With such a subject and such a title, the team of Parissportifs. com team must first of all insist on its position on the sports betting market in France: in accordance with the wishes of the National Gaming Authority (the former ARJEL), we cannot stress enough that… yes, it is entirely possible to make money at sports betting but no, it is anything but easy (hello tipsters friends who lie to their players…) and above all, you must focus on having fun when you play, while never staking sums that you cannot afford to lose.
But now that this important reminder has been made, let’s get to the heart of the matter: how to win at sports betting? While there is simply no definitive answer to this topic, there are a number of specific tips and tricks that should help you maximize your chances of winning. We’ve compiled a list of 10 tips for winning at sports betting that we hope will help some of you have even more fun and, who knows, win money betting.
Top 10 tips for winning at sports betting
Before we dive into our list of the best tips for winning at sports betting, we wanted to make an important point: we know that most of our readers already have a lot of experience with sports betting. Some of the tips may seem too simple and logical to you. But believe us, many players make rookie mistakes all the time. Who knows if this isn’t the case for you too?
1) Choose the sports betting site that best suits your ambitions and the sports you want to bet on
Over the past 10 years, we have had the chance to work with tens of thousands of bettors and believe us… the profiles vary enormously from one player to another! It is therefore very important to select a sports betting site that will perfectly suit your desires, ambitions and requirements as a bettor.
If you absolutely want to benefit from a first bet bonus refund, you will have to choose a bookmaker where you have never had an account.
If you want to bet on almost unknown sports or leagues because, for example, you have contacts in Northern Macedonia (why not?!), you will look for a bookmaker with a huge betting range.
If you only want to bet live by following online broadcasts offered by some sports betting sites in France, a site like Unibet, with more than 30,000 broadcasts per year, will suit you better than others.
You will have understood it. It is important to set your desires and goals before you start betting on one of the approved sports betting sites in France.
2) Choose a bookmaker approved in France where you can take advantage of bonuses and promotions
First of all, even if some foreign bookmakers not regulated and authorized in France may seem attractive to some… we advise you against them 100% if you are based in our beautiful country. In fact, you would be playing illegally and in this case, the foreign sites will not have the slightest reason to refund you. Unless you don’t want to lose your money by betting, don’t be fooled…
It would be a shame because all the licensed sites in France offer many bonuses and promotions to attract players. The list of sports betting bonuses of the ANJ sites is very long but, among others, we can mention
Welcome bonuses, which are almost always in the form of a first bet refunded if losing. Note that they can go up to 150 euros (the minimum known is 100 euros). Please note that you can only take advantage of these if you have never had an account with the site of your choice.
Boosted odds, which are numerous on the main sporting events, and which allow you to maximize your chances of winning by taking advantage of better odds.
Freebets, also known as free bets, which allow you to take advantage of free bets if you succeed in certain challenges (for example, placing at least 3 bets of 5 euros on League 1 matches of a specific day).
Even though the marketing side of sports betting site promotions should never be underestimated and you should always read the terms and conditions carefully if you have any doubts, sports betting bonuses and promotions are a great way to improve your ROI (return on investment). Take advantage of them!
3) How to select the best type of sports bets of the day?
Unless you have a regular source of information – we are not talking about a tipster but rather a local sports newspaper for example – it is important not to select just any sports bets on which you will bet. Don’t limit yourself to the front page of the bookmakers which only shows the biggest events of the day. Also, you are under no obligation to bet at X or X time. If you don’t see any “value” for several days, it’s okay, these things happen… Anyway, we have compiled a list of 4 tips depending on the type of bet you want to place:
Tips for singles betting: Never select odds that are too low (below 1.5), only bet if you have good information in terms of form/injuries/type of surface for tennis sports betting/etc.
Tips for combination betting: Except for safe combinations of 2 or 3 selections, do not make this kind of bets with your normal play bankroll. Here, the fun comes first, the expectation of winning is often too low to really consider combination bets like 4 or 5 selections (or more!) as serious.
Competition Winner Betting Tips: Try to bet on competition winners well in advance, anticipating any big performances by a player, team or franchise. When your favorite starts to prove to the world that he is a potential winner, the odds will be less attractive.
Scorer betting tips: Whether it’s betting on the top scorers in a competition or game; but also the top scorers in other sports, don’t overplay. In general, the top scorers in the world often have unattractive odds.
4) Compare with our predictions of the day
If you are not really inspired in your choice of bets, never hesitate to consult our daily prediction tips! As you’ll soon see, we’re not the type to promise easy wins, guaranteed victories and other nonsense. But with 15 years of experience in the sports betting business, we will give you daily betting ideas that we think have a good chance of winning. And don’t forget: whether it’s with our advice or that of other sources of information : DYOR! This abbreviation stands for “Do Your Own Research”. Don’t blindly trust others and only place a recommended bet if you have a minimum of feeling on your side.
