Originally posted on 04/12/2014:

Quote Originally Posted by PartyGuy1118 View Post
I have bet before and all that but I wanna see if I can make profit and help with my living expenses. It's gotta be possible to do this for a living for a few months right?
Possible, yes. Keep in mind you're not the first person that's thought sports betting could be an easy way to make a living.

If you take a hundred bettors that have decent familiarity with sports betting (and by that I mean at least 3 years and experience across several sports), and watch them bet a season of baseball (or whatever sport you like), 65% of them will probably still lose a substantial part of their bankroll due to a lack of discipline in selecting games or improper bankroll management (bet size too large and/or too much of it in play at one time), 30% will hover around neutral, not losing a lot, but not winning much either. Then that last 5% might make enough profit that they can justify withdrawing enough money throughout the course of the season to help with living expenses. However the guys that are doing that are NOT working off a $1600 bankroll, and they're NOT expecting to hit 65%.

For a $1600 roll, I'd use a $40 unit size (2.5%) and then recalculate the bet size if you get up to $2000 ($50) or down to $1200 ($30). I would also flat bet 1u per play, and not have more than 20% of your roll in play at a time. If you can maintain that level of discipline through at least 100 bets, win or lose, you might have potential. If you can't, then your chances of making money doing this are virtually zero.