How to Gamble Like a Professional Bettor – Secrets of the Pros

Becoming a professional bettor is a dream for many sports enthusiasts and gambling aficionados.

However, transitioning from a casual bettor to a professional requires more than just luck.

It involves a deep understanding of bankroll management, disciplined decision-making, handling losses, employing strategic betting approaches, and maintaining a long-term perspective.

Those who master it, like legendary pro bettors such as Alan Woods, Billy Walters and Patrick Veitch, have enjoyed great riches and fabulous lifestyles from their betting. 

However, it is incredibly difficult to consistently make profits from gambling and many have tried and failed to make a living as a pro bettor. 

This guide will take a look at the secrets of the professionals who have succeeded – what kind of strategies they employ, their tips for success and how they deal with the ups and downs of betting for a living.

You may never become a professional bettor yourself. You might not even want to – you may prefer not to take on the risk and uncertainty that comes with life as a professional bettor.

Almost all punters however can learn something from the pros that will enable to improve their own betting and achieve better results.

 

The Mysterious Life of the Professional Bettor

Many people wonder what the life of a professional gambler is like. It is something that tends to be shrouded in mystery, with little known about what the career is actually like. 

On the one hand, it is often depicted as a glamorous lifestyle, with the potential for great riches and excitement. 

Certainly that can be the case. There are some individuals who have forged phenomenally successful careers as professional bettors.

Billy Walters, for example, was part of a consortium known as the “Computer Group” in the 1980s that used a computer to crunch reams of data they fed it to calculate betting odds. From this Walters reportedly made over $200 million from betting on sports. 

Similarly, Alan Woods developed computer programs for horse racing in Hong Kong by which horses, races, jockeys, and tracks became items of statistical probability. This mathematical-probability based betting made him a reported 670 million Australian dollars over his career as a professional bettor. 

Australian horse racing expert Zeljko Ranogajec is said to have made similar amounts through his edge-based method that looked for small margins of just 1-2% on Aussie racing but betting huge sums each time. 

And British professional bettor Patrick Veitch details in his autobiography Enemy Number One how he won over £10 million from betting on horses in the UK through his close connections with certain stables and trainers and keen eye for value. 

There are many famous professional poker players as well of course –  the likes of Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel and Fedor Holz who made millions from playing poker. 

These famous poker and sports gamblers gained fabulous riches from their chosen professions, building their betting banks to the point where they could wager very large sums on events they would bet on.  

Here for example professional bettor Jonas Gjelstad explains how he went from betting $10,000 to $1m in just 12 months:

However, outside of the elite few like Jonas and the aforementioned famous gamblers, the life of a professional bettor is typically much tougher than many people realise.  

It normally involves working very hard, with long hours studying form and statistics and for income that can fluctuate wildly from year to year or even month to month.

There may be times when a pro gambler even loses money and that is something many people would find very hard to handle. 

Jonas himself recalls how he lost $256,000 in just one day for example. 

In reality it can be a hard, lonely profession.

It does have its perks though – a life of freedom from the nine-to-five and the stresses of the rat race.

Let’s take a look at what it takes to become a professional bettor – in terms of both the strategies and the mental approach required.   

 

The Strategies Employed by Pro Bettors

Ultimately if you don’t have a strategy that can consistently identify value bets, then you won’t be able to succeed as a professional bettor, no matter how hard you work or how disciplined you are. 

That means identifying bets where the odds offered by the bookmaker are higher than the true probability of an event occurring.

So if a bookie prices a horse at odds of 3.0 (2/1) to win a race but the true price should be 2.5 (6/4), then it is a value bet.  

In essence, all professional betting involves some form of beating the odds, but there are a number of different ways that pro bettors go about it.

We’ll take a look at some of those now.

 

Automated Value Betting 

As with most things these days, there are automated online tools to help with finding value bets.

Sophisticated software has been created that can scour the markets and find instances where the bookies odds are higher than they should be.

One way of finding such opportunities is by using differences between the  “hard” and “soft” bookies.

Many sharp bookmakers, predominantly based in Asia, provide significantly higher betting limits compared to their European counterparts.

Consequently, they attract substantial professional money, with large-scale bettors and syndicates favoring these bookmakers due to the higher stakes permitted compared to European bookies.

This influx of professional money enables these bookmakers to more accurately reflect the “true odds” of an event, incorporating detailed information from professional operations, such as player fitness and local conditions.

In contrast, traditional “soft” bookies are slower to react to news and enforce stricter betting limits, thereby attracting less professional money.

This allows bettors to exploit the differences in odds between “sharp” and “soft” bookmakers.

When sharp bookies lower their odds on a player while soft bookies do not, it creates an opportunity to place a value bet with the soft bookmakers.

Tools like Trademate Sports track the markets of both sharp and soft bookies, alerting users when such opportunities arise.

