Sports betting for a living
Sports bettors, betting consultants, sports betting entrepreneurs, bookmakers, sports betting analysts, affiliates, marketing… those are only a few that make a living from the World of Sports Betting.
Many people make a living from sports betting (either from actual betting or the things that happen around betting) and there is no specific college for this.
Even in my wildest dreams, I didn’t think I will become a sports bettor and an entrepreneur who will later make a living from sports betting.
First steps into the World of Sports Betting
I made my first bet when I was 17 years or 18 years old. Back then there were no age restrictions in our local bookie shop because the lady didn’t ask you how old are you. She gave you the ticket and after the games were played, she paid you the profits.
We were kids, who loved sports and we’re looking for the winners. Of course, back then we didn’t have much success. It was just fun and focusing on winners would never bring me to the point where I am right now.
I was lucky
But I must be honest here because I had luck. If I wouldn’t have the luck, I would still be at that level. Looking for sports betting picks, bet winners, guaranteed picks, locks, and all other crazy things, that don’t work.
A couple of things happened that changed my life and helped me to make a living from sports betting and those are the things that I honestly didn’t have any impact on:
- My father was a goalie for a local football team and at the same time a professor of mathematics. He showed me a love for both – sports and mathematics. He showed me how two think like a mathematician and this is for betting much more important than love for sports. I had the ability to look at betting through the numbers and understand quickly the market and betting theory. Sports betting without the numbers is just a sport. And most bettors are stuck here. I was lucky because of my father.
- My first computers. My father also bought a computer when I was a kid. And not many people back then had computers in Yugoslavia, where I lived. Atari, Commodore 64, and Commodore 128 were the first computers I had at my home. I later never went deep into programming, but this definitely helped me to understand the importance of computers.
- When I finished high school, my aunt who was at that point already a successful businesswoman gave me a book as a gift. Susan Jeffers – Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway. That was huge. I was very lucky because of that and this was my first meet with personal development books. Later in my life, I made a lot of mistakes and had my own path. Especially my 20’s were very turbulent, but I always knew how to find confidence and come back when I was down, I knew exactly where to find information about success and I only needed to decide when to push a button. Back then most people never even had contact with the personal development book. To become successful in betting we also must study success. If not, then it is just sports betting, which is not necessarily successful. I was lucky again.
The College, Statistics, Algorithms
The big change started when I moved to a capital city to study at a college.
I was studying Water Science and Environmental Engineering. Never finished it, despite I passed most exams.
Later I found, that this was the best decision (for me) because I would never be a good Engineer. You must love what you do and I didn’t really love water science, building bridges, or drainage systems.
But I learned a lot in the college, especially how to use statistics and without this knowledge and without college, I couldn’t become what I am now.
Because of the college:
- I learned how to use excel and statistics. Water Science was all about statistics and excel back then. I was not the best student, but I still learned many very useful things, that later helped me in betting
- I learned the importance of numbers and algorithms. All serious businesses, companies,… and of course bookmakers use analytics. I was lucky to understand this from the start. Later it was just how to master this in betting.
Betting the Value by Comparing Odds
Understanding the value is still one of the hardest things to understand for many bettors. But again I was lucky to understand this quickly. It was a combination of my understanding of math and the location where I lived.
I didn’t focus anymore on who will win the game, because this is completely worthless, but back then I saw that our local sportsbooks simply copy odds from the biggest online bookmakers. What I quickly realized is that they were very slow by moving the odds.
I was simply comparing my local sportsbook odds and the odds from the biggest online bookmakers. It happened many times back then that online bookmakers moved the spread from +7 to +3 and our local sportsbook still had at +6.5.
And this is what I was betting. And this was the value. The online market represented let’s say true probabilities and the prices, while our local sportsbook didn’t move the line.
I didn’t focus on winners, but simply on the numbers and the price that I pay.
I made a lot of money back then. At least for me as a student.
