Betting For A Living

• For someone playing poker for a living and pursuing tournaments, these are a great opportunity. But, at the same time, they are very costly, and very few players are able to afford the buy-ins on their own. To regularly play in events like these, they’d need a bankroll with dozens of millions. So, many of the players get staked.
• Gambling for a living might sound like a great deal. After all, who wouldn’t want to play games of chance for a living? The problem is that it’s impossible to make a living playing most gambling games. And when you get good enough at a gambling activity to earn a living at it, the game often loses its “fun factor.”.
• Well, if you have a knack for gambling, or even just a knack for numbers, this dream could actually be a reality for you. Yes, it is possible to make a living as a professional gambler. However, it’s not easy. There’s no point in beating around the bush, making a living gambling is hard work.

1. Sports Betting For Fun
2. Sports Betting For A Living
3. Live Betting Online
4. Sports Betting For A Living Strategies
5. What Is A Betting Line

Gambling for a living might sound like a great deal. After all, who wouldn’t want to play games of chance for a living?

The problem is that it’s impossible to make a living playing most gambling games. And when you get good enough at a gambling activity to earn a living at it, the game often loses its “fun factor.”

That being said, some people do gamble for a living and enjoy that lifestyle. If you think professional gambling might be something you’d like to do, this post offers some insights into the pros and cons of gambling for a living.

Con – No Benefits Package

We are living in strange times. COVID19 has changed the world and many people have lost their jobs. Undoubtedly, there will be some who turn to Matched Betting for an income with the free bets available.

Gambling is the ultimate independent contractor position. This means that you don’t get paid vacation, medical benefits, or anything else you’d consider a normal benefit from having a job somewhere. Even your retirement fund is entirely your responsibility.

Sports Betting For Fun

This isn’t the end of the world, though. Like other independent contractors, if you budget well enough, you can take as many days off each year as you like.

If you’re not sitting at the poker table, so to speak, you’re not earning. But if you know anything about being a schoolteacher, you’ll recognize a similar principle.

Teachers get summers off, and they still draw a paycheck. This doesn’t mean they’re getting paid for the 2 months they’re off in the summer, though. It just means that the administration is parceling out the money for a 10-month work year over the course of 12 months.

You’ll need to do something similar if you want to take paid days off as a professional gambler.

As far as health benefits go, you can buy your own health insurance now through Obamacare. Some might argue that Obamacare is more expensive than insurance through a company, but part of that is because some companies subsidize some of the cost of your health insurance.

As far as retirement goes, you could theoretically register a corporation and set up a 401k for yourself. But you also have the ability to set up a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account). Both of these options have tax benefits, but it’s up to you to determine which is more appropriate for your situation.

The hassle of putting together your own benefits package is one of the biggest drawbacks of being a professional gambler.

Pro- No Boss to Answer To

Obviously, if you don’t get along with authority figures, gambling might be better for you than working for some suit in an office somewhere. You do still deal with some authority figures—casino personnel—but it’s not like they have much control over you. They can’t fire you—although they can ban you from the casino if you’re counting cards.

A friend of mine once told me, “It sounds like you have problems with authority figures?”

“You have no idea,” I replied.

I’ve been an independent contractor and owned my own companies for years now. I don’t miss having a boss, I can promise you that.

Con – Inconsistent Earnings

I had a good friend who played professional poker online during the poker boom. He told me that he earned 6 figures a month, 5 months out of 6.

But 1 month out of 6, he saw a loss for the month.

Not everyone has the wherewithal to handle swings in their income like that. That’ll just plain rattle some folks.

No matter what kind of gambling you do for a living, you’re going to deal with short-term variance. In layman’s terms, even when you’re getting the best of it, you’ll have streaks of bad luck.

Being able to continue to gamble with an edge in the face of that streak of bad luck requires a certain temperament that many people don’t have. It also requires a large bankroll, because without a bankroll, you’re out of action.

And if you’re out of the action, you can’t earn a living gambling.

Pro – You’re Playing a Game for a Living

Okay, so this might be the biggest draw. If you enjoy playing poker or blackjack, or if you enjoy betting on sports, you’re basically getting to do what you love and get paid for it. That’s a hard pro to ignore.

The problem is that it’s not enough to just enjoy the game you’re playing. You have to be good enough at it to make a profit on a consistent basis. And some people learn that playing a game to such high standards isn’t as much fun as playing for recreation.

Remember, there’s nothing wrong with being a recreational gambler. It’s your money, and as long as you’re taking good care of the rest of your financial commitments, losing a little money betting on football, playing poker, or playing blackjack is just fine.

