Sports betting isn’t all luck and losing. There are many people out there that make a nice income from placing wagers on sporting events worldwide. Though many people lose a lot of money betting online, you don’t have to be like them. By following a few basic principles you can profit by betting responsibly on sports.

You first want to set yourself a budget for your sports betting venture. This budget, called your bankroll, is an amount of money that won’t affect your living status if completely lost – after all, not everyone can make winning picks. Your bankroll must be separate from all living expenses such as mortgage, rent, utilities bills, etc.

After you have determined your bankroll, you need to decide how much you will be wagering on each bet that you make. The key is to bet the same amount on each game. The amount that you place on each game is your betting unit. To determine your unit, you first must decide how conservative or aggressive you plan to be. The typical amount of unit is five percent, but some people make it 2.5 to 10 percent. This all depends on your bankroll size and your wagering temperament.

Your unit is the key to minimizing your risk while attempting to maximize your profits. The downfall of many sports gamblers is that they are undisciplined and place wagers of multiple sizes. This wagering method isn’t the best strategy because you are losing more money when the big bets lose because of the juice. The smaller bets might either pay for the juice or only some of the juice. This is why some people can have a winning percentage of 57 to 60 percent and still lose. By placing the same amount on each game you minimize your losses. Though you might like one wager a little more than another, you don’t want show that with your money.

When placing your bets, you only want to place three to four bets a day, which should be your strongest plays. Another principle is to never risk more than half of your bankroll at any one time. You always want to provide yourself enough ammo to fight back after a bad day or days of sports wagering.

Before you place your wagers, you must handicap your games. There are handicappers that put 20 to 40+ hours a week researching their picks. There are a multitude of website on the internet to find the stats and news. Besides, the typical sports news sites, sports betting forums are a great resource. These communities allow you to discuss your thoughts and allow other handicappers to provide other insight. There might be a stat or piece of news that you missed during your handicapping. The key to handicapping games is to piece all the information you can find to make an educated decision before placing your wagers.

Not everyone can make winning picks consistently and no one can teach you how to make winning picks. But if you follow these principles and make winning picks, you can be a profitable gambler by hitting 57 to 60 percent of your picks and consistently request payouts from your online sportsbooks.