^{_{Longevity in Sports Betting}}

How do you deal with getting limited?"

"The apps have stopped allowing correlated parlays - what do I do?"

"What if my edge goes away?"

These are some of the most common questions that people ask me and that I ask myself. The common perception in the sharp sports betting industry is that you cannot make a living betting on sports. I hear this from sharp bettors, square bettors, bookies etc...

It's not true - but I understand where they are coming from.

The argument from squares and recreational bookies is some variation of "the house always wins". Again - not true but true in 95%+ of cases.

The argument from sharps is that if you win, you will not be allowed to bet - so you can't sustain a living. Not true - but highlights a very real problem.

I write this with the assumption everyone reading this knows you can win money betting on sports. So we will be tackling argument number two - book limits make it impossible to make a living.

TRUE! For 90% of winning bettors

And that's also okay! If you only have a few hours a week to devote to this - you can bet profitably as a side hustle and make life-changing supplemental income.

But if you want to do this full time - you have to solve this problem. And the solution to this problem is switching how you define yourself as a bettor.

What product do you create as a winning sports bettor?

Information.

The solution to your problem is creating the best information product possible and knowing where to market it. Certain "sharp" sportsbooks are buyers of information. A few that will let skilled bettors beat them in exchange for information are:

• Circa Sports

• Pinnacle

• BetCris (aka Bookmaker)

• BetOnline

These markets for your information are open 24/7 and are the easiest way to monetize it. But what's the tradeoff?

It's hard to beat these books - and often the "information" you are selling to square books belongs to these sharp books. The square books don't want to buy that info and they turn you away. So if your "information product" actually belongs to sharp books, you may struggle to sell it.

The medium term solution is selling that information to bettors who can still bet at recreational books. How you sell that info is up to you - just make sure they are controlling the account and clicking the bets in to keep it above board.

Ideally, you would do both. The "pro-bettor setup" would look like this:

1. Easy monetization of info by betting into sharp books

2. Monetize leftover info by selling to other market participants

What kind of info do I need?

You may be realizing that not all edges in sports betting are conducive to this set up. Actually, most aren't - because most low hanging fruit requires split second execution and doesn't win against Circa.

Edges that don't work for this setup:

• ABC Steam Chasing (note, understanding derivative nuance to main market moves would work)

• De-vigging sharp books to bet soft books

These are the main two - and I bet the encompass 90% of bettors. BUT WAIT - even if this is how you make money you can still scale and create longevity.

Remember you are selling info - so teach someone else how to win using these methods and invest in them. Classic poker backing situation - and I recently talked to an ex-poker pro who does this with great success in sports betting.

Or build a product that cuts people's time and effort down and sell that product (OddsJam, SpankOdds etc..)

So you can still make money - you just have to use the right avenue.

Edges that work for the "pro-bettor setup" are:

• Origination

• Finding systematic sportsbook errors

• Excellent market reading skills

You could write a book on all these, and many people have. But these are the information edges that work against sharp books AND aren't so time sensitive that you can sell to other bettors.

I hope this helps you frame what value you are creating as a bettor and how to best monetize it. It's not intuitive - but when you look at your winning bets as "information" you are better able to monetize.

Recently, we have been putting a lot of time and effort into improving the discord. If you are looking for a community of bettors trying to take the Sportsbook’s money, join here: https://discord.gg/goldenpants