In fact, it’s probably important that you don’t overestimate your skill level. You’ll find plenty of blog posts describing how easy it is to count cards. But the number of people who can make a living at it is smaller than you might think.

Gambling professionally requires a certain kind of temperament that most people just don’t have.

Con – Social Pressure

Some people won’t approve of the way you make your living. Your wife might want you to do something more traditional to support the family. Your parents might be disappointed that you’re not putting that degree (that they paid for) to use.

If you want to succeed as a professional gambler, you need to be able to withstand this kind of social pressure. It’s not easy.

I quit my job over 10 years ago to run my own business. My wife was terribly distraught. I made a fortune, though, and it was the right decision for me. It was just so far outside her comfort zone that she couldn’t handle it.

Some people won’t understand your dream. That’s okay. Follow it anyway if it’s that important to you.

Pro – A Sense of Agency

When you work as an employee of a company, you have little control over your destiny. Your day-to-day activities are usually decided for you by management. Your compensation package, including how much your salary increases year-over-year, is also determined by management. If you want to take a day off, you must comply with corporate policies and ask for approval/permission.

This doesn’t lend itself to a sense of agency on the part of the employee. Sure, some companies allow their employees more latitude to decide what to do and when. And some companies pay you salary plus commission, or even commission only, which puts your income back in your influence. Some managers might be really flexible with your time off, too.

But these are the exceptions, not the rules. Even if you get to adjust your own priorities, you still have a job description that was written by someone else. The company decides your commission percent, and they can (and often do) change it any time they want to.

And even if you do your job well, that doesn’t mean the company succeeds. If management is incompetent, you might lose your job just because the company goes out of business.

None of this compares with the amount of control you have as a professional gambler. You decide when you want to gamble and what you choose to bet on. How well you do determines your income. And if you want a day off, you just don’t place any bets that day.

That’s what I mean by “agency”—it’s the ability to choose your destiny in a real sense. The only limits to your agency are those imposed by your bankroll and skill level.

Not everyone needs or wants this sense of agency. Some people prefer to have someone else making the decisions. They might think it’s a fair trade to get a benefits package and a reasonable sense of job security.

Con – Dealing with Unsavory Types

You’re not necessarily going to deal with the criminal element as a professional gambler, but you’re more likely to deal with shady characters as a professional gambler than if you were in some other profession.

Think about it—if you’re betting with the neighborhood bookie you met through your buddy at the local bar, you’re dealing with someone who’s a career criminal. Sure, it’s a victimless crime, but bookmaking over the phone violates federal law. Some people think that’s a big deal.

The people who open and operate underground poker cardrooms are sometimes the nicest people in the world, too. But they’re not usually the upper crust of respected citizens, either.

I like dealing with shady characters, but only up to a point. I don’t like drug dealers, for example, especially the ones who deal in harder drugs. But not everyone you meet as a professional gambler is that unsavory.

Pro – Social Status with Some Groups

In some circles, being a professional gambler will earn you a lot of respect. This is the opposite of one of the earlier cons, which suggested that there’s a social stigma attached to gambling for a living.

The difference is the people who have disdain for gambling versus the people who have respect for it.

Some people are religious or have other moral objections to gambling. Some just have a Puritan work ethic and think you should earn your money via the sweat of your brow.

But some people admire and respect professional gamblers. They think it’s exciting or romantic. Or maybe they just realize how much self-discipline and skill is required to succeed as an advantage player.

You’ll need to decide for yourself which group of people you prefer admiring you.

Con – You Need a Bankroll

No matter what kind of gambling you’re going to engage in to make a living, you’ll need a bankroll—probably a big one.

If you’ve done the research and study to know how to beat gambling, you’ll know that in the short run, anything can happen. You can make all the right decisions and still go broke. The only way to prevent that is to have so much money in your bankroll that you’re confident that you won’t go broke before seeing the long-term mathematical expectation start to look like reality.

Poker players go broke. Blackjack players go broke. Sports bettors go broke.

But they only go broke for 1 of 2 reasons:

Sports Betting For A Living

1. Their bankroll wasn’t big enough, and short-term variance did them in
2. They thought they had an advantage when they didn’t

If you want to make $20/hour counting cards at blackjack, your best bet of not going broke is having a bankroll of $20,000.

Being a gambler is like owning your own business. You need capital to keep that business running. One of my earliest mentors was David Litman, founder of Hotels.com. He told me that the #1 reason businesses fail is because they’re undercapitalized and have cash-flow problems. He impressed on me the need for a business to be profitable as soon as possible.

Let your career as a gambler be advised by his wise words.

