Whether it is possible to earn money from gambling and make a living from betting are questions which seem to bother many punters.
To give the short answer…
Yes, it is absolutely possible to make money with sports betting.
Image: Gualtiero Boffi (Shutterstock)Bookmakers make money; sports analysts make a living from gambling by compiling odds for bookies; some of my own income derives from sports bettors using this website. Programmers earn a living from gambling by developing various betting applications. Manufacturers of gaming machines make money from people’s gambling habits.
I could certainly continue this list as the betting business is a big industry providing many, many people with jobs.
But this is probably not a satisfactory response for sports fans who bet themselves and pursue the dream of supplementing their income, or becoming rich from gambling one day.
However, for these hopeful punters, the answer is also clearly positive…
- Yes: it is possible to develop long-term profitable betting strategies.
- Yes: it is possible to find betting odds which hold value and provide a mathematical edge.
Nothing is Impossible!
The big question is whether you will manage to join the minority, the tiny crowd of betting enthusiasts who finally become successful.
Another question is whether you have the patience (and time) for acquiring the necessary knowledge to win more than you lose, because only knowledge is power; without knowledge there is no chance.
Reliance on luck is not a foundation for lasting success. With luck alone nobody can build a house – only a handful of lottery millionaires can claim the opposite.
Successful Sports Bettors – Examples
In September 2005, in “Expert Betting Advice” forum, a young woman named Maria Santonix started publishing horse racing lay bets. I followed her thread at the time, and I must say that it came across as very authentic. She published daily picks (except Saturdays) and in only 303 days, her initial bank of £3,000 increased to £100,603.78.
The thread has since been taken offline by the operators of the forum, but if you google “Maria Laying System” you will find a plethora of articles referring to her experiment. Naturally, doubt breeds skepticism and most of the responses are quite critical.
It is difficult to find really credible information about betting success on the Internet. In the majority of threads you will read statements such as “I know someone who knows someone who makes his living from betting”.
The only website I am currently aware of which has published quarterly betting results for several years is Alan Seymour’s Sports Arbitrage Review. Alan writes about his experiences as a professional arbitrage trader and has been arbing since 2002.
Famous Last Words
If you have anything substantial to contribute to this topic please leave your comment below. It will warm our hearts and be absolutely great!
As I continue to develop betting courses and tutorials, I would be very keen to learn which specific content you are interested in most.
I thank you in advance for you valuable contribution! Every thought helps to develop this website into a sparkling source of knowledge in the often far too confusing worldwide web. 😛
About the Author
Great stuff here guys, really enjoyed the reading.Just came over this site today. Just to answer the inital question, yes it’s definitely possible. I have been living from betting for almost 11 years now, and I am still doing it. I am more of a trader than a pure bettor.I live in Mexico as well, althought I am not Mexican. I am a bit in a hurry now but will check in again tomorrow and participate in the discussion.
Best
Junah
Hello Junah,
Please help me out! I am new to betting and I have lost a lot of money. I would appreciate if you could be giving me winning games on a daily basis. I wouldn’t mind paying for it. Thanks. My email address is teninteni @ yahoo dot com. Thank you sir.
Hello there,
I follow English and Spanish league mostly.
What was it You wanted to ask/share?
Have a good time.
Kudos guys I really like this topic and I aspire to win big someday. Im just wondering if I could dialogue with some people here and compare our thoughts. Like which league youve studied so well and i tell you my thought from other leagues.You can always get across to me in fb.
Hey Everyone,
thank you everyone for your replies.
As I have told Rod, it is not a “finished business plan” I have in mind (yet?), just a very
loose idea / concept that I´d like to discuss with some people who know the sports-betting market well.
Thank you Mark too. I will give your trial a go.
Cheers
Rich
Hello Richtrader, I dont do trading… only betting (I place my bet and wait for the game to finish). I know about the 90-95%, several years ago I even purchased a basketball tipster subscription. I was ignorant, so I lost and got deceived. Anyway, I am interested in learning how to maximize my profits, also I would love to get a critique of my betting ways.
my email is rtgfiru[at]gmail[dot]com
Mark,Hi.
I was not a little intrigued by your post.
Do you mind if I ask what the 62% figure refers to? I’m assuming it can only be winning selections but then all the odds you bet at are what? Roughly evens ? So that is a particular market then?
Also what roi does the £29,000 @ £100 come to?
Thanks
Hi Rich,
Sure we would be glad to help you. Just like trading Forex and stocks there is not many who profit from sports betting in the long run (around 5% of the general public do). Most think they can win a lot without backing it up and in our industry they are known as squares. Most struggle to hit over the break even mark every year and those who do, tend to hit not much higher than the 58% mark over the year. The most I have personally came across for a year is 66% and anyone claiming above these figures is likely lying. We have averaged 62% over the last 2 years and have documented evidence along with reviews to prove such claims. Last year our £100 bettors profited around £29k alone.
