Many would say that sports betting is a game of luck. However, for the pro bettors, more than luck, it takes skills and experience to beat the odds. These pro bettors are the ones who have claimed hefty amounts of cash just by routine betting. They believe some betting strategies work and could get you to the jackpot.

We’ve jotted down the names of the most successful bettors in history, and so you can see how they become pros in what they do. Under their names are the tips they can share with other bettors so they can replicate them and find success on their own.

Parlay Patz

As early as eighteen, Patz signed up for an offshore sportsbook and started betting. He was explicitly successful in parlay betting, so his friends nicknamed him “Parlay Patz.” His first legal gamble was a $90 bet on Pacquiao and Mayweather’s fight.

In 2019, Patz made the headlines when he won over $600,000 in just three weeks. Patz is heavily into professional, collegiate football, and NFL draft bets. But before he hit the jackpot, he once bet on an offshore sportsbook and won $75,000. However, the sportsbook had insufficient funds for the payout and instead gave him $12,000.

Amid being the betting hero, Patz came to a point where he had to send threats to college and professional athletes before their games so he could influence results. Consequently, the FBI hunted him and faced five years maximum in prison for transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce.

Billy Walters

Today, Walters is known as a businessman and philanthropist. But, he started accumulating wealth in sports betting.

He has spent hundreds of millions for 36 consecutive years of sports betting. He was once a member of the notorious Computer Group, which started using data analysis and complex algorithms to predict sports outcomes. He attributed his success in sports betting to identifying correct information. He also thinks that monumental failures shouldn’t paralyze a bettor.

All successful bettors have don through defeats, which is part of the process. He also believes that winning isn’t about backing the favorites. You shouldn’t get swayed by public opinion and focus more on the data available to you.

Tony Bloom

Many football fans recognize Tony Bloom as the owner of Brighton and Hove Albion soccer clubs in England. However, he was once a prolific poker player and sports bettor. His net worth in playing poker is around $2.2 million. His biggest win in the table games was during the Australasian Poker Championships, where he took home £180,000.

The biggest turning point in his betting career was when he backed France during the 1998 World Cup at Stade de France, Paris.

He convinced a bookmaker Victor Chandler to bet all the bookmaker’s winnings. The actual figures were not disclosed to the public, but it was believed to be the biggest win in football. France won 3-0, making Bloom the most relevant sports bettor then.

Bloom later revealed that he used value bets. This refers to finding an edge in a bookmaker’s lines. You should study and understand markets and sportsbook margins to do this successfully.

You can benefit from this edge by exploiting the faulty sports betting lines or margins as you bet responsibly.

Steve Fezzik

Fezzik is a math enthusiast, and from this fondness for numbers, he has become one of the greatest sports bettors and handicappers. He’s a statistician and leverages his mathematical ability to beat the odds.

With his mathematical abilities, he knows that the bookmakers’ opinion doesn’t influence the betting lines. Instead, it’s a numerical balance where the oddsmakers think they can even the bet volumes on each party of the bid.

 

Consequently, the bookmaker can collect sufficient money from one side to compensate for the other, but there’s still money left for profit. This fact made him think of a way to manipulate this.

Same with Bloom, he would take advantage of flawed betting lines and not depend on the game’s outcome but on minor details such as total points.

Bill Benter

Bill Benter, like majority of bettors we’ve mentioned here, has a knack for counting numbers and analyzing data.

He gained momentum in betting when he mastered card counting. Later, he joined a team of pro bettors with exceptional card-counting abilities. However, casino houses in Las Vegas later blocklisted their team.

Knowing he couldn’t continue playing card games, he ventured into horse racing and beat Hong Kong races. Benter and his team cracked the code of unpredictable sports. Forty years later, he amassed a net worth of $1 billion with the Benter Algorithm.

He reviewed many horse racing statistics, betting systems, and academic papers and later studied statistics to develop complex software to help them win big in horse racing.

Conclusion

Sports betting has many uncontrollable variables that bettors can’t get a hold of. However, for the pros on our list, becoming skilled in sports betting isn’t an overnight study.

It will take years and years of experience to get there. But greatness comes after overcoming countless defeats. That’s how strategic bettors survive in the unpredictable turn of events in the industry.