Online Sportsbook Betting
Online sportsbook betting is a game of skill. The challenge for online sportsbook bettors is to gather and analyze as much information as they can about a game, weigh the winning probabilities of each team, and subsequently compare their opinion to the oddsmaker's.
While luck may be a deciding factor in the outcome of any single game, and will inevitably go against sports bettors on occasion, it will balance out in the long run. Being a consistent winner in online sportsbook betting is not about luck but whether sports bettors are prepared to invest the time and effort to become knowledgeable about the sports they bet on, whether they can weigh all the factors in a cool, objective fashion, and whether they adopt a consistent, disciplined, long-term approach to sports betting.
The bookmaker is simply a middle-man who operates on a small profit margin and, ideally likes to see half the money wagered on one team and half on the other, assuring a profit. If too much of the money goes on one team, the bookmaker will move the line or point spread to encourage bets on the other team in an effort to balance his book. The person the sports bettors are attempting to beat is the oddsmaker, and the oddsmaker's views on each team's winning chances.
Just by flipping a coin, online sportsbook bettors will be right 50% of the time. At odds of 10/11, only 52.4% of the online sportsbook bettors' wagers have to win for them to overcome the bookmaker's profit and break even, so they only need a very small edge to become a winner.
So online sportsbook bettors must do their homework and bet selectively. 55% winning bets is definitely achievable and 60-65% is a realistic target. At those levels, online sportsbook bettors will have an extremely profitable and enjoyable hobby.