When it comes to making money in any shape or form the old saying (idiom) that springs to mind is “Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket”. It applies across any number of situations including making money from sports betting via a profitable portfolio. I thought I’d have a look online and found the following examples:
- It would be better if you applied to several companies instead of just one; don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
- It is wise to diversify your investments across different instruments. You should not put all your eggs in one basket.
- Why are you putting all your money into one company? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
- He was depending heavily on the success of his venture, but when it failed, he was ruined. He realized that he should not have put all his eggs in one basket.
- She was able to recover from her losses because she didn’t put all her eggs in one basket.
- You’d better acquire a new skill; don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
- People who don’t put all their eggs in one basket have shielded themselves from situations of crisis.
Source: theidioms.com
The ‘Eggs’ approach is basically spreading your risk. Like a financial investor putting their money into a range of different investments. They are aiming to offset gains from one area against losses made elsewhere.
The aim is to try and avoid an investment rollercoaster ride. The profit peaks are great but how well will you cope with losing streaks when your recent profits are dwindling?
Any sports bettor should consider a betting portfolio. I enjoy betting, my challenge is to maximise successes and minimise my losses. The best way to do that is to have a range of approaches in my betting armoury. I feel far more comfortable having several regular sources of moderate income than pinning my hopes to just one..
A good portfolio won’t just help shield you from the inevitable losses. It will protect you against the permanent loss of one or more of your profit sources.
Whilst researching this blog, I have come across several websites discussing (bragging about?) the level of profits being made from Matched Betting. Tales abound of individuals who packed in day jobs now making say £4k per month working 8 hours a week.
I don’t doubt this happened and there may be some people still doing so. However, the Matched Betting landscape has changed a lot over the last few years. I’m sure those still able to make £4K per month spend more than 8 hours a week. If any did give up their day jobs, how many have gone back to the relative security of regular employment?
How to build a profitable betting portfolio
There’s no hard & fast answer to this and it will vary from person to person. There are many different ways to construct a portfolio and make profits from sports betting, some of which I discuss in “Profit From Sports”.
The idea of adopting a portfolio is to manage your risk but what does that mean? If you’re reading this then I’d hazard a guess that you are naturally an optimist You think you can improve aspects of your life.
Extend that further and you might be working out how you can make regular big profits. Then, if they carry on for the next X years you’ll be able to buy a new car/house, pay off your debts etc. However, before you get too carried away you need to dust off and put on that hat labelled “Pessimism”.
Start thinking through the reasons why your plans might not come to fruition. There are many barriers to your success in this area but adopting a portfolio approach can help you manage some of them:-
Will You Lose Your Cash?
What’s the Risk of Losing your Money (Bank). Matched Betting carries a pretty low risk that you’ll lose your ‘Bank’. In return you should be able to make fairly steady profits. Subscribe to a Tipster service and you might lose both your subscription payments and your betting stakes. Your capital risk is High. Someone getting into Exchange Trading can start with a very small bank and practice using small stakes. Then when they are competent enough, they can start increasing stakes. I’d rate this as Medium risk but it is in your own control and a good trader will ensure their money (capital) is at Low risk.
How Stable Are Returns Likely To Be?
What’s the Risk of the Strategy stopping working or Current Profits reducing? Matched Betting relies on bookies (in particular) continuing their offers and your accounts staying open. Unless you are thorough with your Mug Betting then I’d say there’s a Medium to High Risk of being impacted. Same with Tipsters, you are reliant on luck and individuals who might decide they’ve had enough, get ill etc. However, you can spread your risk across a small portfolio of Tipsters. The more you have control over a strategy then the more you can manage this risk. For example by developing your own Trading skills / Sports Betting Strategy.
What Could Go Wrong?
There are many other potential factors which might affect each strategy (Pandemic?). So do your best to understand what might happen to derail your plans and put in place steps to mitigate that risk
Each of the Strategies in the list below could be one of the ‘Eggs’ in your Portfolio. Alternatively, you might find you are able to make good profits from just one of them. If you do then that’s great and best of luck. However, even when things are going well, make sure you understand what might cause the profits to start drying up and have a Plan B (another ‘Egg’):-
Matched Betting
Matched Betting involves profiting from bookmaker free bets and other incentives. In order to compete, bookies still provide welcome offers and various types of bonus for existing customers. There are people who have been making regular 4 or 5 figure annual incomes from Matched Betting. To do so they’ll need to be organised and disciplined while appearing to the bookmakers that they’re not….