Conclusion

Let’s face it. Being a professional gambler isn’t for everyone. It has its perks, but it also has some serious drawbacks. A lot of your decision about whether professional gambling is an appropriate career for you should be based on your own temperament.

What pros and cons on the list above matter more to you than others?

If you’re seriously considering a career as a pro gambler, I suggest using the Ben Franklin close on yourself. Make your own list of pros and cons on a sheet of paper. Cross out the pros that outweigh the cons. Sometimes a pro might matter so much that it will outweigh 2 or 3 cons, so keep that in mind on your personal list.

And don’t fret. Even if gambling professionally doesn’t work out, you can always return to the rat race if that’s what you want.

Sports betting across the globe has seen an explosion of interest and a boom in active members wagering on sports from all corners of this great planet of ours. It is both challenging and hugely thrilling. With the advent of online betting it is now totally mobile. Sports betting pits the lounge room sports fan against the professional bookmakers and unlike real sports, the pros do not have it all their own way.

Can you make money betting on sports? Yes, it can be lucrative. It is not easy and the amount you can potentially make is dependent on your bankroll, risk appetite, strategy, discipline and ultimately success rate. The income can be inconsistent. Unlike many other side hustles, you can also lose money betting on sports. Read on to learn more.

Let me be clear from the outset, sports betting is no simple get rich quick scheme.

Many a confident rookie bettor has blown their hard earned cash in a weekend, by blindly betting on sports, without much forethought, no bankroll management and with virtually no strategy. The lure of quick cash has taught them a painful and possibly expensive lesson.

This does not mean making money betting on sports is impossible or only available to a select few pro gamblers who live and breath sport 24/7. There are ways and means to make useful income without a huge time commitment or even initial outlay. Better still, you don’t have to give up your day job. It is a ready made side hustle that is loaded up on entertainment factor.

How Much Money Can You Make Sports Betting?

In many ways the sky is the limit when it comes to the earning capacity of successful sports bettors. Sports bettors range from the ultra recreational, who may only bet a couple of times per month, through to the full time professional, who turns over enormous sums of money year on year. This is what makes sports betting such an enticing side hustle. You start off small looking to make a few bucks and there is no saying where you may end up!

The real question should not be, “how much one can you make?” but more like “how much money are you aiming to make?”

A side hustle is about making some useful supplementary income that can be directed towards improving your lifestyle. The sports betting industry is really about entertainment, but that changes a little when you approach it with the view of having to consistently make money. All of a sudden bets need to be calculated, considered and therefore less impulsive.

All things considered, it is possible to make something like, say $50 per week, betting on sports without having to negotiate too much of a learning curve. Yes you did read correctly, you can make money betting, the house does not always have to win. Unlike many forms of casino style gambling, sports betting incorporates a mix of skill and luck. The more you hone your skills, the less you rely on blind luck (it does help though). Of course, with anything new, there will always be challenges along the way, bad beats, bad luck and some bad decisions can lead to some lean weeks. Hang in there, this thing has potential.

If you see your side hustle as a way of lifting yourself up to a next level kind of existence, then sports betting can deliver this as well. Just know, getting to that point takes time, dedication, a sizable starting bankroll, better than average math, a dose of experience and a fair share of bumps and bruises along the way. There is a high attrition rate among potential big time sports bettors. It’s not for the faint of heart but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be an aspiration.

How Much Money Do I Need to Start Sports Betting?

There is no real minimum amount of money needed to start sports betting. Bets can be placed for as little as one dollar. The issue is, making money off betting is all about percentage yield. That is, what percentage of your starting stack of money can you return in profit. No bettor can expect to win every bet, or even most of them. Sports betting is really about grinding out a consistent margin.

Live Betting Online

It may seem logical that to break even, a sports bettor would need to win 50% of the time. Unfortunately due to the bookmakers juice the break even threshold is actually more like 52.5%. A 55% win rate (11 out of every 20 bets) on bets paying -110, using the same bet size, produces a surprisingly good return. If you maintain that sort of strike rate over time then you will return a tidy profit of somewhere in the vicinity of 15% on of your betting turnover.

Sports Betting For A Living Strategies

There are a few factors that will cause variance to this yield. Things like the size of the bookmakers edge or juice, the habits of the bettor, eg betting a bigger stake on games where they are more confident, or a lack of discipline, but as a general rule 15% is about it. We call this a 15% ROI (return on investment).

Let’s imagine now that you can maintain a 55% win rate and are yielding 15%, then an original bankroll of $3000 may be able to be turned over to the tune of $5000 in a season. Your actual investment then is $5000 and your return of 15% equates to $1500 dollars. Incredible going considering your outlay was $3000.