Local sportsbook started banning my bets
But the first problems started when they started locking my combinations and tickets. And this happened pretty quickly. It happened many times, that I had to move to different locations to try to bet or even ask my friends to bet at the same time on different locations.
I saw that this will not work anymore and the local bookmaker started moving the lines much faster. Because of high margins, I knew I had to find another way.
Sports Handicapper
I decided to research the market and I wanted to find a sport or the league that can be described with the numbers. I wanted to have a sport with a lot of data, so I can start betting based on my analysis.
I found that baseball is the perfect match for me.
I came from a country, where nobody watches baseball. But I knew that I must separate what I love (soccer) and where I can make profits.
I was pretty successful with my MLB betting and at the same time, I was a participant of all kinds of betting forums, portals, books, etc… I was even invited to secret betting groups, asked to sell picks (I even did this for a short period of time – but this is against my philosophy), and was connected with some of the best sports bettors all over the World.
The identity of a Sports bettor and person
Betting and numbers are my passion and this passion is the same now. But in my 20’s I didn’t pay much attention to the bigger picture of life, success, and development.
I had the access to the right information and books. They always helped me to get back up when I was down in my life, but I was still young. Even if I made money with betting I didn’t keep it. I spent it on parties, girls,… and also my money management was not perfect either.
I didn’t have the right plan for what to do with the profits and there were a lot of ups and downs, despite I made very good analyses and bets.
This was the time of searching for my identity as a bettor and the person. I had a great time back then and I also met friends for a lifetime. It was crazy and epic at some point, but there were also very tough periods of time.
I was making profits with betting, but I still ignored the overall picture of life and I was not fully satisfied.
So I went back to books, reading, and started asking questions about life, what to do with betting profits, investments, business, how to generate more income streams, …
After I connected all the dots I started looking at betting and my life from a different perspective.
The freedom and my philosophy of life
I was reading books from Anthony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey, Robert Kiyosaki,…. later more spiritual from Eckhart Tolle, etc…
And I tried to learn more about me, my life, money, and success.
When I look back, I always wanted to motivate people and help them. When I was young, it was probably because of my ego, because I felt great. And this is of course also a reward. We all need such small rewards. But later I saw that I am really happy if I help someone to succeed.
Three things are very important for a happy life: good relationships, that you make a living with something you truly love and the third is that you make a positive impact on the world and the lives of other people.
My motivation was always freedom
I loved betting and the numbers, but the biggest motivation was never real money. It was always freedom. Some concepts are explained in the book by Tim Ferris – The 4 Hour Workweek. And this is why I started re-investing my profits and building more income streams. I am huge believer in “it is more important how you make money, than how much you make” (Gary Vaynerchuk).
Positively impact on sports bettors lives
During all these years, I was of course following what is happening in the sports betting world.
Sports Betting Picks, Sports Handicappers, Picks Services grew every year. There were more and more bettors, who were selling picks. And with social media, the whole thing came out of control.
Everyone who has 5 minutes of time sells or shares his picks now. Millions and millions of bettors look for magical bullet, but there is no quick solution.
Not only that following or paying for picks will not help most bettors in the World, the craziest thing is that the whole thing became 80% marketing and only 20% betting.
Most sports handicappers and betting services don’t use any statistics for betting, don’t even track their bets, or talk about important betting topics, like closing line value, betting algorithms, betting models, finding a value, etc…
This is where I decided that I want to share my story, my views and the way how I bet. Going deep with the betting topic and sharing information that can really make sports bettors better every day is my passion. I simply love this.
I decided not to focus only on how to find picks, because picks will not help you. But share the bigger picture about betting, where the focus is on how to start using the numbers and become successful.
Sports Betting Site with the value
I decided to create this site to share my knowledge and how I bet and what is my philosophy.
The goal is to change sports bettors lives forever. This is what makes give me extra happiness and satisfaction in my betting world.