Matched Betting can also include signing up to Casino Offers which do carry a risk of losing money. The rewards can be huge for the very very very lucky few. I’d strongly recommend signing up to a Matched Betting service if you want to explore these further. They help you go in with your eyes wide open.
Tipsters
Here you subscribe to a Tipster who provides tips on the result of sporting events based on their supposed level of expertise. You place a bet on the result of the tip and if it wins you collect but if it doesn’t you lose your stake. Successful tipsters will normally charge for their services.
Many betting ‘punters’ will say they would never pay for tips. They believe in their own judgement, method of analysing races, football matches etc. However, I’m perfectly happy to pay for a tipster service if I think they clearly have a high level of knowledge, dedication and consistent results. Find out how I evaluate a tipster
Sports Trading / Exchange Trading
Exchange Trading uses the ability to back and lay selections in the betting exchanges, most commonly making a small profit (ticks) many times over. It uses a very similar principle to Matched Betting. You place bets on differing outcomes for the same event (i.e. will a team win a football match). However, all the bets are placed on the same exchange, normally Betfair.
There are many ways to exchange trade and some people make very good profits trading in their own niche areas. These include trading football and the number of goals, match result, score, next team to score etc.
Other trades might be on the price of a runner in a horse race either before or during the race or trading any aspect of an in-running tennis match. There are examples of differing exchange trading services/approaches HERE.
Learning how to trade on Betfair can be extremely rewarding. Both in terms of the profits to be made and the independence it gives you to do so. It’s a key part of my betting portfolio.
You’ll build a trading skillset which you can refine & improve over time. In doing so you’ll likely identify other opportunities to profit from your trading skills.
Sports or Exchange trading may sound very daunting. You might think you need to be quick on the mouse to react to price changes and place your bets on impulse. It doesn’t have to get that adrenaline fuelled, there are many ways to trade.
This Blog Post shows a very profitable trade on the English Premier League (20/21) which was completed over a leisurely 4 months. For me, the best part of the trade is that no bets were actually placed on the league winners, Man City
Automated Exchange Trading
In order to manually trade on the betting exchanges, most serious traders will use dedicated Exchange Trading Software rather than just relying on the standard browser interface. There are fantastic exchange trading tools available some with free versions but others including extremely powerful but accessible automation options.
These give users the chance to automate aspects of their trading. This certainly applies if you have specific trading strategies and can write out all the associated steps and decisions. Using the software you can potentially create a set & forget automated trading strategy. You don’t need to be a computer boffin to create the automation, just use the user-friendly editor. Imagine being able to set up your trades in one go and leave them to run while you do whatever you want?
One concern as you create a betting portfolio is the amount of time needed to manage it. Automated trading is a great way to keep that time to a minimum.
Betting based on your own knowledge & experience
Yeah, I know, a bit old-fashioned isn’t it? But if you’re reading this you probably know more than you realise about some aspects of sports betting.
Maybe you regularly watch live horse racing, avidly tune into live German Bundesliga matches or have a season ticket at your local National League team (ok, I’ve been rumbled). If so, you’ll have a head start when it comes to finding profitable betting angles in your area of knowledge.
There is a wealth of free and paid resources to help you get the betting edge needed to be able to place your bets on an informed basis rather than as a hunch or a wish
Systems
If analysing data is your thing then developing your own systems can be great fun. Maybe data is a turn-off but you have a few ideas about possible horse racing angles or football trends. If that’s the case then you can still use online tools to test out your theories. Perhaps you’ve noticed how certain jockeys and horse racing trainers pair up sometimes to successful effect. I’ve set out some Betting Resources which allow you to test out and refine such theories.
Surebets / Arbing
The principle of Arbing sounds great – you back a result at one price and then you lay it off at a lower price and adjust your stake to guarantee a fixed profit. Nothing to do with bookie offers, you are just seeking out and attempting to profit from bookie prices which are out of line with the rest of the market. I struggle to see how this can be anything other than a very short term way to make any profit.
Where To Start?
So, you’ve got this far, you’re new to sports betting and you’re thinking “Where do I Start?” My suggestion is to begin with Matched Betting. There are then higher risk/return strategies within Matched Betting such as Casino Offers. Alternatively you might decide to use some of your Matched Betting profits and broaden your approach by signing up to a couple of high performing profitable Tipsters.
Plenty of Matched Bettors move in to Sports Trading as there is some overlap. However, Sports Trading takes many forms and you need to decide what works for you.
You may have ‘been there and done’ Matched Betting. If so, I hope you find something here to take your interest and help you develop a profitable sports betting portfolio. See also ‘Life After Matched Betting‘.
