I’m not a professional gambler. Let’s just get that out in the open now. If you’re looking for advanced sports betting tactics and strategies, then this page is not for you. But we will try our best to show you how to win at college football betting regardless.
That said, I’m confident that you don’t need to be a professional in order to win at betting NCAA football (or any other kind of betting). Most mistakes made are newbie-type mistakes anyway. So if you can practice some common sense and stick to the basics, there’s no reason why you can’t position yourself to win games than you lose.
7 Tips for Becoming a Winning NCAA Football Bettor
Here are 7 simple tips that I think will help you become a winning NCAA football bettor.
Always Line Shop
Even if you bet for fun, line shopping is the one thing you want to do before every bet that you make. You might find a bookie that is offering better odds. For example, say Duke is -112 at one sportsbook and another bookie has them at -110. Clearly -110 would be the better line (because you’re paying $110 to win $100 instead of $112).
I know that $2 doesn’t look like much of a difference. And truth be told, if you bet only a handful of games per year, it isn’t – maybe $10 or $20 per season. However, if you’re a frequent bettor, then $2 here and there will add up. It might save you $10 or $20 in one day.
Not only that, but you should be approaching betting with a long term mentality. Even if you’re only losing $10-$20 per season, when you add all that up over a lifetime it can easily be the difference between being a losing or winning bettor.
Read Books on Betting
Another tip for becoming a winning bettor is to read sports betting books. Considering that you’ll only pay $10-$30 per book, these are a very good investment. You should have no problem making your money back many, many times over.
The two books that I have had recommended to me, that I’ll pass along to you, is:
- Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting by King Yao
- Conquering Risk: Attacking Vegas and Wall Street by Elihu D. Feustel
Read the first book first. The second book is more advanced, and probably isn’t suited for bettors who bet on sports purely for fun, unless you like lots of statistics and math.
Avoid Placing Bad Bets
If you want to be a long term winner, you need to avoid the short term excitement and temptations of making bad bets. The bets I would avoid making are parlays, teasers and futures. These bets are tempting because of their big payouts, but they have big payouts because they’re long shots to win. And making long shot bets aren’t a long term strategy.
Eliminate Bias
When betting to win, you should be unbiased at all times. In other words, you shouldn’t be betting on your favorite player or team because they’re your favorites. The only time you should bet on a team, player or outcome is because you determine that it is profitable to do so. Betting on things because you like them is really no different, or any more profitable, then using your woman’s strategy of betting on a team because their uniforms are cute.
Practice Solid Bankroll Management Methods
The tip, “solid bankroll management methods,” is really an umbrella statement for:
- Betting within your means. No more than 5% of your total bankroll.
- Not chasing losses.
- Reinvesting profits for education, and to make your bankroll bigger.
- Taking advantage of reduce vig, deposit bonuses and line shopping.
- Not making good bets.
I’ve already discussed some of these in more detail, on this page and on our bankroll management page. Take each one very seriously. Screwing just one of these points up can mean the difference of making money or losing money in the long run.
Follow a Handicapper’s Picks
The quickest path to being successful in much of anything is having a mentor. They’ll cut through the crap so you don’t make common mistakes that cost you money.
In the case of handicappers, you can follow them on their blogs or via their email newsletters to receive free picks and tips. Not every handicapper is legit, so it might take you a little bit to find the right one(s) to follow. You can ask for feedback from forums or your friends to find a legitimate handicapper. Once you find them, follow their tips and you’ll find that in the long run you’ll turn a profit.
Keep Track of All Bets
My last tip is to keep track of all the bets you make. In detail. Write down the types of bets that you make, the odds, teams, dates and amounts.
The strategy behind this is no different than keeping track of your finances, wins/losses in poker or the books for your business. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. In other words, how do you know if what you’re doing, whether it’s the tips on this page or the advice given in a forum or book is working if you don’t keep track of them?
You won’t.
So setup an excel sheet. Keep it simple and write down everything as you make the bets. Don’t wait until later because that usually leads to it not being done at all.
And there you have it. Those are my 7 tips for becoming a winning NCAA football bettor. Once again, these tips won’t turn you into a millionaire or professional overnight – and maybe not at all — but I’m confident that if you follow these tips and use some common sense, that you’ll find that becoming a winning college football bettor is definitely possible, even for the hobbyist.