Full time sports betting?

[NANONUTS]

How hard is it make a living out of sports betting? I've a friend in the early stages of doing this, too early to tell yet how he'll fare in the long term but I'm thinking of looking in to based on his results so far. Is anyone here a professional sports bettor and what % of all bettors are good enough to make a living at it?

[kaboshedx]

1. Drop out
2. Lay 25% of your bankroll on the Pats -7.5
3. ???
4. Profit

[Jazzy3113]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Drop out
2. Lay 25% of your bankroll on the Pats -7.5
3. ???
4. Profit

[/ QUOTE ]

i bet wvu -6.5
i bet 4 team teaser that included Florida -2.5
I bet these hard
I cried
I cant sports bet for two weeks cause now I have no gambling funds.....waaaaaaa

[Austiger]

The problem with sports betting for a living, is that in order to know for sure that you are actually a winning bettor, and not just running hot, you will need a very large sample size. You really won't ever be able to get the sample size you need, because you can't just work at it 40 hours a week. There are only so many games each week, and once you handicap them, you just have to wait till next week. So after 20 years, you might be able to look at it and say 'meh, I guess I'm not really a winner at this.' Oh well, that's life...

[King Yao]

There is some truth to what you say if you are only a handicapper and only betting sides and/or totals that you handicapped. But there are a lot more other things going on. In each of the last three years, I made more than 3,000 different bets per year. I did not lack for sample size in my wagers, and I thought each one was positive EV when I made them.

[paperchamp]

I don't know the number but it's very very very low. Like less than .1%. It's a very hard living. It's not something you just "get into". It takes years and years of discipline. You'd be better off playing poker.

[hogua]

In order to make a decent living at sports betting, your friend will need a few things:

1) Ability to consistantly beat the books on at least one sport (more is better).

2) He'll need a large enough bankroll to allow him to have bet sizes large enough that a ROI of 2-3% on will return enough to support him in the lifestyle he'd want.

3) He'll need a lot of discipline - in what he beats, in dealing with losses (and wins), in bank roll management, in bet size management, etc.


There's more, of course. I'm sure others will add..

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
In order to make a decent living at sports betting, your friend will need a few things, in increasing order of importance:

3) Ability to consistently beat the books on at least one sport (more and more widely-followed is better).

2) He'll need a large enough bankroll to allow him to have bet sizes large enough that a ROI of 2-3% on will return enough to support him in the lifestyle he'd want. And the knowledge to know he shouldn't pass up even a dime of EV+.

1) He'll need a lot of discipline - in what he bets, in dealing with losses (and wins), in bankroll management, in bet size management, etc. And probably no gamble in him.


[/ QUOTE ]

[Thremp]

Naj,

That [censored] is bad. I don't know why you're quoting it. The third part is fine, but the 2nd is horrid enough to make me wanna vomit. Unless he cites 2-3% as a minimum floor similar to a margin of safety.

[BobJoeJim]

[ QUOTE ]
Naj,

That [censored] is bad. I don't know why you're quoting it. The third part is fine, but the 2nd is horrid enough to make me wanna vomit. Unless he cites 2-3% as a minimum floor similar to a margin of safety.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think that if you're just starting out, it IS good advice to have a large enough bankroll that a 2-3% ROI can support you. Yes, you should probably be getting a better ROI than that on average, but it's entirely possible that even if you're getting your money in you could end up only winning 2-3% purely due the downside of variance. Add in that this is someone inexperienced with no known track record, even if we give him credit for being a winner in the long-term, he could very well make a few bad bets during the learning process that drag down his ROI at the beginning.

If a ROI of less than 2-3% is unnacceptable to you, your bankroll probably isn't large enough to embark upon this path, which is how I intereperted the original post. And I agree. If this is what you mean by "minimum floor" or "margin of safety" then perhaps you agree too. Otherwise, would you care to explain why you think this isn't good advice?