Sports Betting Odds

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Sports Betting Advice

1. Never put yourself under pressure by betting more than you can afford.
   
2. Try to master one gambling game. Gin, poker and backgammon offer the most opportunities. Then find someone who plays less well than you do and get to work! Do not go looking for some local hot-shots just to show how brave you are.
   
3. When betting on NFL games, always try to get the final difference of 3 points on your side. Roughly 10% of all NFL games finish with the favourite winning by 3. The difference between 2.5 & 3 (or 3.5 & 3) may not look much, but it is massive.
   
4. If you like NFL teasers, do not bet at worse conditions than this:
   i) You lay 110/100.
   ii) If either game is tied, result of bet is a push.
   iii) You receive a 6 point start on each game.
   
   It is usually better to subtract points from the favourite than to add to the underdog (for example, if Washington is a 7 point favourite over Dallas, generally 'Skins -1 is more likely to win than 'Boys +13, although there is of course a decent chance that both will win.
   
5. NFL odds tend to drift in the direction of the favourite as the week goes on. Some overseas based bookmakers put lines up early in the week. If you like a favourite, it often pays to bet it early, and pick up the benefit of perhaps 1 or 2 points.
   
6. If you like golf, 72-hole head to head matchups can be fun. Golfers, like horses, have favourite courses. It pays to do some homework. Try to find a player who has good previous form on the course (especially if he lives nearby and knows the course well). Dudley Hart, in Fort Lauderdale in March, was a good example of this theory. Incidentally, the correct odds should be -110 each player (tie no bet). British bookmakers seem to think they have a God-given right to win if players are tied after 72 holes. Clarify this item first, and do not bet if you lose the tie.
   
7. Horse racing is a murderous sport to bet on. The tracks keep something like 17% (as opposed to, for example, NFL margins of 4.5%), and you are betting against a million wise guys all over the world who do nothing but study form 25 hours a day. If you are willing to work that hard, study up on a esoteric area of the internet and make yourself some real money.
   
8. An obscure event is coming up soon, one about which most bookmakers have no knowledge, and neither do the oddsmakers in Las Vegas who set these lines.
   
   This event is called the "Olympic Games", and will be held in Australia starting in September.
   
   Get some Athletics magazines, study up on times and concentrate on glamorous competitions like men's & women's 100 metres, long & high jumps, marathon (which often throws up a high price winner), and 1500 metres. It is most likely that odds will be offered on these. If you can get a few overseas magazines on the sport (via internet), so much the better, because you will be reading material which Las Vegas will not bother to obtain. Do not fiddle with basketball - the odds makers know everything about that sport. Do follow the qualifying statistics carefully, watch for any outsider who shows a sudden improvement over lifetime best. You might get a very attractive price.
   
9. When the Winter Olympics come around, watch for foreign figure skaters against fancied American girls. The bulk of the judges are European and, surprise surprise, they seem to prefer the style of their own homebreds. A few years ago, Oxana Baiul was a dead cert against both Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, and yet was 3rd favourite in the betting! I was in Las Vegas at the time and had a very nice little touch at 5/1. Remember, all these continental judges know each other for years, and the national skating associations of small countries in East Europe are not exactly loaded with cash.
   
   Incidentally, if there is any betting on gymnastics in the Summer Olympics, remember, it is a sport which carries a profile like figure skating.
   
10. Tennis is a sport more dominated by the surface than any other. Take a big serving net-rusher like Pete Sampras, plunk him down on the slow clay of Paris, and you have a potential Round I loser. Look for big servers like Pete, or Rusedski, Krajicek and Todd Martin to do well at Wimbledon (on grass), and in the ATP Masters (indoors), the season finale. Avoid them at continental venues.
    
11. Betting is for fun, so treat it as such! If you cannot follow basic concepts such as those above, and you feel you must bet every game or every race (instead of waiting for the good bets), play the lottery - you'll have a better chance.