We offer a free trial for all who are interested, another way of proving that we are not all talk. After your trial should you wish to stay, you will only pay for winning selections. Each winning selections has a fee of £10.
If you are interested please get in contact with myself, mark-docherty[at]live[dot]co.uk
Thanks,
Mark
Hey Guys,
as I have posted early this month I am former professional financial-markets trader who is now looking at sports-betting with great interest.
What I am trying to figure out is if some of the strategies that I have applied very successfully on the markets (always looking at relative-value / correlations) can be applied to sports-betting.
Theoretically I see no reason why not, but to be honest I do not understand yet enough
to be 100% positive.
Now, I know from financial-markets that 95-99% (pick your number) of people posting/advertising lose money / are snake-oil salesman and therefore I am extremely cautious who to trust.
On this site the “culture” seems different and therefore I am more inclined to beliefe that there are actually successful traders on here (and I know how important it is to collaborate with other successful traders having sat in one of the most successful trading rooms of the city of London).
That´s why I would like to ask any of you successful “punters” to contact me to see if there is a way we could collaborate (could be exchanging trading-approaches/ideas, investments, whatever…)…
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Rich
Rich,
I for one am telling the truth and I might be willing to at least discuss this with you.
I’m at the point where I expect to have great difficulty getting my placed next season and that would be a big part of my motivation.
However I’m mindful of being seen to use this site for personal gain so I will leave it up to Soccerwidow to pass on my email address should they see fit.
Hi Rich,
I am willing to discuss what I do with you.
My email is amorris1820[at]gmail[dot]com
Hi Tony, Rod & Mark, it’s great to see here a lively discussion. Feel free to continue at the blog by sticking to my principle that there is nothing good in this world that is not worthwhile to be shared. 🙂
Anyway, as you have started sharing your email addresses.. I had to amend them to following format… name[at]site[dot]ending Be careful not to leave click-able emails on the Internet, there are robots out there which read everything which is published and then start spamming the owners.
Hello Tony, thanks for your considering my opinion, I will try to make myself clear (I am from Mexico, not exactly 100% great at english 😉 )
1.- I dont believe in gambling forums (I agree this is not a forum, I respect this site as a must if you want to learn about sports betting). I have been betting since I was a boy, 10 years old, family tradition. I only did multiples, we call them parlays, and my family does not believe somebody can profit from betting. I took this seriously about 6 years ago, but in a very unscientific way. I did a lot of betting all in to odds in the range of 1.01-1.25 and started experimenting with different ideas. Then I had a “Eureka” moment as to how I could exploit statistical information and how to rate the teams. I really cant say how many hours because I am still learning, experimenting, educating myself with math, excel, database arquitechture, programming, etc. Was it hard work?NO IT WAS NOT. I enjoyed every moment, suffered deeply when I had proof some of my ideas were wrong, but the motivation has always been there.
I think that hard work does not always become success. I think its discipline and commitment to the idea. There have been months that no progress was made no matter the hours spent studying or collecting data. There have been minutes in which I made the most important aspects of my system, a reality.
2.- I did poker, I still have a normal job, I was good at sports but hated school. I like to study, read, research, I wanted to be a musician. The common theme… Creativity. This led me to explore betting as a living, then betting different from the “pros” in the forums. I know I can apply my creative thinking into numerous things, I do it, but being successfull at football betting gives me time (via automation), money (not big enough right now), and a sense of achievement no other profession would give me (gambling background since a kid). It also becomes an example to other people that think their idea is strange, difficult, or have no social support.
3.- I have been trying to trade inplay, I have to be honest with me, in more than 3 years I have not got a positive expected return. Its all been losing on the long rung. Multiples, will work if you have a mathematical advantage of course, but the betting management makes it more difficult handle, predicting its losing trends, winning trends and the odds I usually place my bets are high (avr 2.5-2.7).
4.- No idea. Or maybe I do not understand what you mean. I dont think its worth X amount of dollars, I just know that I bet my savings into it.
I think that embracing risk, is embracing the nature of life. I have seen healthy people die unexpectedly, peaceful people been murdered (I live in Mexico, violent place), embracing risk becomes difficult when you age (I am 29 years old) but when I get some children I want to teach them to defy odds, to believe in their nature, to be strong and compassionate inward…. in order to do so, I must lead by example.
Rembember, it all starts with your human values. I love hard work but not for the sake of it. I do believe in innovation, it takes hard work but within a focused goal. My main motivation is the lessons I shall learn embracing this mindset, so I can teach others what worked for me and what did not…. and of course, I want economic freedom to devote myself to enjoy life and improve peoples life…. having several thousand dollars coming to my account via sports betting sounds like a great way to achieve this for me 😉
I hope this helps, anything else I am here to contribute…. This website did a lot for me, paying it forward is the least I can do.
Sorry for the mistakes.I had forgotten that I couldn’t edit.