Gone were the days of morons debating whether or not wrestling was real. It was no longer about the graps in the squared circle. They made it clear they were a full blown entertainment force. The brought a sex, drugs, and violence vibe to wrestling. They essentially become sports. Gross win from online sports betting reached about 21 billion U.S. Dollars in 2016. An estimate from several years back projected a gross win of only around 6 billion U.S. Within 2012 to 2016, sports betting.
Estimated Read Time: 3 minutesSee All Guides
Sports betting is an emotional pastime, combining the passion of the sports fan and the thrill of a wager. When you have a room full of sports fans who have money riding on a game, tensions in sportsbooks can run a little high.
If things get out of hand, you could find yourself ejected and banned from your favorite sportsbook. While most bettors are well-behaved, we’ve put together a list of sportsbook do’s and don’ts to help you avoid an early exit!
If you’re seen borrowing or asking for money from another bettor to fund your bets, you could find yourself on the other side of the doors. Even if you just want to borrow from a friend, it’s not a good place to be as a gambler.
Don’t have the bankroll to cover your sports bets? It’s time to call it a day. The number one rule of any sports betting strategy is proper bankroll management, and the second is never to chase your losses. Just sit back and enjoy the game while soaking up the sportsbook atmosphere.
Of course, the whole ‘no stealing’ thing goes without saying. It’s a big no-no, will result in an automatic lifetime ban, and may even get you arrested. It’s not worth it.
While free drinks at Vegas sportsbooks are slowly becoming a thing of the past, some sportsbooks have a set minimum bet – as much as $100 – before you qualify for a single ‘free drink’. Of course, most sportsbooks notoriously include a well-stocked bar where sports-hungry bettors can purchase any number of alcoholic beverages.
It’s easy to get carried away while enjoying the game (and a few drinks). That said, being drunk and disorderly in any public place is out of order. It’s never a good idea to bet under the influence of alcohol, yet it is one of the most common mistakes made by casual sports bettors. It clouds your better judgment and can easily cause you to lose a lot of your bankroll.
Keep your wits about you to ensure that you can follow the game and your bets. If you’ve had a little too much to drink, head home (or to your hotel) to sleep it off or go have a good meal… with water! The sportsbook security staff is used to poor behavior and might remove you, pour you into a taxi, and ban you for good.
We all know emotions can run high during a sports game – and even more so when there are big bucks at stake. There are zero excuses for becoming aggressive. Keep your cool and your hands to yourself, or you’ll be tossed out. Worse, you can face criminal charges.
This goes for any member of sportsbook staff for that matter. Manners cost nothing, but being impolite could cost you access to your beloved sportsbook. Ticket writers, bar staff, and hosts are there to provide you with an enjoyable betting experience, but that doesn’t mean they’re paid to put up with any nonsense. Be a decent human being and everyone will be happy!
At a sportsbook, line shopping isn’t a common option. Every so often, however, you’ll find an incorrect line which offers you much better odds than usual. With so many sporting events taking place every day, mistakes in the line are bound to happen.
This unwritten rule applies to pretty much any sportsbook you go to: If you spot an incorrect line make a bet on it, the sportsbook will typically honor that ticket. However, fair play works both ways: If you’ve located an error but choose to make multiple bets on it, the sportsbook is well within their rights to escort you from the building.
A bit of banter with the opposing team’s fans can be a bit of harmless fun, but there’s a line and you should be respectful of it. No one likes a jackass, and if your words are causing offense, you’ll promptly be ejected.
Many sportsbooks have areas, booths, and seats that can be reserved by regular patrons or VIP members. They may be plush, super comfy, and the best seats in the house, but if there’s a reserved sign on it, it’s out of bounds.
Sportsbooks keep records their reservation lists, so don’t be tempted to remove the ‘reserved’ signs and sit there anyway. If you’re caught doing that, you risk being asked to leave.
Watching sports and placing bets in a sportsbook is one of the best ways to enjoy sports betting. They offer a viewing and betting experience like none other, but not all sportsbooks are made equal. It’s crucial to remember that some cities and countries do things differently.
Check out the best gambling and sports betting destinations around the world, and start planning your next vacation!
I am MB, the founder of this site. Father, Bet Analyst, Entrepreneur, and Sports Betting Consultant (important: I don’t sell any picks). I want to quickly share my story, my ideas, and my philosophy of both – betting and life in general.
My whole work is dedicated to making a positive impact on Sports Bettors Lives all over the World. That’s the ultimate goal.
