This year is going to be different. You are going to stick to your New Year’s resolutions, and this time you mean it!
80% of New Year’s resolutions fail in the first six weeks of the year. The gym is empty again, your pants still don’t fit, you still go to that crappy job looking and feeling like a zombie, you can’t seem to tell that deadbeat uncle to leave you alone and you have had enough of that Duolingo app on your phone.
The odds are stacked against you, yet I have an easy resolution for you achieve: growing your bankroll in the new year.
Some of the ways are easier than others, but all will help you “pad the coffers” and get you on the path to your dream of making a living playing the races.
Use Sportsbooks That Feature Rebates, Rewards and Sign-Up Bonuses
Since the Supreme Court struck down the 1992 federal ruling, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, there has been an influx of legal sports betting options. With more options comes more competition for your wagered dollar. Sportsbooks are offering competitive rewards and bonuses at sign up. SugarHouse Sports was offering a match of 100% on a deposit up to $250 which you have to play through once. If you have a good system in place for sports, you can reap the benefit of these matches.
Some online sportsbooks and race books even offer a rebate or rewards incentive based on each wagered dollar. In time, that money does add up.
Bet ★ usracing offers an 8% or 5% on exotic wagers and a 3% rebate on win, place, or show wagers. New members right now can get an additional 10% cash bonus added to their accounts. If you deposit a minimum of $100, you can qualify to earn an additional $150.
It pays to shop around and take advantage of these types of offers from any sportsbook or race book that offers them!
Sound Money Management
Money management could be its own series of articles, but however you choose to play you should have a threshold for a wager based on both your confidence in the play and your total bankroll. You can use the Kelly Criterion or a fixed amount per play. Whatever you find works best with your horse and sports playing style is what you need to adhere to. Make no exceptions!
Record-Keeping
I know it is a lot of work, but I have stressed record-keeping in many of my articles. If you know what is working and what isn’t working you can avoid a lot of ill-advised wagers and focus your bankroll on better opportunities by triaging the races you plan to handicap.
This can be through tracking the performance of angles or how well you do at a specific track, over a type of surface or at different class levels. Regardless, if you stick to the types of races that offer you the best opportunity to win, you will limit your losses and preserve your bankroll.
Make Smart Decisions
Do your homework the night before. Have a clear idea of what you are likely to play walking into the track, rather than handicapping between races and rushing to try to find the plays worthy of your wagered dollar.
If you are playing sports, shop lines between the various sportsbooks you are signed up at. Even if it is a small edge, every little bit helps. On any NFL Sunday, I check every sportsbook I have an account with to look for the best line or odds on my plays before playing my wagers. Getting -107 on a spread instead of -110 does add up over time — especially when coupled with a rebate.
Monetize Your Passion for Racing or Sports
You can pad your bankroll by making a part-time living playing the races. You can monetize your sports or racing blog or YouTube channel. Perhaps you want to freelance and write a couple of articles for websites like the one you are reading now. These are the easiest of the ways I outlined previously to make a little “folding money” that you can roll right into your betting bankroll.
However you choose to do it, there are several options out there for you to add some money to your betting bankroll. Through smart play and the ideas outlined above, you can build a bigger bankroll so you can start playing larger and making a bigger profit in 2019.
Ray Wallin is a licensed civil engineer and part-time handicapper who has had a presence on the Web since 2000 for various sports and horse racing websites and through his personal blog. Introduced to the sport over the course of a misspent teenage summer at Monmouth Park by his Uncle Dutch, a professional gambler, he quickly fell in love with racing and has been handicapping for over 25 years.
Ray’s background in engineering, along with his meticulous nature and fascination with numbers, parlay into his ability to analyze data; keep records; notice emerging trends; and find new handicapping angles and figures. While specializing in thoroughbred racing, Ray also handicaps harness racing, Quarter Horse racing, baseball, football, hockey, and has been rumored to have calculated the speed and pace ratings on two squirrels running through his backyard.
Ray likes focusing on pace and angle plays while finding the middle ground between the art and science of handicapping. When he is not crunching numbers, Ray enjoys spending time with his family, cheering on his alma mater (Rutgers University), fishing, and playing golf.
Ray’s blog, which focuses on his quest to make it to the NHC Finals while trying to improve his handicapping abilities can be found at www.jerseycapper.blogspot.com Ray can also be found on Twitter (@rayw76) and can be reached via email at ray.wallin@live.com.