Sports Investing Vs Sports Gambling

The author of this article, Frank Benjamin, is The Bettor Guide's resident sports betting writer and author of the popular betting guide, The Bettor's Guide to Sports Investing. You can pick up a copy at a discounted price by clicking the following link: Betting Guide.

As you know, I preach a discipline and responsible method of sports wagering. I wrote a complete guide, The Bettor’s Guide to Sports Investing, to teach everyone how I turned sports investing into a profitable hobby. My success last week proved to be a classic example of the difference between gambling and investing. 

One Sunday during the 2008 I went 3-0 on my NFL picks. I didn’t feel the need to bet on the Sunday night game because I didn’t like the numbers I crunched. I’m glad because I was leaning towards New England. But I was fooled by my numbers on the Monday Night Football game and bet on the Giants -8 and also took the under. Both were big losers. 

However, I still made a profit last week. This is because of the basics of sports investing and I didn’t get greedy. One sports investing technique I use is betting a small parlay in the attempts to increase my winnings. At the same time, I am not betting the house. All I am risking is one payout for a bigger pay out. 

After I did all my research last week, I really liked the New York Giants to cover the 8 point spread. The under was my secondary pick. What I ended up doing was betting a unit on the Giants and a half unit on a parlay with the Giants and the under. I bet the unit on the Giants because that was what I called my strongest play. 

This tactic provides me a few different scenarios. First I could hit both and win 2.25 units (1 unit on the Giants and the payout of 2.5:1 on the parlay). I could have also hit the Giants, but lost the parlay. In that case, I still would have won a half unit. What actually happened was the worst case scenario; I lost both. 

After winning 3 units on Sunday, I lost 1.5 units on Monday. My net winnings were 1.5 units for the weekend. I tried to increase my profit, but I wasn’t greedy and still made sure that I came out on top for the weekend. As long as there is a plus in front of my total I am happy. +1 unit is betting than -1 unit. 

As you can see, Sports Investing is still gambling, but it is a responsible form. For more information about Sports Investing read my post What is Sports Investing.

Be sure you read my other articles about Sports Investing Vs Sports Gambling.

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