But before we continue, I want to thank you for taking your time and reading this.
I was born in 1980 in a small town in Europe and I definitely never thought that I will be involved in some kind of sports betting or even being a sports betting consultant that will later become an entrepreneur and help sports bettors all over the world. My parents always told me – go to college, get a job and this is the formula for a happy life.
I love them with all my heart and I couldn’t be this person without them. But I ignored that advice later when I was in college. They lived in some other political system, without the internet and since then things have changed dramatically.
Formal education is not that important anymore. Of course, there are still jobs, that require formal education. You can not become a doctor by watching youtube videos. But on the other side, with the internet, many new jobs were created that didn’t exist before.
Sports bettors, betting consultants, sports betting entrepreneurs, bookmakers, sports betting analysts, affiliates, marketing… those are only a few that make a living from the World of Sports Betting.
Many people make a living from sports betting (either from actual betting or the things that happen around betting) and there is no specific college for this.
Even in my wildest dreams, I didn’t think I will become a sports bettor and an entrepreneur who will later make a living from sports betting.
I made my first bet when I was 17 years or 18 years old. Back then there were no age restrictions in our local bookie shop because the lady didn’t ask you how old are you. She gave you the ticket and after the games were played, she paid you the profits.
We were kids, who loved sports and we’re looking for the winners. Of course, back then we didn’t have much success. It was just fun and focusing on winners would never bring me to the point where I am right now.
But I must be honest here because I had luck. If I wouldn’t have the luck, I would still be at that level. Looking for sports betting picks, bet winners, guaranteed picks, locks, and all other crazy things, that don’t work.
A couple of things happened that changed my life and helped me to make a living from sports betting and those are the things that I honestly didn’t have any impact on:
The big change started when I moved to a capital city to study at a college.
I was studying Water Science and Environmental Engineering. Never finished it, despite I passed most exams.
Later I found, that this was the best decision (for me) because I would never be a good Engineer. You must love what you do and I didn’t really love water science, building bridges, or drainage systems.
But I learned a lot in the college, especially how to use statistics and without this knowledge and without college, I couldn’t become what I am now.
Because of the college:
Understanding the value is still one of the hardest things to understand for many bettors. But again I was lucky to understand this quickly. It was a combination of my understanding of math and the location where I lived.
I didn’t focus anymore on who will win the game, because this is completely worthless, but back then I saw that our local sportsbooks simply copy odds from the biggest online bookmakers. What I quickly realized is that they were very slow by moving the odds.
I was simply comparing my local sportsbook odds and the odds from the biggest online bookmakers. It happened many times back then that online bookmakers moved the spread from +7 to +3 and our local sportsbook still had at +6.5.
And this is what I was betting. And this was the value. The online market represented let’s say true probabilities and the prices, while our local sportsbook didn’t move the line.
I didn’t focus on winners, but simply on the numbers and the price that I pay.
I made a lot of money back then. At least for me as a student.
But the first problems started when they started locking my combinations and tickets. And this happened pretty quickly. It happened many times, that I had to move to different locations to try to bet or even ask my friends to bet at the same time on different locations.
I saw that this will not work anymore and the local bookmaker started moving the lines much faster. Because of high margins, I knew I had to find another way.
I decided to research the market and I wanted to find a sport or the league that can be described with the numbers. I wanted to have a sport with a lot of data, so I can start betting based on my analysis.
I found that baseball is the perfect match for me.
I came from a country, where nobody watches baseball. But I knew that I must separate what I love (soccer) and where I can make profits.
I was pretty successful with my MLB betting and at the same time, I was a participant of all kinds of betting forums, portals, books, etc… I was even invited to secret betting groups, asked to sell picks (I even did this for a short period of time – but this is against my philosophy), and was connected with some of the best sports bettors all over the World.
Betting and numbers are my passion and this passion is the same now. But in my 20’s I didn’t pay much attention to the bigger picture of life, success, and development.
I had the access to the right information and books. They always helped me to get back up when I was down in my life, but I was still young. Even if I made money with betting I didn’t keep it. I spent it on parties, girls,… and also my money management was not perfect either.
I didn’t have the right plan for what to do with the profits and there were a lot of ups and downs, despite I made very good analyses and bets.
This was the time of searching for my identity as a bettor and the person. I had a great time back then and I also met friends for a lifetime. It was crazy and epic at some point, but there were also very tough periods of time.
I was making profits with betting, but I still ignored the overall picture of life and I was not fully satisfied.
