Who are the Sharp Sports Bettors?
Would you like to be a professional sports bettor? Is there such a thing? While this topic has been ongoing for sometime, according to the official Webster Dictionary, yes, there is. Betting on sports is done to achieve financial rewards. In the gambling world, those that are considered professional are “sharp bettors”.
What are sharp bettors? First, sharp bettors are extremely rare. Someone may tell you he/she is a sharp bettor, but chances are they are wrong. The “normal” or “average” bettors are called “square”. A square is someone that uses sports betting as a leisure activity.
Square bettors bet on sports just to have something to do. They do it because they are bored or a simple rush. With square bettors, usually find themselves in bad habits, or chasing because of a loss.
The main difference between a square bettor and a sharp bettor – the sharp bettors know what it takes to make sports betting pay off. Sharp bettors use a great deal of studying and hard work to do what they do best. Sharps do not make random bets. Every time they bet, they know they have an advantage over the sportsbook they are placing the bet.
A sharp bettor uses formulas such as power rankings, along with mathematical formulas involving both teams. Once they figure out which team has an advantage, they base the amount of money to wager based on how distinct they feel their advantage is.
Sharp bettors look at trends, style of play, player matchups, strengths and weaknesses, etc. Square bettors typically just look at the teams and then make the bet based on their opinion.
The most common statistic used to formulate a power rating is average margin of victory. The first step is to tally the total number of points scored and given up by each team. The total number of points given up is subtracted from the total number of points scored. This number is then divided by the number of games the team has played. Almost any statistic that is deemed important to the outcome of a game can be used to develop or fine-tune a power rating. Power ratings can also be weighted so recent games have more influence.
Significant trends or angles that have proven profitable over time are used to adjust power ratings as necessary. The keyword here is significant. It is very important to ensure that the sample size of each trend justifies the credence given to it.
Another key for sharp bettors is they know that they will and only need to win nearly 55% of their bets. If they can pull that feat off, they will be profitable. Most square bettors feel they can win every bet. What happens to them is they lose their bankroll based on one or two big bets that go bad.
Sharp bettors will garner a bankroll, and make sure it is not going to send them into bankrupt. Typically they will then establish a unit size that they bet, and that is often nearly 2% of their bankroll. Some make it a little higher while some make it lower. Sharp bettors always make sure they look at all the sportsbooks they are involved with and compare odds and “juice”.
To be a sharp bettor, you do not have to quit your day job. One thing you do have to do is pay careful attention to games, be confident in saying no to a bet, and do your homework!
