Online sports betting is a pastime that many people from all over the world enjoy. For some, this is a daily hobby while others stick to the big events that take place, and place a bet once a month, some even less than that.
There will be some people who have never placed a bet before, but maybe want to give it a try. But how do you begin to gamble and what are the steps needed to get things started?
For those who want to join in the fun, here is how you do it.
Find a Bookmaker
This is the logical first step, find someone to bet with. You can get help with this if you don’t know where to start. Sites like The Bookies Offers can give you assistance with their bookmaker reviews, showing you which sites stand out as being the best for specific areas.
Choosing a bookmaker is a personal decision, so try not to go with the biggest name you know or the bookmaker that your friends use. We all bet in different ways and what works for them may not work for you.
After choosing who you are going to bet with and signing up to an account, it is time to start gambling as a newbie. This is a very exciting time for anyone completing this step, but try not to get too carried away and make a mistake early on, go carefully and quietly about your business.
Take Your First Baby Steps
The first steps you take should always be small regardless of what you are doing, and this is especially important when it comes to gambling.
There are many different sporting events you can place bets on which take place every single day. You don’t want to bet on everything of course but finding something to bet on should be the first thing you do.
Another way to keep things simple is by the type of bets you place. These range from singles up to big multiples covering a lot of different selections, but for now, the key is to keep things simple and avoid trying to land the huge win.
The early stages are about building confidence and winning, you will only do this by placing simple bets and using simple bet types.
Work Out Your Strengths
If you want to take betting seriously, then having a record of everything you do is key. This will allow you to work out your strengths.
For example, if you bet on European football and divide your bets up across different leagues, by having a record you can see where you have performed well and where you have done poorly.
Are you a better gambler on the Premier League than La Liga, for example? This kind of information will allow you to look at what bets you should continue placing and what you should either stop placing or lower your stakes on.
As you work this out you should be able to narrow things down and place more bets on the things you are good at, and less on the areas you are struggling with.
Implement a Staking Strategy
There are many things that regular punters can learn from the professionals and one of them is how to stake bets. There are two ways of doing this, but the key is to do something about it and not leave yourself placing random stakes on your wagers.
The first, and easiest, is to have level stakes across the board, with every single bet being of the same value. This means regardless of whether you are betting at the start of a season, at the end, after a big win or after numerous losses, your bets will all stay the same.
The second is more dynamic, better in the long run but harder to implement and this is to have different staking levels. Working out your strengths, as we’ve just mentioned above, will help with this.
Using the same example, because you are better when betting on the Premier League than La Liga, you should have larger stakes on those bets.
These can be determined by points, so a bet on the Premier League would be two points, while a La Liga bet would be one. This gives you double the stake on your strongest betting league compared to another.
With this strategy you can expand your profit on the Premier League and limit your lossess on La Liga.
Move to the Next Level
This will all allow you to move to the next level. This is where you refine your gambling, aim to make money and use advanced betting markets to aid that.
You no longer need to think basic when you are at this level, you can use everything that is available to you. This includes advanced bet types, new betting markets and anything else you think will give you the edge over your bookmaker.
You will limit what you bet on when you reach this level, but should have a lot more available in terms of bet types and betting markets to keep things really interesting and exciting.
Keep Learning
This is a trap that many gamblers fall into. They reach this level, think everything is going ok and they forget to stay ahead of the game, or they don’t see the importance of it.
The gambling industry as a whole is one that changes on a regular basis. This may be the rules in place, how you wager your bets, what betting markets and bet types are available or something else.
If you don’t keep up to speed with these trends, you won’t know they are available and could be missing out on something that will make you even more profitable.
The best gamblers never stop learning, and there is nothing wrong with that. Just because you continue to learn doesn’t mean that you don’t know everything, it means you are open to embracing whatever the gambling industry throws at you.
