[m00dsw1ng]

Hello fellow bettors,

As you can see I'm new to the forum and I have lot's of questions.
First of all, English is not my native language so excuse me for all my grammar errors

An introduction.

Originally I'm a professional poker player. I've been doing it for quite some time now (5 years+) and I would like to earn some extra cash. Since being a poker player involves good bankroll management I always have a large part of my bankroll 'standing still'. Now I've been reading a lot about sports betting and heard that the sky is the limit. Also I know that as a poker player I will never reach the top (simply because I'm not good enough or because I don't want to put much more effort in it after all those years).

So after reading a book and stuff on the internet I first started out doing arbitrage bets. I used rebelbetting for a week and found that that's not the way to go for me. So what I've been doing next is scanning the net myself for lines that are off. The rule that I followed is very simple: always bet on soccer and always bet the favorite to win. But of course I always searched for odds that were at least 0.07 off.

Now I made 100 bets and my ROI is 8.3%

I also made bets for different amounts so when I take my results and bet the same amount on all of them my ROI is around 6.2%.

Of course I have to say after doing it for two months I found better websites to compare odds so I don't have to do it manually anymore and I can now find the best bets more easily. What I mean with this is that I would probably bet more accurately then I did in those two months and so would get a better ROI.

Now my questions are:
Will this be a winning strategy? What is an appropriate sample size? Are there easier/better ways to win at soccer betting? What is a reasonable ROI? Is it possible to make 2K a month with a 10k bankroll?

Any tips, tricks, suggestions or whatever are very welcome.

Also I found the site oddsportal today. Is it an idea to follow the top bettors there or any ideas on this?

Thanks in advance,

Larry

[Mrscofield25]

Asian Handicap is the way to go. Without a doubt!!! Oddsportal is a great odds comparison site, I use it myself. If it's an idea to follow the top bettors, I don't know. View them for a time and see if they are worth it. Asian handicap is all you need, look for good underdogs, and for God's sake... Stay away from HEAVY favorites! It's not the money worth over the long run. Search Google for more information about asian handicap.

[onemoregoal]

OP:Where are you from I ask because you mentioned arbitrage. Now if you can open accounts with the UK bookies like Paddy Power, Sportingbet etc you can often find 20%+ arbs in play, or around 5% pre game. Its very easy to make some money before they ban you lol.
Also if you have clean accounts, look into MATCHED BETTING.
BETBRAIN is also a very good odds comparison site btw.

[m00dsw1ng]

onemoregoal: I'm from Holland so a lot of the UK bookies aren't available to me
I've had some trouble with arb betting in forms of that I bet one side and on the other side my bet has a max bet which I can only notice when I try to make the bet and not before hand. I have to say that I haven't tried the in play betting (I might give it a try). But I prefer not to be dependent on more then one outcome. Are there any good sites/software to calculate arbs for in game betting or something?

mrscofield25: I will definitely do some research on the asian handicap (doing it right now). And for the heavy favorites, I haven't bet any of them because it's impossible to find odds that are far off for them

Betting the underdog as you say implies that I will lose the bet more often then win it, what would you suggest to bet as % of your bankroll to not go broke on those bets? Or how do I use kelly criteria with these kinds of bets?

Thank you both for your replies, very helpful.

Larry

[onemoregoal]

Some UK bookies are so bad that you dont need software! Without access to UK sites like Paddy Power I cant really help
With arbs, normally one book will be a slow/lazy book and the other the strong book with the "right" price, but it is much harder to find arbs with Strong bookie VS another Strong bookie if you know what I mean.
Asian Handicap isnt hard to understand, its just a type of bet. There is no secret or tips there - it is just used to make the game "even" so there is roughly a 50% chance of winning on each side. Like totals in NBA or the spread. There are "alternate asian handicap" markets but again, thats just a type of bet - no secrets or advantages there.
If you have 10k, and can open a betfair account or a similar exchange, then I would seriously look into MATCHED betting. Its basically taking advantage of the books free bets, turning it into cash with minimal risk. I never did it myself though, look into it or maybe someone here can help.
Which books do you use now?
GL

[Vaughany]

Where in Holland are you from out of interest? I'm heading to Amsterdam in March, buddies and I are trying to sort out tickets for Ajax vs NEC at moment. Went to Pinkpop Festival near Maastricht last year, Maastricht is a very nice place

[Mrscofield25]

mrscofield25: I will definitely do some research on the asian handicap (doing it right now). And for the heavy favorites, I haven't bet any of them because it's impossible to find odds that are far off for them

Betting the underdog as you say implies that I will lose the bet more often then win it, what would you suggest to bet as % of your bankroll to not go broke on those bets? Or how do I use kelly criteria with these kinds of bets?

Thank you both for your replies, very helpful.

Larry

No, you aren't gonna lose more often betting the underdog if you find some good valuable underdogs. I'll rather go with the dog rather than betting a heavy favorite.

How much you wanna bet is up to you. Maybe start out with a small % until you get the feeling of it. It also depends on your bankroll.

[Vaughany]

Some UK bookies are so bad that you dont need software! Without access to UK sites like Paddy Power I cant really help
With arbs, normally one book will be a slow/lazy book and the other the strong book with the "right" price, but it is much harder to find arbs with Strong bookie VS another Strong bookie if you know what I mean.
Asian Handicap isnt hard to understand, its just a type of bet. There is no secret or tips there - it is just used to make the game "even" so there is roughly a 50% chance of winning on each side. Like totals in NBA or the spread. There are "alternate asian handicap" markets but again, thats just a type of bet - no secrets or advantages there.
If you have 10k, and can open a betfair account or a similar exchange, then I would seriously look into MATCHED betting. Its basically taking advantage of the books free bets, turning it into cash with minimal risk. I never did it myself though, look into it or maybe someone here can help.
Which books do you use now?
GL

yeah, StanJames is always slow to change certain lines. You could get a team to Draw-no-bet at -137 while every other site has it closer to -200! Im not sure if they do it on purpose to lure in arbers or not