All The Ways to Make Money Sports Betting

Perhaps the craziest things I’ve discovered as an OddsJam user are all the ways to make money sports betting. On the surface, many will consider sports betting gambling. This is certainly the case if you do not have an advantage. However, if you do have an advantage, and you certainly do if you are effectively utilizing tools like those offered by OddsJam, then it is more like investing in the stock market or bond market.

I have personally used all of the methods below, some much more than others, to profit from sports betting. So, let us take a look at all the different ways you could use OddsJam to make money sports betting.

Sign up and Deposit Bonuses

Most sports bettors are recreational bettors who do not use a mathematical advantage and will lose money long term. Sportsbooks know this. Most sports bettors will know this as well. That does not stop sportsbooks from offering sign-up bonuses (aka initial deposit bonuses) to get average bettors to use sign-up.

The more users a book has, the more profit they will make. Offering sign-up bonuses is a way to help bring in new customers. They can offer sign-up bonuses because they know that the general betting public will lose money and they will make more. They will lose their initial deposit and they will lose the deposit bonus. So, offering a sign-up bonus doesn’t cost them any money in the long run.

However, if you have the right tools, like the OddsJam Low-Hold tool, you can place bets to help you clear the bonus without losing your initial deposit. You’ll get to keep most of your deposit bonus as well. If you combine sign-up bonuses with other advantages, say arbitrage betting, you can even make more money on top of the deposit bonus.

The Low Hold tool finds two bets at different books on the same line where you will lose a small amount of the total bet (0% up to about 2% is usually acceptable). These low hold bets are a way to turn the majority of your bonus into actual cash in your account.

Sign-up bonuses are only available once, but this is an area that you can use to significantly grow your bankroll quickly when you are starting with sports betting. Deposit (aka reload) bonuses are offered by some books and fall into this category too.

To take advantage of sign-up bonuses, you’ll need accounts at multiple books, which is the case with everything here except DFS.

Tip: Read the conditions of the bonus before you start so you know all the requirements (min odds, rollover requirement, and time frame) so you can clear the bonus and grow your bankroll.

Want to know more about OddsJam? Read my post about My Two Year Journey with OddsJam.

Arbitrage

Imagine the Lakers are playing the Celtics. What would happen if you placed two bets at two different books: Lakers to win AND Celtics to win? One of the two bets would have to win. Now imagine that the two different books had different odds where if either bet won, you would win more than your total stake. That is arbitrage betting. Placing multiple bets with different books where there is a guaranteed profit.

The books are not thrilled about arbitrage, so you need to follow some simple steps to stay under the radar. You read more about arbitrage in my post about Profitable Arbitrage Betting.

OddsJam has an arbitrage tool to find these bets. If you are based in the US, then you will have a wealth of options for sportsbooks that can be lucrative for arbitrage betting. There is a potential for some staggering profits with arbitrage betting.

If you really want to take advantage of arbitrage betting, have a decent bankroll (you could use sign-up bonuses to boost your bankroll), and like to bet live, OddsJam has you covered with live betting with their platinum plan.

Tip: If you are new to sports betting, start slowly to get to know how to navigate the different websites/apps until you know your way around and get quick at placing bets. Arb lines can move quickly and you don’t want to miss one side because the line moves against you.

Value Betting (+EV Betting)

Value betting arises from inefficiencies in the betting market. Books set their lines independently of one another and some books are much sharper than others. This creates situations where placing a bet has a positive expected value.

Consider a fictional basketball game between the Wildcats and the Bulldogs. The odds of winning might be listed at a sharp book at +100 for the Wildcats to win and -110 for the Bulldogs to win. If we convert those into win probabilities, we would have a 50% chance the Wildcats would win and a 52.4% chance the Bulldogs win. You’ll notice this adds to 102.4%, which is more than 100%. This is the vig or juice and this is where books make their money.

I won’t go into those details here, but if we ‘de-vig’ the odds (OddsJam has a No Vig Fair Odds Calculator you can use) the true odds would work out to be +104.76 (48.84%) for the Wildcats and -104.76 (51.16%) for the Bulldogs. If another book has the Bulldogs to win at +100 this would create a value bet. Placing a bet with the second book at +100 odds would have a positive expected value of 2.3%. That edge over the books is enough to make a profit long-term.

If you would like to know more about value betting, check out my post Value Betting: Making Money Over Time.

Tip: Value (+EV) betting is profitable long term, especially is you are using the Kelly Criterion for bet sizing. Measure your results month to month (over at least 500 bets or more) to help even out the variance and get a better sense of how your real results.

What does a great month value betting using OddsJam look like on a modest bankroll? Read about my November to Remember!

Middles

Middle betting is all about finding two books that offer good lines on something like a point spread or Over/Under where there is a gap where you can land one (or sometimes both) bets if you get a bit lucky. Middles do require a bit of luck.

