Let's take a look at a few tips that will help you profit as a sports bettor:

1: Knowledge
2: Money Management
3: Discipline

Knowledge: Know what you are doing! Don’t just wing it because someone told you they thought their team was going to win it all. Study up on the game and the sport before placing your bet. When it comes to successful sports wagering success, you must be scientific and heartless about the teams in question. Otherwise, you may as well throw your money away.

Know what trends to look for in each sport and how certain stats affect teams differently:

• Take weather into account. A cold, windy day might have an adverse affect on teams coming to Detroit if they are playing baseball, but if you try to give the Lions an advantage in an NFL game the same day, for the same reason, you are going to look very silly when someone shows you their covered stadium.
• Research recent matchups between the teams you are betting on. The team you like may have won six games in a row but historically bomb badly against the team you were thinking should lose because of that win streak. Some teams just match up well against others, regardless of other factors.
• Know what live and betting stats are relevant to this game. Does it matter that your pitcher has a stellar record against left-handed batters if the team he is facing has very few of those?
• Especially in prop bets, know the opposition as well as or better than the team you are wagering on. You don’t want to bet that Peyton Manning throws for 300 yards against the league’s strongest pass defense when you can also look and see that the running defense is not so hot and Manning has running backs in the backfield to pound the ball downfield on the ground.
• Look at the intangibles like injuries, suspensions, team chemistry, revenge factors and rivalries that can’t be expressed in terms of numbers.
• Timing is the key to beating the numbers. Make sure to keep an eye on lines as they often change as the game gets closer. Getting your wager in before your line goes down, or waiting until it goes higher in your favor is very often the difference between a win and a loss.
• Always include special teams, coaching and defensive analysis in your handicapping strategy. Ever been burned by a last-second, otherwise meaningless run back for a touchdown or a coach who does not watch the game clock, letting the other team get the ball back with time to score? The ability to secure good field position, or prevent it, is a key factor to consider.

Money Management: Unless you are Charles Barkley, you can’t afford to throw your whole bankroll on one game and, if you lose, just grab another roll. You need to set aside an amount that is no more than what you can afford to LOSE over the season. You need to be stingy! Sometimes it is hard to keep your bet amounts nearly the same, using only a small percentage of your bankroll - under 5% - for each wager. In fact, sticking to your program and not chasing losses is probably the hardest thing about wagering successfully over a period of time. Every once in a while, sure, go ahead and double your bet size. But make sure you do it only on very strong plays and not on what you WANT to be a strong play because you just lost a few. Sure things and locks do not exist in the real world.