According to a recent survey, more than 50% of sports fans say that they're interested in sports betting. Many of them will make sporting events even more exciting than they already are by putting a few dollars down on them.
If you're someone who enjoys sports betting, you're more than welcome to place bets on sporting events if you would like. Sports betting has actually been legalized in more than half of the states in this country.
You might also want to take your love for sports betting to the next level by becoming a professional sports bettor. It's not as difficult as you might think to turn yourself into a professional gambler who specializes in taking part in professional sports betting.
Want to learn how it's done? We've put together a guide to help you become a professional sports bettor. Check it out below.
Begin by Creating a Bankroll for Professional Sports Betting Purposes
If you're going to become a professional sports bettor, you're going to need to put a bankroll in place to do it. It'll be difficult to earn a living while betting on sports if you don't have enough money from the start.
You don't need to create a $1 million bankroll to work as a professional sports bettor. But you should have at least a few thousand dollars that you can begin with. It'll put you in a better position to start earning a profit while betting on sports.
Look For the Right Online Sportsbook to Place Sports Wagers
Once you have enough money saved up to start betting on sports professionally, you'll need to find the right online sportsbook to take your bets. These days, you'll find that there will be so many online sportsbooks for you to choose from.
Ideally, you should look for an online sportsbook that will provide you with healthy bonuses. You should also look for one that will set you up with a variety of deposit and withdrawal methods.
It would be worth going through this list of BMR's best offshore sportsbooks. You should be able to track down at least a few good options as far as online sportsbooks are concerned.
Figure Out Which Sports You'll Bet on as a Professional Sports Bettor
In this day and age, you'll be able to bet on almost any sports that you want to bet on through an online sportsbook. From NFL football and NBA basketball to Formula 1 racing and, yes, even table tennis, you can bet on a variety of sports.
When you're just betting for fun, you should feel free to spread your money around on different sports. But as a professional sports bettor, it'll be important for you to focus on betting on just a couple of sports at most at a time.
There are probably at least one or two sports that you know more about than all the rest. These will be the sports that you'll want to spend the bulk of your time betting on as a professional gambler.
Decide Which Types of Bets You'll Place While Betting On Sports Professionally
In addition to figuring out which sports you're going to bet on as a professional sports bettor, you should also give some thought to which types of bets you're going to place. You'll be able to choose from a number of options, including:
• Moneyline bets
• Point spread bets
• Parlay bets
• Prop bets
• And more!
More often than not, professional sports bettors will place moneyline and point spread bets. But you're also welcome to dabble in the other types of sports bets if you think they'll give you a better chance to win money.
Just make sure that you aren't always chasing parlay bets that are going to be long shots. They're fun to place when you're just betting for fun, but you won't be able to use them as a professional sports bettor if you want to enjoy long-term success.
Learn How to Do the Necessary Research Before Betting On Sports
No matter which types of sports bets you're going to place on sporting events, you should always (always, always, always!) do your homework on them prior to placing them. The last thing that you want to do is blindly bet on sporting events without doing any research in advance.
You should spend several hours researching sporting events from every possible angle when you're thinking about betting on them. You should research everything from the injuries that might affect the outcome of a contest to the role that the weather might play in a game.
The more research that you're able to do on sporting events, the better you'll feel about betting on them. You'll have a lot more confidence in your sports picks when you know that they're rooted in research.
Calculate How Much You Can Afford to Bet On Sporting Events
Many people are under the impression that professional sports bettors will routinely throw large amounts of money on their bets. But in reality, this isn't how good professional gamblers operate.
A professional sports bettor needs to be very disciplined when betting on sports and only bet a small percentage of their total bankroll at a time. This will ensure that a professional gambler won't run out of money after betting on just a few games.
The downside to doing this is that the average professional sports bettor isn't going to win a gargantuan amount of money at any point. But the upside of it is that you'll be able to hang around for a longer stretch of time as a professional sports bettor when you stick to making small bets for the most part.
Keep Track of Your Wins and Losses While Betting On Sports
When you're just a casual sports bettor, you won't have to worry too much about monitoring your wins and losses while betting. You can skip the stress associated with doing this and enjoy betting on sports on a regular basis.
As a professional sports bettor, though, it's going to be very important for you to keep track of all your various wins and losses. You're going to need to stay on top of how your bets are performing so that you can adjust your approach to online gambling.
If you're finding that you're losing a lot of your sports bets, you might want to rethink which sports you're betting on. If you're winning a lot of them, on the other hand, you might want to go a little bit harder when it comes to betting on the sports you've been betting on.
You'll also need to keep tabs on your gambling wins and losses for tax purposes. If you win enough money to support yourself throughout the course of a year by gambling on sports, you will almost always have to pay Uncle Sam a portion of your winnings in taxes.
Avoid Chasing Your Losses as You Bet On Sports
Are you the type of person who tends to "chase your losses" when you're on a cold streak while betting on sports? If you are, this is going to turn into an issue for you before long.
Those who chase their losses while betting on sports will increase the size of their bets because they feel like they're "due" to win after losing a number of bets in a row. It can come back to bite them if they continue to lose.
If you chase your bets too often, it isn't going to be long at all before your bankroll is depleted. It'll make you wish that you were a little bit more level-headed after losing your bets.
It'll be important for you to steer clear of chasing your losses at any point if you're going to survive as a professional sports bettor. You'll pretty much doom your chances of launching a professional gambling career from the start if you aren't careful about how you use your money when times get tough for you.
You Can Become a Professional Sports Bettor by Taking These Steps
Becoming a professional sports bettor isn't going to be something you can do overnight. It'll take months and maybe even years for you to establish yourself as a professional gambler.
But you should be able to carve out a professional sports betting career by taking the steps that we've talked about here. They'll lead you down the right path and make it possible for you to earn an honest living as a pro sports bettor.
Find more great sports betting tips by browsing through more of our blog articles.