A recent survey found that almost 20% of American adults have bet on sports at least once over the last year. With sports betting legalized in almost half the county at this point, it’s not uncommon at all for people to put down wagers on NFL, NBA, and MLB games.
Are you thinking about getting in on the action by betting on sports? If so, you should make sure you know what you’re doing first. Otherwise, you might end up losing a lot of money by blindly betting on sporting events.
Googling “bets near me” might help you find places to put in sports bets. But it isn’t necessarily going to arm you with all the information you’ll need to make smart sports wagers.
We’ve created a list of sports betting tips for you that should make it possible for you to increase your chances of winning money when you bet on sports. Take a look at our sports betting guide below.
Start by Signing Up for an Account With the Right Sportsbook
Before you can begin betting on sports, you’re going to need to sign up for an account with a sportsbook. There isn’t going to be any shortage of options available to you when you’re in the market for one.
But that doesn’t mean you should simply Google “bets near me” and sign up for an account with the first sportsbook you can find. Instead, you should do your homework on all the different sportsbooks available to you and then choose the one that looks like the best option.
There are lots of websites devoted to reviewing sportsbooks that can shed some light on what they all bring to the table. Something like this BetAnySports review will really come in handy when you’re trying to decide which sportsbook to place your bets through.
Pick the Right Sports to Bet On
Once you have an account set up with a sportsbook, you will be able to begin placing sports bets. But you shouldn’t just bet on whichever sports you see listed in your sportsbook.
Ideally, you’re going to want to bet exclusively on the sports that you know best. If, for example, you spend almost every day throughout the fall, winter, and spring watching NBA basketball, you should bet on NBA games as opposed to, say, NHL games.
The more that you know about a particular sport, the more well-informed your sports bets are going to be. It’ll automatically give you a better chance to win more of your sports bets.
Learn About the Different Types of Sports Bets
After you decide which sports you’re going to bet on, you’ll almost be ready to begin putting in wagers. But just before doing this, you will need to familiarize yourself with the different types of sports bets that you can make.
Most people know what moneyline bets are, even if they don’t necessarily know them by name. Moneyline bets will require you to bet on one team to win a game against an opposing team straight up. As long as you can get good betting odds on moneyline bets, they’re some of the simplest and most straightforward types of bets.
There are also many other types of sports bets that you can place including:
- Point spread bets
- Parlay bets
- Teaser bets
- Round robin bets
- Player prop bets
- And more
At first, you might want to stick with moneyline bets just to get your feet wet in the sports betting industry. But when you start to feel more comfortable with betting on sports, you should expand your horizons and try some other types of bets.
Research Sporting Events Prior to Betting on Them
Regardless of which types of sports bets you’re going to put in, you won’t ever want to bet on sports without doing any research. You’ll be asking for trouble if you begin betting on sports without doing a lick of research first since you might miss some key signs that will show you which teams and/or players you should bet on.
If you know that you’re going to be betting on a specific sporting event, you should research things like injuries that could have an impact on a team’s performance. You should also see if things like the weather might play a factor in a game.
You should even get a glimpse of how the betting odds for a sporting event have changed in the days leading up to it. This could show you which side the so-called betting sharps are betting on and give you some insight into which side you should be on.
Turn to the Sports Betting Experts for Assistance
Since sports betting has become so popular in recent years, there are lots of sports betting experts that have emerged online and started giving out their expert picks to people, either for free or for a small fee. You might want to turn to them for help if you don’t have a bunch of free time to research sporting events before betting on them.
Obviously, you should be careful about which sports betting experts you trust. You want to go with someone who has a proven track record when it comes to sports betting versus someone who just signed up for a sports betting social media account last weekend to sell sports betting picks.
The right sports betting experts could give you an advantage when you Google “bets near me” and hit up your sportsbook for the very first time.
Figure Out the Right Amount of Money to Bet on Sports
How much money are you going to bet on sports with? That’s a question you should try to answer sooner rather than later after signing up for a sportsbook account.
It would be worth establishing a sports betting bankroll that you can use while putting in your sports wagers. You can use this bankroll to figure out how much you’ll bet on individual games. Each of your sports bets should represent just a small fraction of your total bankroll.
Over time, you might want to increase the size of your bets as your bankroll grows. But at least in the beginning, you should limit your bets and keep them on the smaller side. It’ll prevent you from losing your whole bankroll right away because of poor money management skills.
Avoid Chasing Losses While Betting on Sports
You’re going to experience lots of ebbs and flows when you’re betting on sports. There will be times when it’ll feel like you can’t lose when you’re putting in sports bets. But there will also be times when you’ll be ice-cold and unable to hit a single sports bet, no matter how hard you might try to do it.
When you’re on a cold streak, it might be tempting to chase your losses and try to win some of the money you’ve lost back by increasing the size of your bets. But more often than not, all this is going to do is cause you to lose even more money.
You should make it your mission not to ever get caught chasing your losses. You’ll regret chasing your losses most of the time, and it’ll lead to you losing more money than you might feel comfortable losing during a single stretch.
Make Sure You’re Having Fun With Sports Betting
Sports betting is supposed to be fun. So if you ever find that you’re not having fun while betting on sports, you should take a step back from it for at least a little while and lick your wounds before deciding what to do next.
With sports betting being as popular as it is right now, sportsbooks will routinely offer people the chance to bet on so many off-the-wall sports. You can bet on things like table tennis, which means that there will always be sports bets that you can put in at any time of the day or night.
Your goal should be to limit how often you bet so that you don’t get too addicted to it. If you aren’t enjoying yourself at any time, there is no shame in taking a break from sports betting for a little bit.
Search For “Bets Near Me” to Find a Great Sportsbook
Are you ready to start betting on sports? All you have to do to get started is Google “bets near me” to begin your search for a sportsbook. You should be able to find a great one within just an hour or so.
From there, you can use all the sports betting tips that we’ve provided for you here to put yourself in a position to win money while betting on sports. It won’t be long at all before you’re able to see what all the hype is about as far as sports betting is concerned.
Read more informative sports betting articles by poking around on the rest of our blog.
