The idea of making serious financial investments in stocks or similar equities market without up-to-the minute information is clearly foolish, even to those without much background in the field.  Unfortunately, sports betting enthusiasts frequently make large financial ‘investments’ without checking the latest data from the bookmaking ‘marketplace’.  Bettors often make the mistake of placing a bet without knowing if they’re getting the best price available, something that could easily be avoided simply by checking the latest ‘valuation’.

Turning a longterm profit in sports betting isn’t easy, which is why professionals go out of their way to give themselves every advantage.  Perhaps the easiest way for a serious bettor to boost their ‘bottom line’ is to simply compare the latest odds or pointspread from the wide variety of sportsbooks online.  Getting the best price on a regular basis can turn losses into ‘pushes’ and wins, meaning that even with the same quality of handicapping a sports gambling enthusiast will be more likely to turn a profit over the long haul.

This is why professional sports gamblers are willing to take the time and make the effort to shop for the best price available—it is a simple way for them to put themselves in the best financial position available.  Everyone with an understanding of basic money management or gambling theory understands that the casino or sportsbook wants to maintain their ‘edge’ over the player.  Even small adjustments that accrue small percentage advantages in the player’s favor are significant and quickly add up to give the intelligent bettor an edge.

Simply by betting at a sportsbook that offers ‘reduced juice’ and laying -105 instead of -110 on a pointspread bet, a player reduces his breakeven percentage by a full percentage point.  This may not seem significant in the short term, but over the course of a season or longer it can mean the difference between finishing ‘in the black’ as opposed to winding up ‘in the red’.

Professional sports betting specialists are willing to pay hundreds of dollars a month to get live line information.  They know that this isn’t a frivolous luxury, but rather a necessary tool of their business—it’s an investment in formation, just like the financial markets rely on live stock quotes and Bloomberg terminals.

As in so many areas of life, the Internet has leveled the playing field in sports betting as well.  It’s no longer necessary to invest the money in a live lines service to make sure that you’re getting the best lines and odds on your bets—a variety of free lines feed services and betting odds comparison sites now exist to bring the ‘information edge’ once enjoyed by only professional gamblers to everyone.  To not take advantage of these resources is foolish, and not much different than throwing money down the drain.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 8:14 am and is filed under articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.