Whether it is the professional handicapper, or the casual sports betting player, the ultimate goal is to win, which is obviously the natural reason for playing in the first place. As the great NFL head coach Herm Edwards once said, “you play to win the game”, and regardless of whether it is $10 or $100 that you wager, it is never fun to lose. While it can be fun to play games and talk about sports with your friends, some people actually handicap sports for a living, and while that may not be a preference for everybody that signs up online, to consider the methods that the professionals use makes sense since they do it for a living. One of the main factors for success that the casual player always seems to overlook is the idea of playing as an investment rather than a challenge of skill or knowledge, and that is the most common reason for failure.

While it is understandable that players might want to outsmart their friends and the pay head bookies and show their friends just how great they are at what they are doing, the best way to approach betting on sports is to treat it as a business investment. Just like the stock market, there will be days that certain stocks are destined to rise, while others will fall, and no stock is always headed in the same direction. Establishing a bankroll to invest with prevents the player from ever going in to a bigger hole than they can afford, while also keeping it business rather than personal. No matter how good the player is they are bound to lose sometimes, so managing the money is key to sports betting as an investment.