Bear in mind an overall win rate of 55% is an average. Some weeks and months you will perform better and other you will perform worse. That is why the side hustle income from sports betting can be inconsistent.

Finding the Right Sportsbook

One of the most important decisions you will make as a side hustling sports bettor is choosing which sportsbook will receive the majority of your action. A good sportsbook will offer you plenty of incentive to stick around. Your betting business is big business for sportsbooks and this offers you a chance to cash in.

Your sportsbook should be offering you an enticing first deposit bonus and ongoing cash back or bonus bet promotions. On top of that you should be able to join a generous loyalty rewards program and have access to all your betting stats in an easy to download format. Access to great promotions could add some value to your betting and may be the difference between profitability and a bankroll beat down.

Unlike many other industries, your sports betting business does not have to be exclusive to one sportsbook. This plays into your side hustling hands in a huge way. As the bankroll grows take advantage of the bonuses and promotions that are on offer across all sportsbooks. This just serves to multiply the ‘free’ value you can extract from the industry.

Develop a Strategy

Like all side hustles that actually work, you must approach sports betting with intent. An intent to make money and intent to continue to improve. This calls for a strategy, or series of strategies, that give you a framework around which to base your betting decisions. The beauty of sports betting is there is no one way that works. Success can be found in all sorts of ways. The most important thing is to find a strategy that works for YOU.

Do You Have to Pay Tax on Winnings?

Sports betting spans the globe and therefore the tax implications for winnings are varied. In the US if you are deemed a recreational sports bettor, which by nature side hustling is, then the amount of tax you pay depends on each state’s individual gambling tax laws.

Let’s use New Jersey as an example. In this state you will pay tax on the total of your winnings less your loses. Losses are treated as a deduction against winnings, sadly not against general income. In the United States online sportsbooks will require you to submit your social security number at sign up. This means you betting activity is being tracked and you are required to report on it at tax time.

Betting in cash is much harder to track and the responsibility is on you as the bettor to report any winnings.

The problem with betting in cash is the time cost of having to physically go to a retail sportsbook. For many bettors there is little attraction in travelling out of your way to place a series of bets and then going back againto collect winnings. The sports betting industry has matured beyond that old school approach.

What is Your Winnings Goal?

A way to maintain focus and discipline when betting is to keep the bigger picture in mind. You may have already decided on what that bigger picture is and hence you are on the lookout for a useful side hustle. Maybe at this point you are just on the lookout for extra money to open up your lifestyle options. Regardless of your own personal reasoning for taking up sports betting, having an endpoint, or at the very least a checkpoint that focuses you is all important.

A bigger picture goal may prevent you from thrill betting, where you just throw money on an outcome for the heck of it without consideration, or it may stop you from betting too big a percentage of your bankroll and risking a major blow to your account.

The road to sports betting profitability is a grind and winning just more than 50% of the time means you can cut a nice profit but you don’t have the luxury of wasting cash by betting recklessly. Keep the end financial goal in mind and you will find it easier to keep the impulsivity in check also.

Where to Invest Profits?

The thrill of betting on sport is its unpredictability and high risk nature. To some people this alone is reward enough. If you are treating sports betting as a side hustle then the thrill side needs to take a back seat to the methodical side. One of the best moves you can make as a sports bettor is to move excess winnings out of your sports betting account into less riskier investments.

All investing carries with it an inherent risk but not all investments have you essentially put your enter ‘buy in’ at risk. Any losing bet you make sees your entire stake taken away. Less riskier investments may return less yield over time but are also defensive in that losses may only equal a portion of your stake instead of the entire stake.

Sports betting really should be seen as a capital raising exercise. Once the capital is raised then this opens the door to passive, income earning, safer and to be honest boring investments. That being said there is nothing boring about receiving a passive income on going forever.

What Is A Betting Line

Examples of less riskier investments may be:

• Stocks — offer high liquidity and a myriad of choice
• Real Estate – safe, long term, lowish but consistent yield. Low liquidity is a negative.
• Cash – Money left in term deposits earning interest.
• Commodities – like gold, silver, oil, gas and yes even corn.
• Paying off other personal debt
• Artworks or collectables

Truly the world is your oyster when it comes to finding passive investment options for your betting winnings. The above list is by no means exhaustive or in anyway advice. Its purpose it to get you thinking about how your winnings could go to work for you.

The Game Starts Now!

Sports betting is a high risk venture that has chewed up and spat out many a confident bettor. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a useful side hustle, providing an income stream that can be used to leverage into bigger and better things. It is also a hell of a lot of fun. Get into it, a whole world a sports betting opportunity awaits.