Here’s how Trademate Sports explains the concept:

Exploiting the difference between bookies’ odds is one the primary ways that pro bettor Jonas Gjelstad says he used to achieve his results described above in his video. 

Whilst it is a sound betting concept used by professional bettors, these days this kind of value betting is less likely to be tolerated by bookies and will probably lead to account restrictions. 

There are lots of bookie accounts available however and sometimes the exchanges can be used for this method too. 

So it is a solid option for those who don’t want to spend hours analysing form and studying stats.

 

The “Old School” Method – Finding Value Manually

The more traditional method used by professional bettors before the likes of Trademate Sports came along – and that still used by many pros today – is to identify value manually. 

This can be done through a variety of means, but typically involves form analysis and many hours studying matches or races. 

For example, in Thoughts and Secrets of Successful Punters, pro horse racing gambler Steve Lewis Hamilton says he forms “tissues” which are basically his own view of the prices horses in a race should be.

To do this, he first reduces races to contenders and non-contenders.

Then “it is down to form study and looking at how the race will be run, the conditions and who it will suit and then allocating prices based on this.”

Fellow pro bettor Laurence Lambourn has a similar approach, saying he uses the Racing Systems Builder database to generate his positive and negative factors about horses, which he then uses to get the shape of a race. Laurence spends hours studying videos of past races. 

On advice for us punters, Laurence says “it’s all about the prices. Perhaps try and come up with prices for your fancies and stick with them. If the prices don’t appear then leave the bet.”

In a similar vein, legendary At the Races tipster Hugh Taylor says he uses Computer Timeform, commenting “it remains an excellent guide to the merits of past performances and it provides a very good overview of a race in terms of ratings as well as the interpretative comments on each horse’s past performances.”

In addition Taylor says he also uses the Query feature of Raceform Interactive for statistical purposes, but that his most potent weapon is studying videos of past races.

For each of these renowned pro bettors, it is combination of using a racing database, watching videos of past races and studying the form to identify value bets. 

They have made it work very well for them, but it should be noted that many others have not managed to make this style of betting work and it does involve a lot of hard work and no small amount of skill.  

We take a look here at some of the top tipsters who have demonstrated the kind of skill necessary to generate a long-term profit from their betting. 

 

Matched Betting

Matched betting is a tool that has arisen in recent years and is now employed by some as a primary occupation. 

Essentially it involves placing two opposite bets on the same event—one with a bookmaker and one on a betting exchange—to cover all possible outcomes.

A detailed guide on matched betting can be found here.

By extracting the value from a free bet or bonus and using an exchange to cover your liability, you can generate profits from matched betting.

During a live three-month trial using the Profit Maximiser matched betting package for example, we made a profit of £2,469, providing a nice bit of extra income.

As we mentioned in our review, some people have turned matched betting into a full-time occupation, spending hours each day doing free bets and bonuses across sports betting, casinos, bingo sites and the like. 

The amount you can make from matched betting is somewhat limited by the number of offers there are however – so you are not going to make millions from matched betting or become the next Alan Woods.

Most people view it more as a second income or an opportunity to make a bit of bonus money in a relatively low-risk manner.

Making a full-time living from matched betting is also becoming increasingly difficult as the bookies have cut down on the number of free bets available and are stricter on limiting accounts of those they suspect of matched betting. 

It’s also important to note that matched betting isn’t effective in every country, as it depends on whether free bets and bonuses are permitted in your jurisdiction. It works well in the UK and Ireland, where free bets are allowed.

 

Why Do Professional Bettors Win Whilst Most Punters Lose?

The stats tell us that 98% of bettors lose money overall from their gambling. 

Yet there are bettors out there who manage to make a living from it.

So how do they manage to do it whilst the vast majority of people fail? 

Well the truth is there a number of things professional bettors do that most punters don’t.

Quite a lot of that has to do with the mindset and approach of a professional bettor, in addition to the kind of strategies described above.  

Fundamentally, a lot of punters fail not because their bets are necessarily bad, but because they manage their money poorly. 

They lack discipline and go chasing losses or fail to follow a clear staking strategy. 

This means they can never really win in the long run because they are always giving their gains back to the bookies. 

On the other hand, some punters are reasonably disciplined but just don’t have the right strategies. 

They bet on gut feelings, or because there’s a big game on TV and they fancy a bit of interest, or like betting on a favoured team or player.  

This sort of approach is very unlikely to work in the long run because they are failing to secure value bets. 

In the end the bookies will always win if you aren’t finding value. 

Professional bettors, however, ensure they have a winning approach and stay disciplined. 

It’s important to understand the specific steps they take to achieve this. 

 

Bankroll Management

First and foremost, a successful gambler has a very clear and defined approach to managing their bankroll. 

Understanding their Bankroll

A bankroll is the amount of money you set aside exclusively for betting. It’s crucial to define this amount clearly and never dip into it for other expenses.

