All sports betting enthusiasts should know that the key to betting on sports and the most important factor is money management. Before one can apply money management they must understand the basics of it. They include calculating return on investment (ROI) as well as setting your ultimate goal. Which go hand in hand because you cannot set a goal with calculating your ROI and then in turn try and apply money management skills.
The goal of this article is to uncover the facts without making it too complicated for the beginner to understand. First before a sports bettor can set a goal they have to calculate their ROI. What is ROI? You guessed it, your return on your investment aka what you get back from placing a wager. Told you it would be easy! To make it even easier the calculations will be used on basic 10% juice (AKA vig) which is most commonly used in all sports except baseball. With lower juice and money lines this will not be an exact but should give the bettor a better foundation to start with. The ROI is calculated by taking the net of your wins or losses and dividing it by the total amount invested.
Instead of breaking out confusing math equations and breaking down each percentile you must know that to be successful when betting on sports, assuming that the line is 110/100 or 10% vig is used then they need to win at or above 52.5% of the time. (when using money lines or betting other sports such as baseball the bettor can actually make money at below 50%!) For the most part over a time period anyone can make a guess with 50% accuracy so it’s all about making up that additional 3% that will make you profitable. It may sound easy and only a small change but over the long haul that will make the money.
Assuming 10% vig if the sports bettor wagers once and wins it they will have a ROI of 90.9%. That is calculated by taking the net win of $100 and dividing it by the amount invested at $110. This return is a bit hard to keep as the bettor would have to win at a 100% rate and that just is not going to happen. This is where setting a goal comes into play.
Keep the goal simple at 53-60% as far as returns go and break it down for each sport. This way at the end of the year you can document how they have done over a period of time and use this to set goals in coming seasons. A modest goal of 5% over a season or ¼ of the year is a good way to start off!
These facets of sports betting are critical and if not used, an handicapper can almost be assured that they are setting themselves up to fail. However if they start off using these basic principles than they can set a trend of money management that will last their handicapping career and will lead to success!
