If you’re serious about sports betting, then you probably already know just how important using data and analytics is to place better bets. But if you’re new to the world of sports betting, or want to up your game and start seriously winning your sports bets, it pays to know more about how you can use a knowledge of statistics and sports data to improve your chances.
What IS Sports Betting Data Analytics?
Spoiler alert: sports betting data analytics is math.
Specifically, it’s the kind of math that helps you make smarter bets. In sports betting, data analytics can provide valuable insights into a wide range of aspects, including player and team performance, betting odds, and market trends. By analyzing this data, you can gain a better understanding of the sport and make more accurate predictions.
For example, you can use data on player performance to figure out who on the team is more likely to score the most points, and you can use that to place a good prop bet. But you also want to have information on betting odds and the betting market itself, so that you can make good decisions about when to place bets.
Here’s how you can place better bets with sports betting data analytics.
Data Collection
The first part of using data analytics to predict sports outcomes and place good bets is to pick the type of data you want to collect. Not all sports data is relevant, and if you’re just starting out, you should stick to one sport that you understand well. It is easy to get overloaded with information and numbers, especially if you’re trying to get information on every game in every league for every sport.
What Type of Data is Relevant?
As you are collecting data, you will want to look for information not just about the team, but about the betting odds. You want data on team and player performance, trends and patterns in betting odds, and historical results.
What Do I Do With The Data?
Once the relevant data has been identified, it must then be collected and organized in a manner that makes it usable. Raw data doesn’t tell you much, but when you zoom out and look at it as a whole, you’ll start to see patterns that you can use to place bets. This may involve using tools such as spreadsheets, databases, or specialized software– more on that in a minute.
Where Do I Get The Data?
The best source of sports data today is the Internet. Some of the most common include official sports websites, sports news websites, and specialized sports data providers. Official sports websites typically provide data on team and player statistics, as well as schedules and results. Sports news websites can provide valuable insights into current events and trends in the world of sports, as well as odds and betting trends.
You can also get info from specialized sports data providers. These providers offer a more comprehensive and specialized range of data, including betting odds and predictions, as well as detailed analysis and tools for processing and utilizing the data. These providers can be similar to the services that sports betting handicapper communities may offer; you will likely need to subscribe to these providers.
Data Analysis
Once you’ve gotten information, it’s time to analyze it. There are several tools that can help you out here. The simplest tools are spreadsheets; however, those require you to have a good handle on statistical analysis yourself, and can be tricky to work with.
Instead, many cappers and bettors today are turning to something more complicated: handicapping software. AI, machine learning, algorithms– whatever you want to call them, these programs can be used to analyze and make predictions based on large amounts of data, taking into account multiple variables and complex relationships. Computer programs are much faster and more accurate at math than human beings are, so use them to help make sense of your data.
Place Your Bets
Once you’ve crunched the numbers, it’s time to place your bets! Or… is it?
Remember that your data analytics aren’t just there to help you make accurate predictions. They can also help you know when to place a bet and what the betting market is like. This is often more complicated to understand than the sports statistics themselves. One of the easiest ways to figure this out is to work with a professional handicapper.
A handicapper is somebody who uses sports betting data analytics to make picks and predictions for bettors who don’t want to look at the data themselves. These pros can help you place your bets with surgical precision– they’ve already done the math and know what kinds of bets you need to make and when you need to make them. Their services might not come cheap– but the predictions they make can bring you enormous profits.
And many pro cappers are actually quite generous with their time and advice. Sports betting handicapper social media is full of people who love betting and genuinely like to talk about it and help people learn how to bet well. If you find the right communities, it’s almost like going to betting school.
Learn From The Best
While getting picks from sports betting handicappers is one way to improve your odds, for many serious bettors, that isn’t enough. These bettors want to learn how to use and interpret the data themselves. If that sounds like you, then you need to find a community of bettors and betting experts.
Every individual handicapper is going to interpret the data somewhat differently, and a huge part of learning how to handicap a game for yourself is to practice working with and interpreting that data. But if you only have one model or even worse, just yourself to study, you will find that you are working with a single model for interpretation. It can be very easy to get off course if you have nothing to compare your work against!
But if you’re practicing this interpretation with others, you will have the ability to discuss your process and your results. You will have more information, you will learn new tricks and techniques, and you will be able to compare your results to other peoples’ outcomes. You will have access to a wealth of information about different decision-making processes and the rationale behind why certain picks were made.
And more importantly, you’ll have friends who are just as hyped about this as you are. Sports betting is an art and a science, and having a community of friends who are all working towards improving their betting skills will help you cultivate your own talent.
Tips For Smarter Sports Betting
Here is some more advice for using data to drive your sports bets (and wins) into the stratosphere!
Use The Right Tools
Data collection can lead to a big ugly pile of numbers– but if you have access to the right computer programs, those numbers can turn into beautiful information about predictions. One of the biggest advantages of joining a sports betting Discord server is that these servers can have analytical bots programmed right into the community. Joining one of these communities is an easy way to gain access to programs and tools that can help you become a better bettor.
Understand The Stats
Statistics is the type of math that deals with probabilities of events occurring or reoccurring. And they can be very tricky to understand. Mark Twain wrote in his autobiography that there are three kinds of lies: “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” What he meant was that statistics can be used to shore up a weak argument, but this applies to sports betting, too. Statistics can lie to you if you don’t know how to interpret them.
An improper understanding of or use of statistics can set you back and lead to bad bets. You don’t just need to know what the stats are– you need to know how they change over time and understand why they change. That’s part of the art of betting, and it’s something that a good handicapping community can help you figure out.
Bet With Your Head, Not With Your Heart
Having and understanding the data is only part of the smart betting process. You also have to use the data, and use it rigorously. Don’t just bet because you “have a feeling” (or if you do, bet small!), or because you think the team will win because they’re your favorites. Resist the urge to bet emotionally or impulsively. Think about it in terms of statistics and stick to what the numbers tell you.
You can’t predict the future, but you can make an educated guess by looking at information about what happened in the past. That’s what your statistics are, after all– a record of past outcomes. Informed betting decisions are more profitable because they are based on objective data and analysis, rather than intuition or emotional biases, leading to more accurate predictions and bigger profits.
