Sports Investing and Value Betting
- Introduction to Sports Investing and Value Betting
Successful sports gamblers view the sports betting marketplace like a business or investment opportunity. How do the “sharp bettors” profit in the long run? How do they get their edge? In this article, we look at how professional money managers earn long-term excess returns and how we can apply similar techniques to help us in our sports handicapping.
Some investors seek value by being contrarian bettors. Others are momentum investors. Another strategy is to follow the lead of “smart investors” such as successful fund managers or famous investors like Warren Buffett. Below, we’ll see what similarities we can find in the sports investing arena. The information on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Use of this information in violation of any federal, state, or local laws is prohibited.
Contrarian Betting
Contrarian Betting is based on the philosophy of betting against significant public favorites. Sports Insights provides Betting Trends data that allows members to identify where the public bets are falling. This information is crucial when following a Betting Against the Public strategy in order to find value in the sports marketplace.
Momentum Investing
Some traders like to ride the “hot stocks” or “follow the trends” in the financial markets. Other traders find success by using “counter-trend” trading systems. Similarly, many sports investors actively follow the line movement and point spreads in various sports. Some handicappers try to follow “steam moves” and watch for material line moves. Others look for value as the point spreads fluctuate in the sports marketplace. You can follow live odds and view the day’s most profitable Steam Plays as a Sports Insights Premium Pro member.
Smart Money: Invest with the Best
When news that Warren Buffett has taken a position in a company, that stock often makes a big move that day. Investors want to emulate the “stars” and often buy some of the same stocks that top mutual funds and top hedge funds own. In the sports investing world, there are “sharps” or “smart money” players who are profitable over the long-term. How can we “follow the smart money?”
Using the Betting Percentages and Line Movement data that is available at SportsInsights.com, you can get an indication of where the “sharps” are betting. If the general public (based on Betting Percentage) is on one side of the game, but the point spread moves in the opposite direction, it is often an indicator that “big money” (and most likely “smart money”) is taking a position in the direction of the line movement (and opposite to the Public).
For instance, say New England plays Green Bay in the Super Bowl and the line opens at New England -14.5. If 80% of the bets are on New England, but the line moves down from -14.5 to -13.5, this might be an indication that big money bets are coming in on the Packers. This “smart money” indicator has proven to be a powerful tool to sports investors who use our sports marketplace information. Smart Money Plays are included in Sports Insights’ Premium Pro membership.
Disclaimer
We do not guarantee that the trends and biases we’ve found will continue to exist. It is impossible to predict the future. Any serious academic research in the field of “market efficiencies” recognizes that inefficiencies may disappear over time. Once inefficiencies are discovered, it is only a matter of time before the market corrects itself. We do not guarantee our data is error-free. However, we’ve tried our best to make sure every score and percentage is correct.