If you’re interested in trying your hand at sports betting it’s important to understand that the sports betting world is a unique marketplace. The sports betting marketplace generates clear winners or losers based on measurable outcomes (sporting events).

Many bettors have tried to “beat the bookmaker” and sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. Some expert betting enthusiasts will have a variety of systems that they religiously work with while others merely use their gut instincts. However it has been proven that doing effective research on the teams, players, events, courses and stadiums you choose to bet on can have a powerful impact on how you place your bet.

Sports Betting Research

Let’s have a look at why sports betting research is so important:

1. Increase your chances of betting correctly. By thoroughly researching teams and players you are placing bets on, you will understand in what conditions they are likely to win. For example, Chris Froome is excellent at hilly, mountainous cycling routes, which makes the Tour de France one of his favourites. Similarly Rory McIllroy does not favour rainy weather conditions which is why he plays better on US courses.

2. Know which events to put more weight on. By researching sports betting events you will understand how lucrative each one is in terms of betting odds in your favour. For example many first time sports bettors will try their luck on horse race betting such as the Vodacom Durban July and they will more than likely pick the horse that is the current favourite. This will therefore decrease the return on the favorite. Experienced sports betting fans will pick events that are not in the limelight and do their research as to who will win. A good example is golf, tennis and motorsport where you would need to be fairly knowledgeable on the players taking part.

3. Increase your winning Rand amount. In sports betting, betting on the favorite doesn’t always pay out a huge amount as you’re contending with many others for the same piece of the pie. By doing your research you will be able to discover who the wild cards or dark horses are for that event are. Further research will indicate whether the playing fields, stadium, environment or course favour their game. Many don’t take the time to research this and your most profitable bets often lie further down the betting odds ranks. A good example is the recent Durban July where French Navy had been pegged as the favourite to win with odds of 5/1, however the winner ended up being Conglomerate who had odds of 20/1. You don’t always have to bet on the outright winner to make money. There are many different markets that you can bet in in order to win and often not betting on the favourite definitely pays out a greater rand amount. Theories such as betting on the home underdogs used to be a favourite in this case, however with the advance in technology and new sports betting websites emerging this is becoming less profitable.

4. Derivative Sports Betting. A derivative sports betting market is a market derived from a larger betting market. For example in Soccer it would be markets such as which team will score first, which minute will the first goal be scored in, which team will get the first red card etc. Many sports betting enthusiasts have made a fair share of profit by researching these markets and placing their bets on these.

Extreme Sports Betting

Of course there are those sports betting professionals that take research to a whole new level and employ the likes of data analytics, sports betting software and costly analysis techniques to understand their chances of making the right bet.

In today’s sports betting market, it is smart money, not recreational money that moves the betting markets. In terms of Rands bet, smart money now greatly tops that of fun money, and this is by a wide margin. So essentially this is what you will be competing against. It’s important to do as much research as possible into sports betting in order to benefit.

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