Sports Betting- can it become a side hustle? ~ The Digital Cashier

Sports betting is big, sports betting is gamble at its best. But what if you can make extra money out of it by making it a side hustle?

Ai image courtesy Microsoft designer

Side hustles can come in every shape or form and sports betting could be one of them. Yes it is is possible to make a living from online gambling but to do this however, here are three things you need to know.

Gambling is a business

Gambling is a business and like all or any other business that you set up, you are thinking of making a profit selling a product or products. Now you might be asking,what are the products being sold?

Take for example, sports betting. This is a complete market setting where the product sold, is the bet quota or odds that you buy.The bet is usually between two teams in which you have to determine which team will win at the end of a given match time.

You can also bet on the game ending in a draw, as in football/soccer. Each team is assigned a fixed odds number or quota, which is basically the market value assigned to each team.

And so team A could be assigned a fixed odds value of about 2.5. Team B could be assigned 1.5 and both teams to draw could be assigned 3.5. What does this mean?

It means that if you think Team A will win the match, then you can place the bet on Team A winning. If you place a $10 bet on Team A winning, and they win,you walk away with $10 x 2.5 which gives you $25.

In the same manner if the result favors Team B, or both teams draw, you lose the bet and end up losing your $10 investment.

The odds are going to be against you

I must say that as a player, the odds are going to be seriously against you, because as said above, gambling is a business, so it’s out there to make a profit.

So if you think of going into gambling and winning on the first bet the highest amount ever, you’ll be totally disappointed. But that is not to say that It cannot happen.

In gambling you will have to invest more if you want to see any chances of winning. And it doesn’t matter if you play the lottery or scratch cards,etc. The way gambling is structured is always to favor the house or the gambling business, and not the player.

There might be rare exceptions where the player has the upper hand but most times, the odds are always in favor of the gambling business.

It could become addictive

Gambling is really addictive if you don’t know how to control yourself. It is a form of recreational business which means that it is meant to entertain. But to be entertained you have to spend your hard earned money.

And it always starts with you making a significant win just by betting a small amount of money. Let’s say you placed a $10 bet on a match between Team A and Team B. The market pays a fixed odd of about 25.50 for the correct score.

This means that if at the end of the match between Team A and Team B, you are successful in getting the correct score then you’ll walk away with $10 x 25.50 which equals $255.

So just for betting and getting the score right, you pocket $255.This was a good bet but it may not happen everyday. And while it may not be a frequent occurence, that one win could sometimes lead you into believing that you could hit it big if you persist in playing and wagering(betting) higher amounts of money.

Because at this point, you don’t want to hold back and neither do you want to stop even if you incur losses. This is because you’re thinking, “the next bet could be it.” This mindset is what leads many into the path of gambling addiction where they cannot get themselves to stop.

And so knowing that

-Gambling is a business out to make profits

-That the odds are stacked against you and that

-It can be very addictive,

if you still want to get into it as a way of making an online income, then understand that for some games, you need to have the necessary knowledge before engaging in them.

Here I talk about sports betting and mostly football/soccer which I engage in frequently.Football/soccer betting has only two rules when it comes to betting.

Team A matched against Team B means only one of two results-either Team A or Team B wins, or the match will end in a draw, which means, neither team will win. This is the standard bet which is designated as 1x2.

1 for Team A,

x for draw and,

2 for Team B.

Following this standard bet, which is also the standard market, other variations and additional markets are also available. Here are two examples of such markets.

Under/Over market: This is where you can place a bet and win, if you bet that at the end of a match the score will be above(Over) or below(Under) a certain value.

In this market,odds are assigned according to the Under/Over value which starts from 0.5 and can go as high as 10 or even higher. The 0.5 value can be both Under or Over.

-Under 0.5 means that there will be no goals in the entire match while,

-Over 0.5 means that there will be 1 or more goals in the entire match.

DC or double chance market: This market gives you the chance to bet on three outcomes which are,

-1x: this simply means that Team A will either win or draw

-12: this means that either Team A or Team B will win the match and,

-x2: this means that either there will be a draw or Team B will win.

How to start

By looking at the two markets above you can easily place a bet and wait for the final outcome of the match, it’s that simple. But just doing guess work isn’t enough.

For you to start sports betting, you will have to open an account on a sports betting site. These sites however, are not exclusively dedicated to sports alone. They are filled with lots of different games from casinos, to slots, to bingo, and so on.

The requirements for placing wagers is to first register your full details at the time of opening an account. This means that once you start the registration process, you will need to fill in the given registration form with your full name, address and eventually upload a valid government issued document.

Only when this is done and approved, will you be able to start making deposits and placing bets. To place bets you will need a betting strategy. This entails doing something that can enable you bet and have more chances of winning, and less chances of wasteful spending. Here are some things you can do.

