Sports Betting for the Casual Fan

I'm a casual sports fan and an even more casual NFL fan, however I enjoy gambling.

What I'm wondering is, as a casual fan who isn't going to spend a lot of time researching various players or game conditions (I'm not opposed to crunching numbers and looking at stats) what's the best way for me to participate in sports betting, specifically with the NFL?

In other words, other than just randomly guessing, what's something a little extra I could do that wouldn't require me to ramp up on a lot of knowledge of the sport and current teams players.

Thanks in advance!

Three words: Bet on Underdogs.

I had read that on wizard of odds and was going to try that out this weekend. Thanks.

Quote: Clayton

I had read that on wizard of odds and was going to try that out this weekend. Thanks.

You're welcome. I do that every weekend.

So to be clear, I'd be picking underdogs (specifically home team dogs?) based on the spread?

So for week 13 that'd be:

Home (Dog)	Away	Points
Bengals	Saints	+7
Cardinals	Rams	+3.5

Is that correct?

The Lions are a +4.5 home dog and Tampa Bay are +3 home dogs.

Quote: thecesspit

The Lions are a +4.5 home dog and Tampa Bay are +3 home dogs.

Guess I missed those, thanks. :)

Unless a game is a dead-on pick, there will be an underdog in every game. My sports betting page shows that home underdogs do better than visiting underdogs, but the difference is not statistically significant. Between betting underdogs and shopping around for the best lines you should at least get to break even. I'm not saying this is a recipe for getting rich.

I am new to this site and I will probably get beat up with this answer, but I want to share my experience with you. I'm like you, I don't want to get involved with researching every little detail. Tomorrow will be one month that I have been betting with an offshore bookmaker. First of all, the odds makers in las Vegas do all the hard work for you. I found a website that has team matchups. Football season is over so I play college and NBA. I match up the teams playing with teams they have already played. I make my own spread versus vegas spreads. I look for the Vegas spread to give me the answer. That dosen't mean you bet the opposite of who you like all the time, because you will come out a loser. I am retired and live off my SS. check so I bet the bare minimum. I've read where you can make a lot of money if you can win 60% of your bets. I play 10 to 15 games a day and I am over 60% winner. My problem is, could i make these picks under pressure. I would love to find someone I could give my picks to for a week just to see if I would choke. No one in my household knows I'm betting on sports. Good luck to you.

Quote: duckston09

I am new to this site and I will probably get beat up with this answer, but I want to share my experience with you. I'm like you, I don't want to get involved with researching every little detail. Tomorrow will be one month that I have been betting with an offshore bookmaker. First of all, the odds makers in las Vegas do all the hard work for you. I found a website that has team matchups. Football season is over so I play college and NBA. I match up the teams playing with teams they have already played. I make my own spread versus vegas spreads. I look for the Vegas spread to give me the answer. That dosen't mean you bet the opposite of who you like all the time, because you will come out a loser. I am retired and live off my SS. check so I bet the bare minimum. I've read where you can make a lot of money if you can win 60% of your bets. I play 10 to 15 games a day and I am over 60% winner. My problem is, could i make these picks under pressure. I would love to find someone I could give my picks to for a week just to see if I would choke. No one in my household knows I'm betting on sports. Good luck to you.

First of all, you wouldn't make "a lot" of money, even winning at a 60% clip, unless you were betting "a lot". Second, and more important, only a very few humans now walking the earth have been able to consistently show a 60% win rate. It is far more likely that you're simply "running good" than that you are one of those few humans. In truth, a skilled handicapper would be thrilled with a 55% win rate, which would be barely enough to win, since you need to score 53% just to break even. If you are living on a fixed income, betting with ANY part of it could obviously be very dangerous. It will NOT be pleasant when the inevitable day comes when you go 1-9 or 2-13.

Yor are absolutely right that it is almost impossible to win 60% according to all the articles I have read. I deposited $50.00 and was playing $5.00 a game with the intention of watching the games on TV. What happened was, I lost every game I played so I started betting $1.00 a game. The bare minimum. I tried to find a way to handicap per my answer to Claytons question, and I started to win over 60% of my bets. I knew it was luck,but after betting on so many games, I said to myself, how lucky can you be. I can afford the $50.00 I deposited, I just wanted to get my money worth in terms of entertainment. Even if this craziness continues, I still wouldn't raise my bet, because I know I would lose my first bet. If I was betting real money, I would have doubts with any decision I made while I was handicapping. That's why I think this is all physiological, because I am only betting $1.00. I know if this continues to happen, I would give you my password and ask you if you could make heads or tails out of this. Next week I 'm sure I will be writing saying it was just luck, and I am losing like crazy.

Whats the total number of $1 bets you've made to and hit 60% at?

Whats the total number of bets made ($1, $5 etc) and whats your overall percentage with all of them wrap into together?

I do not want to start a new thread for this, but I recently have reason and need to learn more of the unusual bets. Can someone explain a "1 x 3" bet? I researched it and see it has something to do with three outcomes but all the examples I found are kind of hard to follow.