Betting For a Living – Is it Really Possible?

Is it possible to make a good living from betting?

Well many betting professionals myself included are living proof that it is indeed possible to do just that, however success as a betting professional requires a lot of endeavour and a long term approach.

Betting for a living is not an easy career path to follow. There will be many sleepless nights and much disenchantment along the way. However provided you have an interest in betting, understand betting principles, are numerate, determined and posses the ability to become emotionally detached – then the goal of betting for a living is achievable.

“Is gambling for a living too risky for the average person?” you ask. Well the truth is, as betting professionals, we don’t really consider ourselves gamblers at all.

We like to think that we are on a par with Investor’s playing the stock market – selecting the right opportunities – when to bet and when not to bet. So operating a safe, reliable and profitable betting business has nothing to do with blind luck or chance; rather, it is the combination of our observations, form study, selectivity and intelligent decision-making. Additionally it is important that you thoroughly understand money management and posses the required discipline to bet with only a percentage of your total betting bank. By following such a course, betting professionals will make a living.

Like any self-employed individual, there are advantages and disadvantages in betting for a living. One of the advantages of this career path is that you have the opportunity to build the new business slowly in your spare time without giving up your day job. This approach will enable you to determine if & when the time is right to become a full time professional. However as with any new venture it will take time and dedication to succeed, so please don’t think for one minute that you are about to become a ‘betting pro’ overnight. Nothing could be further from the truth and you will need to take time serving your apprenticeship, making mistakes from which you will learn, while also becoming the master of your trade and capitalising from the errors you will have made along the way.

Thanks to the proliferation of the online betting exchanges and bookmakers, betting is now a worldwide industry. Thus another advantage of betting for a living is that you can now run your betting business from anywhere in the world and operate with minimal overheads. Finally betting is a truly recession proof industry with downturns in the economy having no effect on the betting exchange markets – even when money seems to be ‘tight’ betting markets are always awash with money.

Of course there are one or two disadvantages associated with betting for a living. Most notably this is tough work psychologically and your lifestyle will change dramatically with no more 9-5 days in the office, instead they will be replaced with long lonely hours, spent 7 days a week in front of your computer and TV screens with no work colleagues to interact with. Secondly, you and you alone will ultimately be responsible for placing bets and trades on the exchanges in order to ensure the success or failure of your financial future.

There are literally hundreds of sporting events available for betting on during any given afternoon and unlike the stock market where it can take days or weeks to receive settlement one way or the other, sports bets are settled within minutes of the event completing – often in minutes.

So your financial outcome is known within minutes of an event finishing. Therefore cash flow is always positive but bear in mind whenever you play a bad bet the impact on the cash flow is immediate, so good money management is therefore the ‘key’ to success in your new career and it remains an essential skill for the betting professional to master.

What really draws people to this profession though is the potential tax-free (in the UK!) return on investment. So just what kind of return can you expect? Anywhere between 15% and 25% of your annual betting turnover would be typical, even as much as 30% in a good year. Losing years are also very rare and I have not personally experienced many in my lifetime and I am now confident I will never experience another one again. I can thank the betting exchanges for that probability. The exchanges offer the professional opportunities for hedging so that we can take profits, reduce losses and maintain that all important positive cash flow.

Clearly for the individual with a strong enough mindset, capable of withstanding adversity there are distinct advantages to making a go of this new career. However it is important to ensure that you have enough capital to commence and also posses the required discipline to use a small percentage of that capital each time you place a bet, then provided you follow strict guidelines betting for a living can become a difficult but achievable goal!

Mike Marsland FCA is the Internets #1 authority on strategic betting techniques. For free honest advice on Sports Betting Strategies and a complimentary download of his football correct score betting Ebook visit http://www.bigmikebetting.co.uk