Placing a sports bet is a game of skill. The challenge for sports bettors is to gather and analyze as much information as they can about a game, weigh the winning probabilities of each team, and subsequently compare their opinion to the oddsmaker's.

While luck may be a deciding factor in the outcome of any sport bet, and will inevitably go against sports bettors on occasion, it will balance out in the long run.

Being a consistent winner in sports betting is not about luck but whether sports bettors are prepared to invest the time and effort to become knowledgeable about the sports they bet on, whether they can weigh all the factors in a cool, objective fashion, and whether they adopt a consistent, disciplined, long-term approach to sports betting.

The bookmaker is simply a middle-man who operates on a small profit margin and, ideally likes to see half the money wagered on one team and half on the other, assuring a profit.

If too much of the money goes on one team, the bookmaker will move the line or point spread to encourage bets on the other team in an effort to balance his book.

The person the sports bettors are attempting to beat is the oddsmaker, and the oddsmaker's views on each team's winning chances.

Tipster's Corner

Just by flipping a coin, sports bettors will be right 50% of the time. At odds of 10/11, only 52.4% of the sports bettors' wagers have to win for them to overcome the bookmaker's profit and break even, so they only need a very small edge to become a winner.

Here's the low down on the different types of online sport bets:

European Price Sport Bet Futures Sport Bet Half-Time Line Sport Bet If Sport Bet Money Line Sport Bet Parlay Sport Bet

Progressive Parlay Sport Bet Propositions Sport Bet Quarter Line Sport Bet Point Spread Sport Bet Teaser Sport Bet Totals Sport Bet