Difference between a professional bettor and an amateur

Entertainment or steady income - these are the two main groups that can be divided into for anyone who has bet at least once in their life. However, there is no doubt that it takes a lot of effort to make regular betting profits - naive dreams of "easy money" usually do not last long after the first couple of winnings.

Amateurs and professionals

So, amateurs are those who bet for fun, without going deep into the analysis of lines, markets and many other factors that a professional should not miss.

And a professional is someone who sees betting as a potential source of income. And choosing a bet for such a player is a much more complex process. 

It would probably be appropriate to also introduce a division of players according to their success rate. In fact, what difference does it make how much time and effort a person spends on selecting bets if his result was and still is poor? And how, with such a result, can he be called a professional? There is unequivocally truth in such counter-arguments, but here and now let's discuss only amateurs and professionals only in terms of their approach to betting

A parsing of the subject area

The first thing a player who wants to earn from betting has to comprehend is the principles of line formation and the reasons of line changes. 

The line (or market) is the list of events on which the bookmaker accepts bets. For each bet the office offers its own odds, by which the bet amount is multiplied in case of winning. The odds are based on the probability of winning a bet. The higher it is, according to the bookmaker, the lower the odds. And vice versa. 

Next, let us distinguish the concepts of "opening line" and "closing line". 

The opening line is the line at the start of betting. 

The closing line is the line just before the start of the game (event).

The opening line changes its appearance many times because of the money that players bet. The bookmaker's office is almost indifferent to who the big bet came from - a beginner who bet almost blindly, or a professional who analyzed his choice long and hard. The result of such a bet is the same - the line will change, the odds on the said bet will decrease. The line can also change after multiple small bets, if all of them are on the same outcome. So why such changes? 

Here is an important point to understand: The players bet more against each other and the bookmaker, as an intermediary, changes these rules of the game by changing the odds. The bookmakers aim to distribute the money streams from the players evenly, trying to make a profit at any outcome of the match as a result of the margin built into the odds. 

The margin is a percentage which the bookmaker puts into odds and which brings him profit when the players' money is evenly distributed on opposite outcomes (P1-X2, TB-TM). In simple terms, the margin is the bookmaker's share as an intermediary or organiser of the game.

Gifts can be tricky

He who does nothing makes no mistakes, and the work of bookmakers is no exception here. There may be gross errors in the lines, which the player has to take advantage of. But not all that glitters is gold - bookmakers' miscalculations also need to be double-checked. An experienced player can do it in minutes. It is more difficult for the beginner. 

What needs to be considered when choosing a bet?

• The peculiarities of its calculation at the bookmaker;
• Significant changes in the line-up of the teams;
• the motivation factor.

For inexperienced bettors, the rules for calculating bets are a thick forest, which they will not understand. Sometimes it can be expensive - it is important to know the sources from which the bookmaker uses to calculate bets (especially when it comes to betting on statistics). It will also be useful to know the rules for calculating bets on sports. The same hockey total, for example, may count overtime for some bookmakers, but not for others. A professional bettor must be aware of such nuances.

Statistics and analysis

Keeping and analysing your betting statistics is definitely the hallmark of a professional attitude to sports betting.

You need to see your results for the last months, and better yet years. And based on them you can draw conclusions, which sports are easier and which are more difficult. You can follow your stats on markets, odds, bets before and during matches. Twist and turn and categorize your stakes and results from different angles, as long as they clearly show your strengths and weaknesses.

You can keep statistics trivially in a notebook, or you can use programs. The well-known Excel contains all the functionality you need to keep tables, calculate necessary values and make graphs.

Real professionals

These are players, who for various reasons do not care about the intricacies of multi-accounting and try to earn money in a transparent, "legitimate" competition with the betting line, where such competition is encouraged, and on conditions that are advantageous for them (low margin, high maximums), so they live in professional studios and betting exchanges. Their analytical skills and in-depth knowledge of the sport come to the forefront, rather than learning how to bypass the hundredth block in a recreational betting office.

As a rule, these are players with an impressive bankroll, possessing a set of knowledge, skills and information for a stable plus game, and, what is extremely important, psychologically stable to various negative factors in the course of activity. Often, it is the awareness of their own superiority among the best, expressed in financial terms, that is important to the representatives of this cell, rather than the money itself in its "pure" form, so players who are able to consistently show a positive game at Pinnacle can be called professionals in all senses of this concept.