How Much Money Can You Make Betting on Sports? (Side Hustle?)

Every sports gambler dreams of making a lot of money. But just how much money can you make betting on sports? A few sports bettors make a lot of money. But everything needs to fall into place perfectly for sports betting to be a profitable side hustle..

You can make $1,000,000 or more betting on sports every year. But most sports bettors don’t make any money. And the majority of sports gamblers who make money don’t make much.

A lot of variables come into play when it comes to how much money you make betting on sports. Here’s a list of all of the variables followed by a best-case scenario and a realistic scenario for sports bettors:

How Often You Win

The average sports bettor wins half of their bets. Stated a different way, most sports gamblers win 50% of their bets.

If you consider how sports betting works, it makes sense for the average being a 50% win rate. Gamblers betting on a point spread either win or lose. When 60 gamblers bet one side of the game and 60 bet the other side, 60 win and 60 lose.

Sportsbooks make money by charging vig, which I cover in another section. But the vig means the average sports bettor loses money because they only win 50% of the time.

To make money betting on sports, you have to win more than 50% of the time you make spread or over/under bets.

Depending on the vig, you need to win 53%+ of your bets to make money.

If you can’t win more than half of your bets, you can’t make money betting on sports. And if you can win more than half of your bets, you still have to have some other variables in your favor to make much money.

How Often You Find Value

The way you win more than half of your bets comes down to finding value. But most sports bettors struggle to understand what value means.

Finding value means handicapping or evaluating games and finding games you predict to have different outcomes than the lines.

Here’s an example:

You handicap a game between the Rams and Colts. The Rams are favored by six. Your handicapping shows the Rams should win by at least 10. So, you bet on the Rams and give six points.

If the game plays out the way you predict, you win the bet.

If you want to make money betting on sports, you have to consistently find value. And this is one of the hardest things to do in sports.

The Bankroll Link

With a small bankroll, you can make a little bit of money betting on sports. But if you want to make a lot of money betting on sports you need a huge bankroll.

Even if you’re a good sports bettor and find consistent value, you can’t make much money with a $10,000 bankroll.

You can’t afford to risk more than 1% to 2% or so of your bankroll per game. Even great sports bettors lose a lot of games, so you can’t bet too much. If you bet too much per game, you run the risk of losing all of your money.

See the examples in the two sections with scenarios towards the bottom of this post. It might be a bit depressing when you read those sections. But if you don’t have a large bankroll, you can’t win a lot of money betting on sports.

Using a Strategy or System

Winning sports bettors use a strategy or a system to find value. They work on handicapping games and track what works and what doesn’t work.

As they learn what works, they create a system that helps them identify games with value.

Creating a system that doesn’t require work and handicapping shouldn’t be your goal. Creating a system that makes handicapping and finding value easier should be your goal.

And you can’t buy a system that works. You must create and develop your own system. The upside to creating your system is you can make adjustments when needed. When you know how you built the system, you know how it works. But if you try buying a sports betting system, you don’t know why it works, so you don’t know how to adjust the system.

Playing with the Lines

If you want to make money betting on sports you need to learn how to find good betting lines. Fortunately, I can tell you exactly how to find the best lines.

Open accounts in at least three or four sportsbooks. Every time you handicap a game, look at the lines for the game in each sportsbook. By shopping for lines this way, you always get the best line. And a line with an extra point in your favor often makes the difference between winning and losing.

Paying Vig Kills You

Paying vig makes it impossible to even break even when you win 50% of your bets. Most sportsbooks charge a standard 110 to win 100 vig. Sometimes this shows as 110/100.

If you bet $110 to win $100 on two games and win one and lose one, you end up losing $10. And this happens to most sports bettors over time, or on average.

The only way you can break even winning half of your totals and spread bets would be paying no vig.

Even moneyline bets have vig. But you don’t see the vig as easily with moneyline bets. I don’t recommend using moneyline bets until you can consistently in using spread bets and totals.

Try finding as many betting opportunities as possible with reduced vig. 105/100 vig means you have to win fewer games to make money.

Year Round Betting Issues

Another issue sports bettors have when trying to find value comes from the seasonality of sports. Few sports operate year round.

And you need to be an expert on each sport you bet on if you want to make money. So, you have to spend a lot of time building your knowledge and handicapping skills for multiple sports.

Start by focusing on one sport. Once you learn how to win with one sport, add a second sport. But don’t try to bet on every sport when you start.

Best Case Scenario

Here’s how you can make over $1,000,000 a year betting on sports. But you have to realize that everything has to fall perfectly in line for this to happen.

You need the following things:

• A $1,000,000 or bigger bankroll
• Average bet size of $21,000
• Place bets at 105/100
• Find 10 games with value every week
• Win 60% of your spread bets

Here are the numbers for the year based on the scenario listed above:

You make 520 bets during the year. The total cost of the bets comes to $10,920,000. You win 312 bets. Your return on each bet won averages $41,000 ($21,000 bet and $20,000 win). 312 bets won times $41,000 equals $12,792,000.

Your profit comes to $1,872,000.

However, this is an unrealistic scenario for 99% of sports bettors. You probably don’t have a $10,000,000 bankroll. And it’s challenging to place all of your bets at 105/100.

Almost nobody can win 60% of their bets consistently, and very few people can consistently find 10 high-value games every week.

It doesn’t matter what anyone else can do though. Only what you can do matters.

Now consider a realistic scenario.

Realistic Sports Betting Income Scenarios for Your New Side Hustle

Here are two scenarios, based on bankroll level, that are more realistic.

• A $100,000 bankroll
• Average bet size of $2,160
• Place bets at 108/100 on average (Most bets at 110/100 with some bets at lower vig for a lower average)
• Find 7 games with value every week
• Win 55% of your bets

Here are the numbers for the year based on the scenario listed above:

You make 364 bets during the year. The total cost of the bets comes to $786,240. You win 201 bets. Your return on each bet won averages $4,160 ($2,160 bet and $2,000 win). 201 bets won times $4,160 equals $836,160.

Your profit comes to $49,920.

• A $10,000 bankroll
• Average bet size of $216
• Place bets at 108/100 on average (Most bets at 110/100 with some bets at lower vig for a lower average)
• Find 7 games with value every week
• Win 55% of your bets

Here are the numbers for the year based on the scenario listed above:

You make 364 bets during the year. The total cost of the bets comes to $78,624. You win 201 bets. Your return on each bet won averages $416 ($216 bet and $200 win). 201 bets won times $416 equals $83,616.

Your profit comes to $4,992.

Conclusion

Now that you know all of the important variables, how much money do you think you can make betting on sports?

Your bankroll limits how much you can make. And even a huge bankroll doesn’t guarantee a big profit. Focus on developing a winning system and finding value. When you learn how to win consistently you start making money.

With a proven system in place, your profit comes from the size of your bankroll and how many good games you find. And don’t count on the best-case scenario. Realistic expectations for your sports betting help you avoid mistakes.