Harvie

I have a friend who places lots of bets every week and claims he's been very profitable. In 2015 he said he made about £3,000-£5,000 doing 'sports betting arbitrage', claiming bonuses and the rest of it.

Does anyone here consider sports betting a serious side-income,is it profitable?

UFC sometimes has really bad lines where they put a fighter at 12/1 and they knock someone out in the first round for a huge upset, but I don't see to many other sports where you have any type of edge?

Who here bets and do you do it for fun or a side-income? I'm thinking about learning up on it that's why.

Last Post 8 years ago by

CrazyCookie

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I have never done it on anywhere near a professional level. I have placed some big bets over the year and will be a net loser for sure however I had some solid binks in my time.

I have a few friends who do it full time. One is 40 and has done it for 15 years and is very successful. Has runners, investors, teams and so on. He takes it very seriously and from his lifestyle etc i can confirm he is a real pro.

I know what you mean about UFC lines. Anytime I see someone 8-1 or higher I think that has to be a great play. Even if they're up against a monster like Jon Jones or Ronda Rousey, in MMA everyone loses sometime.

The flip side to that is in tennis, where in the first couple of rounds of a major, you just know Serena, Djok are locks. I looked into this, but you have to be willing to risk $100 to win $10 in these matches, and $10 just doesn't move my needle, whereas if I lost that bet I'd be PO'ed.

I've thought about this for a while now, and i think I'm going to do a sign-up bonus where you have to roll it over 7x or so to get the bonus, and parlay Serena/Djok in the early rounds of a major. That will at least have a worthwhile return once the bonus is factored in. (Though I'm not crazy about doing this on clay so I'll prob wait for Wimbledon.)

Does anyone bet on Horse racing?

@CycleVancouver about 4 years ago all the UK bookmaker would get you a free bet up to £100 depending on how much you deposited. I created 4 bank accounts to make 4 accounts with each site and made a killing. It's changed a lot now as you have to roll over your bets :(.

I really like making money by not having to work, sports betting and the lay/spread betting against others seems to be somewhat profitable

@trollord59 Never looked into it seriously, I shy away from horse betting after hearing it's rigged and all that.

Harvie: I really like making money by not having to work, .

I thought poker was supposed to be like this. #TheyLied

Poker is supposed to be the hardest way to make a easy living though.

I dont call myself a bet pro... but i bet to the whole nba season from last season and this one, and i think i do okay, but it takes a lot of time, to see games, gather info. I find it difficult to try to mix it with poker, and try to improve in both of them. I had a time away from poker and i spent that time just betting on nba games, i did well. Now im trying to mix it up, and its hard.

Just lay England in any major football comp, Murray on clay and Southampton at home. I know a few people who do it professionally. Some go on statistics bassed on odds eg after 100 games games that the favourite were 1.3-1.7 on betfair there was a goal in the first 20 mins x% of the time. They then exploit this in markets where price reacts to time and goals.

Others then use form to look at goals and win %. When they find their % of over x number of goals or for a result they back that.

I personally use someone's corect score model and select high EV bets. He gives me a % likelyhood of scoreline which are better than the odds offered. Anything that has an EV of +0.8/or better I bet on. This way his % can be out a bit and the best is still +EV.

Arbing is virtually impossible these days and once you get caught sites block hour account from betting more than 13p lol.

Look into matched betting, that can make you a few k a year but its a fair amount of time and isn't sustainable.

I cant win on sports. Don't know why.. I just don't stick to a system i guess and just bet on events where i think i have a good chance of winning.. Had a big bet on the panthers to beat Broncos.. Obviously that ended fantastically with a shock result.. I thought it was a certainty.

I trade the betting exchanges and like to claim as many free bets on other betting sites as I can as that boosts my weekly income.

I look after my twin boys full time at the moment. They go to nursery in March 2017 so I have just over 12 months to turn either poker or trading into a full time job otherwise I will have to go out and do some physical work!!!

At present I am a lot better at trading than I am at poker but we'll see how it pans out over the next year.

@keithyboy198 betting exchanges, is that when you set your own odds and people place bets against you instead of the bookmaker?

Yeh pretty much. You can put whatever price you wish into the market but obviously the further away from the true price you go, the less chance you have of being matched.

I think betting exchanges are the way to go if you want to earn a consistent profit. If you make regular profit with people like Ladbrokes, 365, Will Hill, etc, your account will eventually get restricted.

You can also take advantage of the free bets these companies offer by backing an outsider with the free money and then laying it off on Betfair. You lose 5% through commission but 95% of the free bet goes straight to your Betfair account (providing you selection loses).

Restricted? Seems like it's not really that profitable if you want to make £3k+ year as a side income. Guess it makes sense though as the money goes to you and not the bookies.

Going to look into it this week and test the waters.

Yes, the betting companies offer all these free bets but if actually claim them and win on them, then they don't like it. They will often restrict your account to something like £1.50 maximum bet on a football match or horse race, etc. Some companies also take away your free bet privileges aswell.

Overall it's ok to claim the odd free bet from these companies but if you want to make consistent profits you are better off on the betting exchanges.

keithyboy198: Yes, the betting companies offer all these free bets but if actually claim them and win on them, then they don't like it. They will often restrict your account to something like £1.50 maximum bet on a football match or horse race, etc. Some companies also take away your free bet privileges aswell.

Overall it's ok to claim the odd free bet from these companies but if you want to make consistent profits you are better off on the betting exchanges.

Ive used free bets on Sports books like 5 or 6 times and had no problems claiming my winnings. However, i am a losing punter so i guess that might have something to do with it. I guess the value of paying these out with no issues is just a smart business move by them since they probably consider me a "Whale""

I was talking to somebody the other day who said that Betfair now take 20% of his profits off him?? He didn't go into great detail but said something along the lines of once you make so much profit with Betfair they start taking 20% off you??

Once you make like 150k I think they charge you up to 50% Betdaq are better but lower volume.

Really I could not believe it when he told me thought he was getting robbed! Unbelievable!

yeup, they say that they welcome winners the scumbags.

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