There is more to sports betting than just joining an online sportsbook, depositing, and placing random wagers. You need to develop a betting system which will allow you to be as successful as possible. In this guide, we will provide you with some guidance on how to create this and utilise it to the best of your advantages.

Starting Out with a Betting Idea

Any professional bettor will tell you that a good betting system begins with a theory on something. Before you start generating your own system, you need to ask yourself various questions about the sport or tournament you’re intending to bet on. Think of things like “Does colder weather affect the playing field and thus the number of points scored?”. Or perhaps “How often do teams in rugby betting win more than five games one after another?”.

Once you know the question(s), you can start seeking out data on the answers. Without such theories to test out, you run the risk of custom fitting your information as a way of trying to increase a system’s win rate or its profitability.

In fact, even if you are just able to answer the question of whether your system makes sense can lead to you predicting things in a better way. Yet you need that underlying theory to explain why it is likely to be successful.

The Size of the Data Available

You don’t need to look far to find data regarding online sports betting. The internet is filled with data on betting on horse racing, soccer, cricket, and so on. That data comes from the teams’ and individual players’ performances. Coaching, officiating, the weather, and so on, all contribute to the available data. Useful information can be taken from that data, making it simpler for you to make predictions on future events.

Yet it is not uncommon for people new to sports betting to make definitive claims based on small samples of this data. It is not practical to only use data from one or two previous games or outings by teams/players. You need to build your betting system based on as much data on a team or player as possible. The size of the sample used helps to determine the level of confidence you can place in your system. An appropriate sample size will differ from sport to sport, so what you use for participating in online tennis betting is likely to be different to the data used for cricket betting.

You need to ensure that when you’re building your sports betting system that you are consistent. Look at the New England Patriots during the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick era for example. The team won 10 or more games on 16 occasions and won the AFC East 16 times (including every single year since 2009). The Patriots also reached nine Super Bowls and won six of the championships (the last in 2019). That’s consistency for you – which is something you need for your system.

Consistency Matters More Than You May Think

It isn’t uncommon for people to think that building a betting system depends on simply locating a trend that offers a high win rate and return on investment. Yet this is only half the mission, so to speak. Players in this situation also tend to fail to keep a check on consistency. The main point to remember about a winning sports betting system is to ensure you find consistent winning results from year-to-year.

To put things into a simpler perspective for you, here’s a breakdown of creating a proper sports betting system. First, start with a theory as outlined, and then make sure you have a large sample size to acquire data from. Then, just ensure that there are consistent year-on-year results alongside. Should your betting system meet with that criteria, then you can put a higher level of confidence in it to be successful (and profitable) for you as you proceed.