-Set aside a determined weekly or monthly deposit amount

Most sports betting sites upon registration, allow you set the amount of money you wish to deposit for wagers. This can be done weekly or monthly. You can set this up weekly to say for example, $100.

This means that in any given week, if you want to make deposits, you will not exceed a deposit amount of $100.You can always change this option in the settings page of your account.

-Have a budget

If you are starting out, you don’t want to go in without a plan. To this end you can create a wager budget by setting aside a predetermined amount to cover a given period of time.

for example you can set aside, $500 for a six month period, and stick to it. This way you will not engage in reckless spending of your income, and forget to pay your bills.

You need to work with information

In sports betting, you need to work with information if you are going to have the highest chances of winning. In a game where two teams are matched against each other, you need information that will help you make the wisest bet choices and study them. Information such as,

-their past encounters with each other.

-understand how each team is currently performing,

-have a good knowledge of their key players

-know who will or will not play due to injury, absence/turnover, or match sanctions in their next encounter.

These and other statistics will help you to determine if a match will have the likely chances of ending in a draw or if Team A or Team B is likely to win. It all boils down to statistics.

You need to have a fixed amount towards wagers.

Matches are played everyday of the week 24/7. Gambling is a 24 hour business and since it is online, you can wake up in the middle of the night and start to wager. But if you are going to wager, you must not overdo it.

Let’s assume you have a budget of $500 for a six month period. How much are you going to wager each day or week? $5, $10 or $20? How many times do you intend to play during the week? Twice, three times, or more?

Determine what your betting needs are and stick to them as much as you can. Ensure you do not exceed your daily or weekly wager budget. So for example if you decide to wager $5 a day for 3 days which is $15, ensure you stick to this plan.

Winnings in sports betting

When you place a bet and the outcome is favorable, you win and the amount you win is automatically credited to your account on the sports betting site.Winning depends on what you wagered on and the desired outcome you wish to achieve.

In football/soccer, you can bet in so many different markets, as mentioned above. You can for example bet on the exact score at full time. you can also bet on half time score, total number of corners in the match, and so on. If your prediction is right in any of these markets you win.

How to cash out your winnings

You can cash out your winnings anytime and in so many ways. Most sites offer multiple ways to cash out your winnings.This means that you can withdraw any bet you win right into your bank account, bank card, paypal, crypto,etc.

. However some require you to cashout your winnings only through bank transfer. This mean filling out a withdrawal form where you have to input your Iban number along with the swift code and other necessary information as required.

Please ensure to input your name as it corresponds to the name on your bank account. Any mistake and you may lose your winnings.

Winning threshold

When you win a bet and the winning has been credited to your account on the betting site, you can withdarw it to your physical bank account, paypal,etc. Every site is different when it comes to the minumum amount you can withdraw.

For example there are sites that allow you to withdraw your winnings once you reach the minimum threshold of $10. Other sites start from $50 and very few other sites have no restrictions but this is rare.

Having come this far, and now that you have some idea of what sports betting is, you may be wondering if this is a viable way to make money as a side hustle?

Ye, it can be a viable way to make a side hustle.However, this is something you can do once you have the right mindset and knowledge. The right mindset means you accepting that you will win sometimes, but will also have considerable losses.

Having the right knowledge means learning and looking up data and statistics before placing a bet.Also, you must be comfortable investing considerable amounts of money.I’m not talking about $5 or $10 bets, but $100, $500, $1000 bet, and perhaps more, on single or multiple games.

In sports betting, serious players wager serious money. Let’s take the previous example of the correct score where the odds are 25.50. Now imagine if you wager $500 and win.

That is $500 x 25.50 which is a $12.750 win! Twelve Thousand dollars! That’s is serous money. Now instead of wagering $500, you wagered $1000, that will give you $25,500!

Earning a living like this requires you to accept big losses and not feel frustrated about it, just as you will be overwhelmed when you make big wins.

Are there people who make this a side hustle? Yes there are! So if you also want to start making a living this way, do the following,

-Start by doing an online search with specific keywords such as, “sports betting,” etc.

-Search out forums and social media channels dedicated to sports betting where you can update your knowledge, learn strategies and apply them.

-Information is good and you can find very good information online to get you started. However, above any money you will invest in wagers, always invest more in the knowledge of how sports betting work. This way you will learn as much as possible, and incur less losses.

Conclusion

Whether it is sports betting or gambling in general, this type of entertainment can be addictive and requires you to be disciplined and have self control. This is why many betting sites also place importance on gambling addiction and constantly reminds players not to over indulge.And so while this way of making money offers huge opportunities, you may want to prepare yourself first before you enter into it.