Jimmy Boyd in 
The first step in getting started with winning at sports betting is to figure out what approach you are going to use.
We covered each one briefly in our guide to sports handicapping and then more in-depth with the following articles.
Deciding your approach is the first step. You really need to match a style that fits your personality and what you can see yourself doing over the long-term.
The long-term part might be the biggest key because no matter what, you are going to be better after you gain experience rather than when you first get started.
You aren’t going to make it to the long-term if you hate programming and are trying to model.
You aren’t going to become good at top down handicapping if you don’t have time to sit in front of the screen all day and analyze the line moves.
I’m confident you will become a winning sports bettor if you put the time in. But, you are only going to put the time in if the approach you use matches you as a person.
Creating an Edge Over the Sportsbooks
You have to understand that if you are going to win over the books you have to have an edge.
An edge is just an advantage you have over the sportsbooks and betting markets. If you have an expectation that over the long-term you are going to profit, you think you have an edge.
Different Edges You Might Have Over the Betting Markets
There are a number of ways you can have an edge.
One way is simple, choosing the softer betting markets and becoming a handicapping specialist who focuses solely on those.
Another is to have a solid set of power rankings or numbers that are better than the book.
If you watch a lot of games you might develop your own instinctual model about what the spread of the game should be and have an edge in live betting.
Maybe you are better at handicapping starting pitching but draw a blank on bullpens. Your edge might be in first five innings rather than full games.
If you are fanatical about a single sport your edge might come from watching a lot of games, going over box scores, reading recaps, and reading interview transcripts from the pressers. All of that combined lead you to having an advantage.
I’ve also had edges that were based off of situations. Here are a few examples that dried up:
In the NBA the teams used to play a lot more back-to-backs and three games in four nights. Those situations were a gold mine until the market caught on. Then eventually, the NBA caught on that scheduling games in bunches like that was bad for business.
The college basketball there used to be a huge edge with home court advantage.
The books would put a standard five points on every team on the board, but there was a major difference in teams traveling across the country to play in front of the Cameron Crazies versus two teams playing in the MAAC taking a 45 minute bus ride to play in front of 500 people.
Unfortunately, KenPom released his team by team home court advantage and killed that market for us.
There are countless ways you can start winning at sports betting. Hopefully these examples will get some ideas going so you can come up with your own.
The only requirement I think there is to getting ahead in this game is you have to do something different. Basically if you do what everyone else is doing, you are going to get the same results as everyone else. You are going to be average.
Time Requirements to Gain an Advantage
It’s a long process to get an advantage with your sports handicapping.
I’d say you don’t wake up one day and suddenly have that edge, but in reality if you come up with the right idea, you can gain an almost instant edge.
The thing is though, even if you have an idea you have to put the time in back-testing it to make sure what you think should happen is really happening.
Then you have to make sure that the recent events hold up and the edge hasn’t been factored into the market line.
Most of the time your ability to have an edge is going take awhile.
If you are watching games then you have to watch a lot to learn how to see things most people don’t see.
Building a model takes time. You have to gather data, clean it, and try different models in order to optimize it.
If you are getting an edge by reading markets you have to spend the time watching odds move to develop the instincts to know which moves are sharp, which are not, and which are deliberate head fakes.
Quantifying Your Edge in Sports Betting
If can be difficult to put a number on the advantage that you have. You have to know that you have a positive ROI on the bets that you are making, but it can be tough to accurately project.
Modelers can quantify their advantage rather easily. They produce a number, leave a margin of safety, and know just how far off the odds are from their number.
If you have won money in the past then you might think you have what it takes to win consistently but that might not be the case. A single season or two might still be too small of a sample size to qualify you as having the skill to beat the odds instead of just getting lucky.
Even if you do have an edge, you might not be able to put a number on how big of one you have.
Professional bettors make thousands of bets a year and they typically have an edge of around 2% on sides and totals in major markets. You’ll get niche sports or prop players who can get up to 6-10% and you might have super high volume guys who make a lot of money with only a 1% ROI.
Conclusion
If you are going to bet on sports then you might as well try to win at it right? This article talks about how you can find your advantages over the books, what kind of time is required, and how big of an edge you can expect to have.
If this seems like a lot of work you can always sign up with one of the best sports handicappers in the world who offer their subscriptions to our visitors.