When you go to war with the sportsbooks and casinos —I say war because if you want to win long-term, it’s a war of attrition—you need all the help you can get.
The most significant factors of winning over the long haul are discipline, making the right decisions based on risk versus reward, and understanding when it’s time to adjust your tactics.
Here are 4 online tools you should utilize to maximize your chances:
- Odds aggregator
- Bet calculator
- Arbitrage calculator
- Ticket tracker
Up-to-date Betting Odds Aggregate
A half-point is the difference between winning and losing. That’s why any real professional sports investor has multiple accounts at different sportsbooks. This way, they can keep an eye on all the lines across the different books to make sure they are getting the best price or the best odds.
Sites like SBRodds.com have all the betting odds for a particular game or match lined up so you can easily see who has the best lines for the side you want to take. This comes in handy because over the course of a season, continually finding reduced juice adds up. Also, if you like the LA Lakers to cover the point spread and your primary book has them -7 and you don’t have other options, that’s the number you’re locked in at. If another book has them for the same price at -6.5, and open an account there and take that line, you get a significant advantage. If the Lakers win by 7, you would have pushed. But taking the line at -6.5, suddenly that pick goes into the win column, and money is added to your bankroll.
Bet Calculator
Single Bet calculators are important because you need to know what your payout will be when not using big round numbers, like $100.00 betting units. The fact of the matter is, unless you have a good 5,000.00 to 10,000.00 dollars in your bankroll, you should not be placing 100 dollar bets. Otherwise, a losing streak can put you out of business.
It’s crucial to understand what your exact profit and loss is for each bet as well as for each sport and each betting market, ei., ATS, totals, SU, props, etc. When you better understand where you are strongest and where you are weakest, you can adjust and improve your chances of winning.
Arbitrage Calculator
Hedging can be useful for a few things. It’s a way to get out of a jam if you feel like you may have missed something while handicapping and you jumped the gun on placing action on the side you thought would cover or win. It’s also a great way to ensure that you win or almost ensure that you will win by reducing the risk by taking action on both sides, or multiple sides when the odds provide opportunity. A good example of this is massive line movement; another is futures odds where you can take advantage of plus-money options and spread multiple plays out ensuring you win something, how much depends on the scenario, and which team at whichever odds wins. Arbitrage calculators calculate your potential winnings when hedging multiple plays against each other.
Ticket Tracker
I always recommend spreadsheets. But ticket trackers are a great fail-safe for storing your plays across multiple sportsbooks. For example, If I have ten different sportsbooks that I place bets at, it can be a hassle to dig around in each one to pull the data on the action I’ve placed. But with one centralized bet tracker, you simply punch in the pick along with the odds and price as well as the book you used. This allows you to get an overview of all your bets, the sport, league, market, and win-loss record at one place.
Having your information centralized allows you to adjust to spot repeat mistakes and adjust your game plan. It also might point to books where you tend to lose because the lines are too sharp or where your profits are getting juice-squeezed.
If you want to win on a consistent basis, use these four online tools to help you assess your risk, and adjust your play.