So I went back to books, reading, and started asking questions about life, what to do with betting profits, investments, business, how to generate more income streams, …
After I connected all the dots I started looking at betting and my life from a different perspective.
I was reading books from Anthony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey, Robert Kiyosaki,…. later more spiritual from Eckhart Tolle, etc…
And I tried to learn more about me, my life, money, and success.
When I look back, I always wanted to motivate people and help them. When I was young, it was probably because of my ego, because I felt great. And this is of course also a reward. We all need such small rewards. But later I saw that I am really happy if I help someone to succeed.
Three things are very important for a happy life: good relationships, that you make a living with something you truly love and the third is that you make a positive impact on the world and the lives of other people.
I loved betting and the numbers, but the biggest motivation was never real money. It was always freedom. Some concepts are explained in the book by Tim Ferris – The 4 Hour Workweek. And this is why I started re-investing my profits and building more income streams. I am huge believer in “it is more important how you make money, than how much you make” (Gary Vaynerchuk).
During all these years, I was of course following what is happening in the sports betting world.
Sports Betting Picks, Sports Handicappers, Picks Services grew every year. There were more and more bettors, who were selling picks. And with social media, the whole thing came out of control.
Everyone who has 5 minutes of time sells or shares his picks now. Millions and millions of bettors look for magical bullet, but there is no quick solution.
Not only that following or paying for picks will not help most bettors in the World, the craziest thing is that the whole thing became 80% marketing and only 20% betting.
Most sports handicappers and betting services don’t use any statistics for betting, don’t even track their bets, or talk about important betting topics, like closing line value, betting algorithms, betting models, finding a value, etc…
This is where I decided that I want to share my story, my views and the way how I bet. Going deep with the betting topic and sharing information that can really make sports bettors better every day is my passion. I simply love this.
I decided not to focus only on how to find picks, because picks will not help you. But share the bigger picture about betting, where the focus is on how to start using the numbers and become successful.
I decided to create this site to share my knowledge and how I bet and what is my philosophy.
The goal is to change sports bettors lives forever. This is what makes give me extra happiness and satisfaction in my betting world.
I am a simple person and not a typical sports handicapper. I don’t even call myself a handicapper, maybe a better word is a sports betting analyst and entrepreneur.
I am now in my 40’s and I was never really impressed with lights, flash, Casinos, and similar things. Two cities that I will probably never visit, despite many people ask me this, are Las Vegas and Dubai.
I love peaceful people, peaceful places, and nature.
My daughter means the world to me and I am grateful, that sports betting gave me the chance to work from my home and spend a lot of quality time with her.
I have a very small circle of friends, but those friends are true friends for many many years.
I try to live peacefully and at the same time, I understand that I don’t have an influence on many things around us. This is why I try to be grateful for every day and see what the next day will bring.
Meditation and trying to find inner peace are very important parts of my life.
I was never really a bad bettor because I always looked at betting through the numbers and it was a small advantage from the start against other bettors. And we know that in betting you are not fighting really against bookmakers, but against other bettors.
But betting alone is not enough if you don’t fix all other things in your life. After all, relying on only one income stream is a very very bad idea. The average millionaire has at least 7 different income streams. This is something I didn’t understand back then. Why Lebron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jay Z, and other successful people invest in other areas? Because it is important.
For most of my life, I was somehow involved in betting. I spent a total of maybe 4 years of my life for regular 5-9 jobs and at some points, I had weekend jobs, but even then I spent most of the time betting. Either betting or learning about betting and finding my unique methods.
Sports Betting had always a big role in my life and this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Math, statistics, models, investing, intellectual challenge,… with very solid ROI. All I have now wouldn’t be possible without sports betting and of course without some luck on my journey! Luck should not be ignored.
I have no idea, but I hope so. I love my life. I have great friends, I work from home and I have freedom. I do what I love and can take days off whenever I want. I can spend quality time with my daughter and this is for which I am very grateful.
But I want to stay humble because things can change quickly. Nothing is guaranteed in our life.
We never know what tomorrow brings. But what I know for sure is that I will always improve and do my best in sports betting, because I love this. In fact, this is all I know or if I am more precise, this is the best skill of all skills that I have.
I am definitely not the best sports handicapper, in the World and I don’t want to compare with those who think they are “the best”. But I have my own unique way, that works for me and this is what I share here with you. Nothing more, nothing less.
Dedicated to help new sports bettors and change their lives.
Quote I love“How You Make Your Money Is More Important Than How Much Money You Make”Do you want to contact me?Send me an email: mb@underdogchance.com