[Wildbill]

Pretty funny Raken, did you lose your shirt using the Martingale early on? Fortunately its something that is almost always seen at the roulette wheel or the blackjack table, I haven't heard of too many people using the Martingale to bet on sport. Sports betting is where all the losers are trying to bet $10 to win $500, not bet $500 to win $10 as you would at the end of a bad run with Martingale.

Good point on using what works for you. I will tell all those starting out or just dabbling that this is excellent advice. Think about most things in life, when you first try them they move far too fast for you to grasp them. Then as you do something and do it often enough, you gain some comfort with it. The activity "slows down". When you start out its great to just work on one sport, but something daily, not football. Football is a graveyard for starters, yet almost everyone starts with it. By playing a daily sport to start out you will get more frequent ups and downs, you will start realizing your mistakes, then you will get better. My best advice for beginners, something rarely heeded unfortunately, is to pick the sport you least like and/or know to bet. Betting on a sport is about betting on a sport, not knowing who plays for who and who can do what. That stuff doesn't lead to many winners. Best to pick something you know little about and that way you don't have biases on who you will and won't bet and also you will learn the game from a betting perspective, not a fan's perspective. Even better you hopefully won't spend countless hours wasting time just watching games because you won't be as interested in them. Just take me and baseball. Frankly I hate the game, but I bet far more on it than all other sports combined. Part of that is the schedule, but it also comes from the fact that I abhor the game, but like to bet it. This strategy is for winners though, fact of life is 5-10% can make consistent money at it so in the end if you never aspire to become a big winner at the game, just take it easy and slow, pick something you will stay interested in out of the 3 daily sports, and just give yourself time. Paper picks are ok, but really with offshores now I suggest you bet real money to get a feel for it. With an offshore you can bet $10 or $20 a game, nothing serious, yet you need money on the table eventually to get better. Paper picks are just a different world from real picks, even if the money is small. In the long run your goal should be to go full circle and settle into betting games with a bankroll that doesn't mean that much to you, so you bet with logic, not with your emotion.

Ok enough, good luck, keep Raken's tips in mind and follow my advice about one daily (not football) sport, and then give yourself a year or two of small (but real) bets until you really start expecting some results.