5) How to maximize your chances of winning and choose the best odds
Even if some sites like oddsportal can help you find and choose the best sports betting odds, the process of finding quality odds on a regular basis can be quite long and complex. Two common examples may help you to find the best odds:
- Smaller soccer leagues or lesser known sports like snooker, handball or Australian soccer often have excellent odds if you have a minimum of localized information or are specialized in a particular sport. The reason is simple: the less popular a sporting event is, the less relevant information the bookmakers will have. It is up to you to take advantage of this if possible.
- In addition, sporting events that feature an ultra-recognized sporting entity (e.g. Barcelona) and a big underdog often have completely exaggerated odds for their opponents. The reason is simple: too many bettors put money on “names”, without trusting information about current form, injuries and other factors that could lead to surprises. You need to take advantage of this.
The importance of having multiple sports betting accounts: This is another key point to consider when looking for optimal sports betting odds. Even if a site like Winamax is known for offering excellent odds, you will maximize your chances of winning by always betting on a bet with the best possible odds. For example, if Parions Sport offers odds of 2.1 on a tennis match, while France Pari offers odds of 2… this can make a big difference in the medium/long term! Ideally, we advise you to have a minimum of 5 sports betting accounts.
6) Manage your sports betting account with the bankroll management concept
We have talked about this at length in our article on how to bet on soccer. And we can’t stress this enough: it is impossible to become a long-term sports betting winner without good bankroll management! All professional sports betting players (but also online poker players for example) will tell you: without good management of your gambling finances, you will never succeed.
We can’t count the number of times we’ve seen excellent bettors bet up to ¼ of their sports betting bankroll on a single game because “they felt right”. Ideally – and to be able to withstand variance – you should never bet more than 5% of the money you have available for betting. Some people even say 2% maximum…
Example of good bankroll management in sports betting: Let’s say you want to place large bets on two Europa League matches, or you feel that the underdogs (Belgian Antwerp and Czech Slavia Prague for example) have every chance against European sub-top teams (Tottenham and Leverkusen) who are used to playing a lot of reserve players on these kinds of matches. If you have 1000 euros for your sports bets, you should not bet more than 25 euros on each bet, which is 2.5% of your total bankroll.
In the end, Anwerp wins 1-0 (5 to 1) and Slavia Prague 2-1 (3.5 to 1). So you just won 50 euros and 35 euros! Do you wish you had bet more? You should never have that feeling. You could have lost both bets in two games that were decided by very small details. Not only should you be happy for the good fortune, but you should be proud that you played responsibly. In the long run, this will make all the difference.
7) Keep your cool no matter what
Winning money at sports betting is not an easy thing to do, we can’t stress this enough. The best sports bettors in the world also have their dark periods, when no more bets are placed. Their strength, in such moments, will be to always keep their composure. Not to start betting out of their bankroll to “make it up” and that kind of nonsense. Variance is a normal and important part of sports betting and if you’ve already had good winning streaks in the medium to long term, there’s no reason why a lean period should completely destroy your efforts. Keep a cool head no matter what!
8) Keep track of all your sports bets via Excel
If there is one tool that helps keep a cool head… it might be Excel! The idea here is very simple: keep track of all the sports bets you activate so that you can, at any time, review your winning periods, analyze the things that are going well / not working too well, see the periods of gains and losses and many other things. All top-level sports betting players have this kind of betting history, why don’t you? Typically, we advise you to have the following lines: Type of bet, Title of the sporting event (PSG – Lille for example), stake made, bankroll at the time of the bet, total stake, result, bankroll after the bet, etc. . .
9) Bet with your head, not your heart
Like other points raised above, this might not seem to make more sense to you. But believe us: the fact that most bettors bet with “their heart” rather than their mind… this is one of the points that make online sports betting sites so rich! For example, we no longer count the number of PSG fans who put crazy sums on a “1.3” because “Paris is Magic”… We no longer count the bettors who will put a crazy sum on the Chicago Bulls “because they’ve always been fans since the Michael Jordan era,” etc. Don’t make that kind of mistake. Apart from certain bets “for fun”, outside the bankroll, all that matters is to have value. If the latter is in the opponent of your tennis player or your favorite NHL franchise…you should not hesitate!
10) Take advantage of live betting to maximize your chances of winning
One last point that we think is very important in our advice for winning at sports betting is taking advantage of live streaming to maximize your chances. Live betting is a great tool…for bookmakers to make even more money. Indeed, most players bet without thinking too much, “with their guts”, without specifically following the sporting match on which they are betting.
Some sites like Unibet or Betclic offer tens of thousands of broadcasts per year, especially on their mobile sports betting applications, and you should take advantage of them! Indeed, whatever the sport, it is much easier to judge the chances of one or the other sporting entity when you can visualize things. Tennis is particularly good at this: it often happens that a player is in the process of leading 6-2; 4-3 but, watching the game from the start, you have shown that the opponent is gaining the upper hand… Information that you would not have been able to obtain without live streaming.
How to take advantage of cashout in your sports betting: One last point we want to cover: cashout options. These are a great way to maximize your chances by betting on live betting. In fact, if you want your MLB team (American baseball, which you can watch live on Winamax, for example) to be losing ground, it’s time to “sell” your bet to the bookmaker. You limit your potential losses and even take a small gain if your team was leading.