it’s possible to place wagers with a smartphone or other mobile device. Isn’t technology wonderful?
Our section on online sports betting includes a step by step guide to getting started, and plenty of tips for making the most out of the online experience. If you’re in interested in placing bets online, be sure to check it out.
Recommended Betting Sites
One of the most important things we do at GamblingSites.com is help our readers find the best places to gamble online. You may have noticed that we’ve include some advice for choosing where to bet in the online sports betting section outlined above. As useful as that advice is, we think it’s even more useful to give you some direct recommendations.
We’ve made these recommendations based on extensive research and testing. We’re constantly assessing which sites have the most to offer, and at this moment in time it’s the ones we’ve listed above that come out on top. Interested in learning more about the process we go through to evaluate sites? Please see the following article.
In addition to rating the best sites overall, we also rate them in a wide range of different categories. For example, we’ve ranked which sites are best according to what region you are betting from and according to specific requirements you may have. Here’s a selection of our most popular categories.
- Best for United States Residents
- Best for United Kingdom Residents
- Best for Live Betting
- Best for High Stakes
- Best for Fast Payouts
- Best for Bonuses & Rewards
For a complete list of our ranking categories, along with more information on our top recommended sites, please see the following page.
Sports Betting Strategy
This section of our sports betting guide is arguably the most valuable of all. It’s where we share the knowledge and experience that has helped us make substantial sums of money from betting over the years. But before we go any further, we need to make something very clear.
Our strategy section is NOT some perfect blueprint for sports betting that guarantees instant success. Unfortunately, nothing like that even exists.
Please don’t think that simply reading through our strategy section will immediately turn you into a winner. It won’t! Some of the information and advice we provide is straightforward and easy to understand, which means you should be able to put it to good use right away. We never tell you exactly what to do and when to do it, however, so don’t think for one minute that the strategies here will make winning money without having to think for yourself a possibility.
Our goal is to help you to develop your betting skills, and teach you how to make good betting decisions on regular and consistent basis. If you’re looking for a quick way to make money, you’re in the wrong place. You’ll need to put in some serious time and effort to get the most out of the information and advice that we have to offer.
Below are a few of examples of the articles featured within this section.
- Sports Handicapping for Beginners
- Basic Sports Betting Strategy Tips
- Simple Betting Strategies That Work
- Statistical Analysis & Distribution
- Developing Predictive Models
- Psychology & Heuristics
Betting Guides by Sport
Everything we’ve covered so far relates to sports wagering in a general sense. If you’re serious about trying to make money from betting on sports, then you need to know that different sports require different approaches. Placing wagers on a tennis match, for example, requires a different skill set than placing wagers on a basketball game.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a number of guides that focus on individual sports. These feature information, advice and strategy that are specifically relevant to the sport in question. They also contain details of the major tournaments, leagues and events you can wager on.
Our most popular guide is our football guide. This is extremely comprehensive, and includes an extensive strategy section covering both the NFL and college football.
The following popular guides are also worth taking a look at.
We also provide detailed guides on other well-known sports, and some of the less popular ones. We also have guides dedicated to some of the biggest sports events. These are all listed below.
- Cricket
- UFC Betting
- WWE
- Boxing
- Olympics
- NASCAR
- Rugby
- Hurling
- Lacrosse
- IndyCar
- Formula 1
- Cycling
- Volleyball
- Aussie Rules Football
- Gaelic Football
- Snooker
- Handball
- MotoGP
- Super Bowl
- Badminton
- Motorsports
- Athletics
- Darts
Miscellaneous Information & Advice
Some sections of our sports betting guide just don’t fit into any specific category. For example, we provide a useful odds converter tool. This is free to use, and can quickly convert odds into your preferred format. It calculates the implied probability of odds too. This will definitely come in handy.
We’ve also compiled a useful list of recommended sports betting books. If you want to expand your knowledge even further, the books on this list can all teach you something new. The following articles can do that too.
- Successful Sports Bettors: Bios, Case Studies & Interviews
- A Guide to Betting With Friends
- Sports Betting Touts, Tipster & Pick Services
- The Different Types of Sports Bettors
- Betting Pools & Sweepstakes
- Forming a Betting Syndicate
