There is no getting away from Sports betting being gambling, however, you can still beat the bookie as many punters do. As long as you’re beating them more than you’re not and sticking to a staking plan you can come out in profit.

But how do you make good decisions? Well using the power of technology and information one of the greatest weapons and is a great way to shoot back at the bookies and get the upper hand!

Gathering Information & Researching

What’ll give you an edge against a bookie is to gather as much information as possible and do your research.

Yes, some research will be speculation and you’ll need to avoid that and look for facts & figures, but researching your bets is crucial. If you’re not researching the bets you may be gambling your money away on something that as a 10% chance of becoming true. Not every bet is 50/50!

What initially may of looked like a great bet & opportunity to bet on, may start to look like a bad bet once you find a missing piece of information, therefore it is vital to gather as much information as possible so that our bets are all based on information instead of speculation and bias.

Using Sport Statistic Websites

If punting isn’t your full-time job you may lack a lot of time to gather information & research when sports betting. Due to the lack of time, you may not be able to go directly to the source of information yourself.

That’s why the majority of Punters will be using a sports stats website. Depending on the sports you’re interested in there is a few notable websites you can use.

For example, if you’re a horse punter you may use something like Timeform or Racing Post.

If you’re a Football punter you may stick with Bet365’s inbuilt tools that give you an extensive amount of statistics you can use to find opportunity, but there are plenty of other websites you can look into on Google.

Use these sorts of websites to back up what you were thinking of betting on, if the statistics, facts and figures all back your bet, then go for it!

To find out about external circumstances that may affect an event you may need to look at other websites.

Should I use Sports News Websites?

Well, the problem with Sports News Websites is that it is almost always based on what the journalist’s preferences are.

We suggest actually avoiding the content if it feels biased and opinionated and instead looks for the news, facts and information. For example, if you find out that a horse has been setback or a new manager is coming in place or substitutes are most likely to be used for the game, then it can contribute to your betting decision.

But in short, avoid the actual biased and opinionated content a journalist might add but do seek changes and current news about a team.

That’s a lot of information, what next?

We know that not all information is good information. You’ll need to be selective with the information you digest without being biased about it!

You want to be used to scanning for facts and ignoring all opinions & biased on the internet. Avoid the mind games, FOMO, tribalism & bandwagoning because it’s not helping you reduce your gamble, only affirming what you already may know.

Value Betting

Remember you don’t have to proceed with a bet just because you invested countless hours researching about it. If the odds have now increased since you first saw them or it no longer seems like good value, don’t mull over your bet, move on.

There is so much opportunity to be had every day and whilst timing is everything, you don’t want to rush yourself into making mistakes.

Researching bets is a skill and it’ll take a lot of practice, you want to spend enough time to get a full picture without taking too much time to where the odds are no longer worth putting your hard-earned money against.

If this seems like too much effort for you, another option is to look into a Tipster. As Tipsters for 3 years, we’ve been doing the research for hundreds of our members so that they don’t have to. If you’re interested, head on over to our website to get a free 7-day trial and see what value we can bring.