In Hollywood, the most popular image of a gambler is of a desperate soul who bets everything on one event. The ensuing event —anything from a horse race or boxing match to a kids’ baseball game — is inevitably a nail-biter, with the outcome determined in the final few seconds. Depending on the script, the poor soul who wagered his entire fortune either comes out a winner with his problems solved or sinks even further into despair.

Needless to say, Hollywood is not real life. Most experienced gamblers will tell you wagering your entire bankroll (the money you have available for betting) is a bad idea. Instead, the most successful bettors develop a bankroll-management strategy that allows for consistent winnings that offset losses while maximizing sportsbook bonuses and other perks.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

When you hear of sports bettors who lose everything or find trouble, it’s generally because they failed to use smart bankroll management. Instead of determining how much money they can afford to spend on sports betting sites and sticking with it, they start funneling money away from other things, like rent and bills, and toward the elusive “big payoff.” They bet on long-shot odds in hopes of a big payday or make huge wagers based on overconfidence in their knowledge of a team or league.

The result? A major financial mess.

Most experienced gamblers and experts recommend disciplined bankroll management. This starts with determining the maximum bankroll you can afford, anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. Most importantly, only bet as much as you can afford to lose without impacting your overall financial health. As you start to collect winnings, you can add to your bankroll, but start conservatively.

Use your bankroll to set a conservative unit size. A unit generally should be no more than one percent of your total bankroll. If your bankroll is $1,000, then an individual unit should be no more than $70. Go higher and you risk major losses.

Finally, develop a sports-betting plan. Aim to double your bankroll up to four times over the course of the entire season. To do that, you’ll need to increase the value of a unit as your bankroll grows, so determine at the season’s beginning the points when you’ll increase your bets. Having a solid plan and strategy is key to staying disciplined — and will keep you on track when you’re tempted to chase after a hot streak.

Go Big or Go Home? Not This Time

Another important part of managing your bankroll is managing your bet size. It’s easy to be tempted by the big paydays — who doesn’t want to collect several thousand dollars on a long-shot bet? However, you have a better chance of reaching your goals and increasing your bankroll through smaller bets.

Consider this scenario: You have $1,000 in bankroll going into the weekend. A novice bettor might risk $200 on five different games under the theory if he loses on two or three games, the winnings from other games will offset those loses. But what if he loses all five games? He’s lost his entire bankroll and must start over again.

Instead, avoid betting more than 10 percent of your total bankroll at any time and more than two percent of the bankroll on one event. It’s similar to diversifying investments in the stock market; if one investment (or wager) takes a hit, it doesn’t devastate the entire portfolio. If you win, you’ll gradually increase your bankroll until you meet your goals. If you feel especially confident about a particular game or match, increase your bet to three or four percent; if you aren’t as confident about the results, reduce the bet to one percent of the total bankroll.

The idea of taking a huge risk and betting everything on a single contest is a romantic one, but smart bettors know the path to huge gains is guided by discipline and moderation. Instead of worrying about paying your debts, you can focus on having fun and enjoy watching your winnings — and bankroll — gradually grow.

About the Author: Larry Lynch learned about bankroll management the hard way, when he lost several thousand dollars in the space of two hours one Sunday afternoon. Never one to make the same mistake twice, he decided to read more and learn about bankroll management.

If you enjoy online gambling, you are probably familiar with sports books. When you bet on different sporting events throughout the year, a sports book is used to keep track of your bets. Wages are usually paid after the event. There are various ways online sports books can give you the best wages possible.

Choose Your Bets

When you visit an online sports book, you’ll notice that the current season’s sport is featured. The sport is then broken down into the teams, players, and upcoming games. This helps you determine what wage to place in your sports book for the games. You can look at various sports being played from the site’s menu, and choose the sport you’re currently interested in placing a wager on. You can even look ahead to upcoming seasons of your favorite sports.

Check Out the Odds

Along with the individual sport’s information, you’ll also see a list of odds. This will help you decide who to place your wage on for each game. Odds are generally updated throughout the week, some even daily. You can keep track of the odds day-to-day until it’s time to place your bets.

A Day at the Races

Sporting events are not the only type of bets you can place in online sports books. If you enjoy racing, you can use them to look up the odds on upcoming horse races. You’ll be able to keep track of different horses, harnesses, see upcoming races, and check out featured races.

Play Casino Games

Some Sports Book websites also have online casinos, and feature craps, blackjack, and other casino games. There are various tournaments held throughout the year, and you can simply sign up for a tournament and place your wages on the website.

Ante Up

Online poker is also a popular feature of sports books. Check out upcoming games, place your wages, and earn bonuses along the way.

Collect Your Winnings

Once your game is over, you can easily collect your wages from online sports books. You’ll have to sign in to your account, and then you can check on your winnings and have them sent to you. If you’re new to online betting sites, you’ll have to create a user account first. Make sure you use a username and password you’ll remember, but be careful not to let it be something too common.

Online sports books are quick and simple to use. They’ll help take the guesswork out of placing your wages on your favorite games.

One of the tips of the trade in betting offers industry is that some sports are simply easier to make a profit on than others. It’s generally thought that tennis is one of the sports that fall into this category as unlike many others, there are just two outcomes available to the punter. Of course, while there might be one less outcome than several other sports, caution still needs to be exercised whenever you contemplate a flutter. While there will never be a specific code to abide to, here is a list of tips that should help you improve your profits if you decide to bet on tennis matches.

Constantly analyze the weather conditions

As you may expect, this is only a variable that will alter in outdoor tennis tournaments but it can have huge significance on the end result. Generally, in windy conditions especially, one side of the court will be much easier to play on than the other. This means that players could have real difficulty in winning any games when they play on that side of the court – even if they are on serve.