We’ll go back to the Wildcats and Bulldogs game we already used. This time, consider two books offering Over/Under odds for the game. The first book has Over 210 points at -186 odds, and the second book has Under 211.5 at +175 odds. With those two bets, you have everything covered. (I’ll skip the calculations here. I’ll explore them in an upcoming article.)

If the total is 212 points or more, you’ll win the first bet. If the total is 209 points or less, you’ll win the second bet. With correct bet sizing, you would take a slight loss on the game of 1.4%. Optimal bet sizing for these odds would be $100 on the Over 210 and $55.91 on the under 211.5. You’d likely adjust that to $55, but we’ll stick with the optimal sizes for this example.

However, consider what would happen if the total was 210 or 211 points exactly. If it were 210 points, you would be refunded the first bet, losing nothing, and winning the second bet outright. This would create a pure profit of $97.85. How about hitting exactly 211 points? In that case, you would win both bets! That would result in a profit of $151.61! Risking a loss of 1.4% for a potential gain of 60% or even 98%.

Luck plays a part, but you can lose the $2.18 on this bet a lot as long as you hit often enough. In some instances, you will even end up with a middle that is an arbitrage bet which would guarantee profit for every outcome! OddsJam has the Middle Tool to find tons of the middle bets.

Tip: Mixing in a few middles with your betting can help you look more like a recreational bettor.

DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports)

DFS is another area to make money with sports betting. Several books (Underdog, ParlyPlay, PrizePicks … OddsJam currently have 12 books listed for DFS) started to offer what are essentially parlays with fixed outcomes. If you know the math behind the payout structure, you can find a profitable edge using the Fantasy Optimizer tool from OddsJam .

Similar to value (+EV) betting, if you know you have an edge over what the books are offering, these parlays can be profitable. Depending on how many picks you are making will determine how high the probability needs to be on individual outcomes. DFS is essentially a parlay where you want the expected value of each leg to be positive in relation to the effective odds the books are offering. OddsJam makes it easy to spot those with their Fantasy Optimizer tool.

DFS is all about player props. If you can compare what the DFS books offer to traditional sharp books, you can consistently find mathematically profitable plays. Make the bets and, over the long run, you will be profitable.

Alex, an OddsJam founder, has a good video on how it all fits together.

Tip: DFS is almost exclusive to the US market. If you are looking to play DFS outside the US, take a closer look at the terms and conditions to make sure they will accept you. If in doubt, just contact the book and ask.

Promotions

Almost all books will offer promotions from time to time. The promotions are designed to get the average sports bettor to make more bets that are not profitable, making the books more money.

However, many of these promotions can lead to profit and cash in your bankroll if you know how to use them.

Odds Boosts

Odds Boosts are exactly what they sound like. A book will give you the chance to boost the odds on a bet, often a parlay, that meets certain conditions. The best way to use these is to simply find a few value (+EV) bets at the same book and use them to meet the requirements for the promotion. If all legs of a parlay are +EV, then the whole parlay is +EV. Add in your odds boost, and it can be a very good opportunity.

Free Bets

Free Bets are offered by some books as just random rewards or as an incentive for using something like a bet builder to make a parlay that usually generates more profits for them.

Regardless, OddsJam has a great tool that you can use to turn these free bets into actual cash in your account. OddsJam has a set of tools to make the most of all of the promotions offered called the Promo Converter.

Free Promotions

Many books will also offer free contests. While it is often a long shot to enter these, there is always the chance of winning something for your efforts. Playing in these promotions will also help you stay under the radar and make you look more like a recreational sports better, which is a good thing.

Conclusion

Using mathematics, a bit of know-how, and tools like those offered by OddsJam, sports betting can be a very profitable venture. There are many ways to profit over time. If you are looking for a get-rich scheme, this is not it!

Making money through sports betting takes time and effort. It can be a great side hustle, especially if you are already a sports fan. Finding the best times to bet will depend on what your day looks like before and during game time. Often betting will be concentrated on weekends when there are more games on.

With so many sportsbooks now open to US bettors, bettors have never had as many opportunities as they do now. This can be used to your advantage as a profitable sports bettor.

Lots of people are already finding success with OddsJam. They have different subscriptions to cater to what you need. If you’d like to have a closer look, start with a 7-day free trial. Use promo code ‘Beyond35’ to take 35% off your first month of any of their plans.

It is estimated that between 1% and 3% of all sports bettors are profitable long-term. If you would like to join that top few per cent, OddsJam can help you with that journey.

Contact Me

Hit me up on X (Twitter) @BeyondTheEV if you ever have any questions about anything to do with OddsJam or want to follow along a bit more closely with my journey.

Disclaimer: Links to OddsJam are affiliate links and I am not hiding that. I truly believe in their product and use it daily.