Your bankroll should be an amount you can afford to lose without impacting your financial stability.

A professional gambler will decide at the outset how much this is and stick to it. 

Setting a Budget

Allocate a specific percentage of your bankroll for each bet.

A common rule of thumb is the 1-2% rule, meaning you should never wager more than 1-2% of your total bankroll on a single bet.

This strategy helps mitigate risks and ensures that you can withstand a series of losses without depleting your funds.

It can also help to grow your money over time if you are successful. 

For example, a professional might start out with a $10,000 bankroll, betting 1% of their bank on each bet – which would be $100. 

If after six months their bankroll has grown to $20,000, then a stake of 1% would be $200.    

Tracking their Bets

A professional bettor keeps a detailed records of all their bets, including the amount wagered, the type of bet, the odds, and the outcome.

This practice helps them analyze their betting patterns, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make informed adjustments to their strategy.

 

Discipline

Setting Realistic Goals

Professional betting is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Pros set realistic and achievable goals, such as a monthly percentage gain on their bankroll.

Unrealistic expectations can lead to reckless betting and significant losses.

Sticking to a Strategy

Most professional bettors develop a betting strategy based on research, analysis, and statistical models.

Once they have a strategy, they tend stick to it, only refining and improving it as they go along.

Pros avoid the temptation to chase losses or deviate from their plan based on emotions or hunches.

Avoiding Impulse Bets

Impulse bets, often driven by emotions or external influences, can be detrimental. Pros make bets based on thorough research and analysis, not on gut feelings or peer pressure.

 

Handling Losses

Perhaps the biggest psychological factor that separates professionals from the rest is their ability to handle losses. 

Experiencing long losing streaks is the hardest part of gambling and can be very difficult to deal with psychologically. 

They happen to everyone at one time or another, just down to statistical variance or in more simple terms, dumb luck! 

Whereas a lot of punters lose their discipline when they hit a bad run and start to chase losses or veer around changing strategies, a professional keeps their cool and stays disciplined. 

Accepting Losses as Part of the Game

Even the best bettors experience losses. Pros accept that losses are part of the process and do not let them affect their confidence or decision-making.

They focus on the long-term profitability rather than short-term setbacks.

Analyzing Losses

After a loss, professionals take the time to analyze what went wrong. Was it a bad call, or did they overlook critical information?

Learning from your mistakes is essential for improving your betting strategy and avoiding similar errors in the future.

Avoiding “The Tilt”

“Tilt” is a term borrowed from poker, describing a state of emotional frustration that leads to poor decision-making.

After a loss, take a break and clear your mind before placing another bet. Betting while on tilt can lead to reckless behavior and further losses.

Not getting Carried Away with Wins

The same can be true in reverse – often when amateur punters hit big winners or long winning runs they get carried away, thinking they are invincible and placing bigger and bigger bets. 

Again, sticking to the staking plan and not letting emotions affect your decision-making is key.

 

Taking a Long-Term Approach

Patience and Persistence

Professional betting requires patience and persistence. Short-term fluctuations are inevitable, but a disciplined approach and sound strategy will lead to long-term success. Avoid making hasty decisions based on short-term results.

Continuous Learning

The betting landscape is constantly evolving, with new strategies, tools, and information emerging regularly. Stay updated with the latest trends, continue learning, and adapt your approach accordingly. Join betting forums, read books, and attend seminars to enhance your knowledge and skills.

Evaluating Performance

Regularly evaluate your performance by reviewing your betting records and analyzing your results. Identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to your strategy. Consistent evaluation helps you stay on track and improve your long-term profitability.

 

Conclusion – Making it as a Professional Bettor

Becoming a professional bettor is a challenging yet rewarding pursuit that demands more than just a passion for sports or a knack for picking winners.

It requires a comprehensive understanding of bankroll management, unwavering discipline, strategic thinking, and the ability to handle both wins and losses with equanimity.

While the life of a professional bettor can appear glamorous, with tales of vast riches and freedom from the conventional workday, the reality is often marked by rigorous work, fluctuating incomes, and the constant need for adaptation and learning.

For most bettors, the goal may not be to become a full-time professional but to enhance their betting skills and outcomes.

Learning from the habits and strategies of successful professional bettors can lead to more disciplined betting practices and, ultimately, better results.

By adopting a strategic approach to finding value bets, whether through automated tools or manual analysis, and maintaining a disciplined approach, casual bettors can significantly improve their chances of success.

Remember, betting should always be approached with caution and responsibility. The allure of big wins can easily lead to reckless behavior, but by keeping a long-term perspective and continuously learning and adapting, you can enjoy the process and potentially see more favourable outcomes.

Whether you aim to turn professional or simply improve your hobby, the principles outlined in this guide provide a solid foundation for smarter, more informed betting.