This presents a fantastic tennis betting tips opportunity for the punter, if you can find a bookmaker that accepts in-play bets. On practically all occasions, bookies will label the server as the big favorite to win the match and the odds will be ridiculously favourable. In fact, when there is a big underdog, bookmakers will generally provide a massive price for them to break serve.

It’s at this point that you should spring into action. Most of the time, the bookies will not place too much emphasis on weather conditions for in-play specific game bets and this means there is fantastic value to be had. Admittedly, you may lose a few bets, but the odds are so favourable that this is something you can afford to do.

Research how competitors perform on the type of court that is being played on

When people talk about researching how players perform on a specific court type, they will generally look to their form on the various surfaces such as grass, clay and hard court. This is perhaps one of the most obvious tips in tennis betting research, as players are renowned for having a favoured surface and some simply won’t be able to cope on other types.

However, another tip along the same lines relates to the variables around the court. For example, some players will have absolutely no experience of playing in front of big crowds as in the US Open and this means that they could fare poorly if they are allocated one of the big courts in a tournament. Similarly, some players have their “bogey courts” and simple research can lead you to these courts to see where they have struggled in the past.

Keep a close eye on the warm up

The warm up can be a very telling point in the match as you will usually see if a player is carrying an injury. Whether they are acting laboured in their practice or if they are merely bandaged up in certain areas, you may be given a slight indication that they won’t be able to finish the match – or at least have their performance affected by their troubles. It’s at this point you should head straight to the bookmaker to back your suspicions with an investment.

Using a tablet PC can make sports betting easier than ever. Tablets have a variety of applications allowing you to make bets while on the go, keep track of scores, figure out averages and track your bets. Newer, more advanced apps keep scores of your favorite sports like hockey, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf and much more. Betting apps also provide you with all the information you may need to make the most educated bet possible.

Specialized Betting Apps for Your Tablet

The easiest way to use your tablet to your advantage when betting on sports is to use a specialized app designed to help you stay on top of all the stats, probabilities and real-time events related to the games you’ve bet on.

Bet Tracker

Bet Tracker helps you keep track of both schedules and scores from games happening around the world. If you’re using the app in real time, it will display scores immediately after your team scores. You can also use Bet Tracker to calculate win/loss probabilities and even track your betting history.

Bet Bud

Bet Bud also provides statistics in real time, providing up-to-the-minute scores and advanced win/loss probability calculations. You can also upload your picks to Twitter or a Google Doc spreadsheet seamlessly and create betting leagues among your friends.

Free Sports Betting Calculators

If you’re not a big app adopter, you can use a variety of free tools available online to aid in calculating stats and probabilities. Free betting calculators can calculate the stake and profit for different bets and compare returns based on different potential outcomes.

The Kelly Calculator, for instance, calculates Kelly stakes on up to 15 events or 15 probable outcomes of a single event. The Parlay Calculator, on the other hand, calculates your odds of winning a parlay based on the results of two underlying bets. There are free calculators to be found online that can meet any or all of your betting needs.

Sportsbooks Just for Betting

If you’re handling your own calculations using free betting calculators or your own methods, you can place your bets using sportsbooks. Sportsbooks don’t offer any calculators, stats or other tools; they’re simply interfaces that let users place bets from anywhere.

Things to consider when choosing a sportsbook include ease of use (how easy is it to add funds or cash out wins?) and betting options (can you bet on college sports, or are you limited to one league, such as the NFL?).

Bovada

With Bovada, you can bet on most major sports and place bets even when a game is in live play. There’s nothing to download, and Bovada is free to use. Bovada also offers the highest level of payout services in the sportsbook industry.

Bookmaker

Bookmaker has been in business for 30 years and has a reputation as the top sportsbook operation in the industry. Betting limits are high, and Bookmaker offers a top-end rewards program for frequent users. Like Bovada, Bookmaker enables live in-game betting, and it also offers betting tools.

Some gamblers have made sports betting their full time job. Using apps, like Bet Tracker and Bet Bud, with a with a Multimedia Android Tablet to analyze statistical information on a match up to identify potential wagering advantages.

Resources:
http://www.beyondthebets.com/sports-betting-apps-list-of-4-of-the-top-selling-and-most-download-apps-for-sports-bettors/
http://www.androidbettingapps.com/sports-betting.html
http://www.thesportsgeek.com/sports-betting/mobile/android/
http://www.sportbet.com/calc/index.asp
http://www.sbrforum.com/betting-tools/
http://sportsgambling.about.com/od/sportsgambling101/a/choosebook.htm

March Madness is an American institution. Only the NBA’s final four will beat this basketball tournament for fan fanaticism, television market share and, of course, the most wagers place on the game of round ball. Still, before you get ready to make a friendly wager or put down your life savings on which basketball team will emerge on the top of the heap, it will pay to do a bit of research on which team(s) really has the best chance to make to the finals.

Betting on sports can be a lot of fun, and betting on basketball during the Month of March can be out of this world. Still, you don’t want to throw money away. You may love your team, but if you know in your heart they’re going to choke again, you probably ought to bet on a team with better odds. Odds for the upcoming tournament can be obtained through any local bookie (where book making is legal) or through on-line sports betting websites. Be sure to look for which has the best odds for your pick. After all, if your local guy is giving three to one but the website offers four? You’d be smarter to place that bet on line and earn more for your win!

If you’re thinking of betting on line and are not already registered with one of the sports betting websites, get busy. You’ll need to register up front, and in most cases, either transfer money or use your credit card set up an account. Just like with any bookie, the on-line guys will charge you a percentage of your winnings, and maybe a registration fee, as well. It’s always smart to shop around. Then, once your best are placed, sit back with a cold one, some pizza and the gang. Rooting on your team is more fun when, if they win, you win, too!