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General Betting Tips

Most people lose with their baseball betting, but if you are smart you can turn a profit.  It’s not rocket science.  The books want to trick you into throwing your money away.  The key is to make intelligent bets and stay within yourself.  Here are a few tips on how to do that and win money with your wagering.

1.  Have Patience

There isn’t a longer season than Major League Baseball has.  It’s 162 games over the course of April to October.  The action is constant as teams play nearly every single day of the summer.  There are going to be thousands of opportunities for you to place a bet, you won’t need to force anything.

Books love to see players who bet 10 games per day every day.  One of the big advantages the player has is that you can pick and choose the games where you see a true advantage.  If you bet anything and everything you toss that advantage away.  Solid money management says to limits your bets to when you have an advantage and then to not risk more than you should on those games.

2.  Know When to Bet

Kind of going along with the patience angle is knowing when to bet and not to.  If you don’t feel sharp and that you can fully evaluate a game, stay away.  This can be when you are fatigued.  It can be when you are pissed off, either from a gambling loss or at anything else in your life.  When you aren’t sober.  Who doesn’t like to throw a few back and relax?  If you do, then don’t place wagers because you’ll often regret it when you sober up.

If you have trouble focusing on your life when a game you bet on is going on, know situations you need to skip the urge to wager.  If you are on a date night with your significant other, they aren’t going to want you on your phone.  If you are spending quality time with your kids, you need to be able to not check scores.  That kind of thing.

3.  Never Chase

You’ve heard the expression throwing good money after bad?  Well when you lose a game you can’t get mad and bet a late game just to try and make up the losses.  That game would have to show an edge for it to be a wise bet, not just that you want to press.

4. Be Flexible

It’s a long season.  Teams can get hold and get cold.  Don’t look at what happens in the first month as what is going to happen in September.  Teams that start out slow can be better than they appear and teams who get hot can cool off.  You have to be able to change your opinion on a team many times over the course of the season.

That also goes for individual players.  There are “can’t miss” prospects that come up to the majors and are terrible.  Two years later they finally break out and people wonder where they came from.  Obviously, players can improve.  They can also lose it.

There isn’t a lot of room for error in baseball.  One hit every couple of weeks can turn a .250 hitter into a .300 hitter.  A few lucky breaks can turn a .500 team into a playoff contender.  You have to be fluid with your opinions in baseball or you won’t be able to adjust and make money.

5.  Use Statistics

Baseball is a stat-driven sport.  You need to know how to calculate the basic stats.  Then you can use them to determine which pitchers and hitters are over or under-valued.  That is the real key to winning.

6.  Get the Best Odds

This goes two ways.  The first is to make sure you have accounts at multiple MLB betting sites so you can shop around of the best numbers.  You also want to make sure they have dime lines so you don’t have to pay as much in juice.  Compare the lines you can get with our baseball odds page.

7.  Know Your Biases

Do you have a favorite team?  Then you might know a lot more about them than the general public, but are you blinded by your loyalty?  I typically try to bet against my favorite team in certain spots, but if I really like them I have to decide if it’s because I’m a fan or if there is a real edge.

8.  Keep Track of Your Records

How do you know if you are on the right track or not?  I know how much I’ve made, which situations have been profitable for me, what teams I’m better at, etc… All because I keep records of my bets.  You should do the same.

Once you know that you can stay controlled with your betting, it’s time to pick more winners.  Our handicapping guide gives you plenty of advice on what to look for when selecting your winners.