What is Sports Investing?

Sports Investing is a disciplined, responsible method of sports gambling focused on the principle of money management.  The principles of sports investing allow you to maximize your profits while minimizing your risk.

Have you ever heard of Sports Investing before?  Up until 2002, I never heard of the term either.  But learning about sports investing all those years ago transformed my gambling hobby into a profitable hobby.

The years before I learned about sports investing, I was on a downward spiral and losing money every season.  I never had a betting strategy or any sense of money management.  I would place a couple big bets on the NFL games that I thought were locks and maybe a small parlay or two on a few games I thought had a chance to cover.  At the end of the day, I probably would have thrown in a few shit and giggle bets just to have some action on the game that was on television.

As you can imagine, this definitely isn’t an equation for success.  It is truly an easy road to becoming desperate and broke, chasing your losses and calling a scamdicapper.  When I placed all these different size wagers, it seemed that I won the small bets and lost the big bets.   Even though I could have had a winning record with my bets, it was the big bets and the juice that wiped away any possible profit and left me in the bottom of a big whole.

It took me a good five to six years of losing before realizing that I was on an endless losing streak.  Instead of quitting, I turned to the internet and began searching for gambling methods and strategies.

What I first learned was that the internet is littered with gambling related sites.  Most of the sites I first found at first were just trying to make a quick buck by selling worthless information that won’t be around in a few months.  But one night that all changed.  I stumbled upon a website that was about sports investing.

This site was a sports forum named Free Winners.  Though it isn’t around anymore, it was a community of sports bettors that had a bankroll for betting and placed a unit of that bankroll on a game.  They preached that there was no such thing as a LOCK.  This was where my education in sports investing began.

Sports Investing Vs Sports Gambling

Is sports investing gambling?  Technically, sure it is.  But that is what makes it so fun.

All gambling has an inherit risk.  But sports investing teaches money management and principles that maximize profits and minimizing risk while betting on any sporting event worldwide. The principles of money management includes setting aside a bankroll, setting betting units and research.

Bankroll

The first step in starting to follow the principles of sports investing is to decide what amount of money are you comfortable in losing in a season.  Your life should not be affected should this should be money be completely exhausted.  It is mandatory that this money is not associated with any living expense such as rent, mortgage or any other necessity.  The amount that you put aside for sports investing on any particular season is called your bankroll.

Betting Units

Determining your bankroll will set the size of your betting unit.  A unit is the amount that you will be placing on each game.  The amount depends on how aggressive you want to be on your wagering.  A typical unit is 5% of your bankroll.  But you could use 3% or 7 % depending on your risk comfort.

Research

Preparation and research is a big part of sports investing.  Sports investors are known to devote 10-40 hours of handicapping games before finalizing their picks.  Most sports investors do more than just watch SportsCenter and read the sports page.  Personally, I use multiple online and offline resources that provide me with insight and stats that you can’t get in the paper on by watching T.V.   Never place a wager on a game without first doing your research.  Hunch bets don’t have any place in sports investing.

After conducting my research for the week, my list of possible plays is narrowed down to 3-5 games that I feel are the best games on the card.  This is where the unit comes into play.  I place a unit on each of the games that I handicapped and believed in being the best plays of the week.  Placing a unit on each game reduces your exposure to the juice that is included on losing wagers and cut into the profit of your winning pick.

Making the Bets

By having only 3-5 games that I thoroughly research and placing a unit provides me the opportunity to profit by hitting 55-60% of my wagers.

Example:  With a wager of $100 per unit I play 3 games Sunday afternoon games, make one wager Sunday night and another bet on Monday night.  If I go 2-1 in the afternoon, I am up $90.  A win Sunday night would put me up $190.  If I lose Monday night I am still up on the weekend.  By following the principles of sports investing I walk away with a winning weekend whether I win or lose Monday night.

In the above example, I won 3 of the 5 wagers that weekend.  That is a winning percentage of 60%.  That average over the season is equals a winning season.  The only thing that limits your profit is the size of your bankroll and unit.

There is one final rule of sports investing.  It is that you never risk more than half of your bankroll at any one given time.  This rule provides some oversight to your wagering.  You never want to go broke on one group of games.  By following this rule you should always have enough of a bankroll to fight back.  Remember, it is a marathon not a sprint.

Sports investing is not for everyone.  Just like wood building isn’t something I can do, not everyone can pick winners and profit – even if they follow sports investing.

Though it is true that most long term gamblers are losing gamblers, it is usually because they are undisciplined and have no sense of money management.  But some people are better at picking winners and doing their homework.  If you find that you are always losing you may want to re-evaluate your choice of hobbies.  You might be handier with a radial say than a sports page.