Poker & Betting is not the same as investing in stocks or funds is now commonplace for many. Betting, on the other hand, may be seen in public debates as gambling, or at least not as an investment activity. Public opinion is going wrong here. Betting is a suitable form of investment for anyone but, even if you don’t understand much about it. However, if you want to start betting as a form of investment, then you should start with the basics of betting.
Investing in betting is nothing more than getting a few good “sure hits”. Investing requires patience and preferably hundreds if not several thousand over-odds bets a year that will gradually pile up a return for the betting investor.
How to invest with poker and betting
First you need to decide how big a bankroll you’re ready to invest. We recommend placing at least 500 EUR/USD or equivalent of currency to make it worth the effort and returns.
In betting, you have basically two options to invest your bankroll: Following successful tipsters, or placing bets on your own. By following successful tipsters you will save time and effort from research that you would otherwise have to do yourself. On the other hand, a paid subscription has a cost that you will need to cover from your bankroll, so it doesn’t make sense to use small bets when using a paid tipster service.
In poker, you can either stake other players or play on your own. The choice between outsourcing the play vs. playing yourself is basically the same as in investing in betting: When you stake other players, in most cases they will either get part of the profits or a mark-up in case they cash in tournaments. When you play yourself, you get to keep all the profits. The most successful players, like the pro team of BeastsOfPoker who have won over millions of dollars from online poker, have usually done both: they’re great players and have also successfully staked other players.
Let’s take a look at investment strategies with different sizes of bankrolls in both poker and betting:
Investing with a small bankroll (500-2k)
If the size of your bankroll is less than between 500-2000 euros and you decide to invest in betting, you need to ensure that you don’t overpay handicappers to get results. The best way is to get get started with bankroll of this size acquainted with the best professional handicappers who share their tips without compensation. Picking up these tips for will then create a good starting point for a profitable betting investment. For example, there are several handicappers who share their tips for free on different betting forums.
However, good free tips have their own problems. The highest odds available in the market of the best handicappers usually collapse very quickly after their pick is out. This means there is not much time to place your bet with the highest odds. Comparing odds from different bookmakers is very important for your bottom line here.
In poker, playing with a bankroll of this size is usually not very profitable (except in the sense that you can learn while you play, allowing you to move up in stakes later). A good option instead is to find winning tournament players who play the micro and low stakes. You can find some very profitable tournament players who sell stakes from their games on different poker forums, and some of them don’t take a high mark-up which is important for your returns.
Investing with a medium bankroll (2-10k)
If the stakes are still in the tens or maybe with a maximum of 100 euros per bet (around € 2,000-€ 10,000 in bankroll), then you should definitely take advantage of all the high-quality free tips. However, in this checkout size category, you can already start looking for paid handicapper services. Handicapper services that have a reliable track record can be considered as an aid to your investment.
The more professional the paid tip service is, the more precise are their pick schedules and the better their best odds should last. This is a big advantage compared to the free tips, as catching the best odds compounds over time, resulting in much faster growth of your bankroll. With a medium bankroll, it may not be worthwhile to buy the most expensive tip services on the market even if they are profitable, as the fee for the handicapping service must be taken into account in the investment costs. It’s very hard to pull a positive return for your investment if the picks cost you 3k EUR/USD per season and you’re betting with average stake between 50-100 EUR/USD.
The more +EV bets you find, the more turnover you can get which generates profit with less variance. For example, playing a total of 30 bets worth 100 a day means a turnover of over 100 000 per month – remember this is by playing only with ‘medium bets’! This translates into an opportunity to make a decent amount of money from betting with relatively small bets. That 100k monthly turnover would bring you a profit of 3,000 if your bets return 103% on average.
In poker, a medium sized bankroll can be diversified between multiple players if you take the staking route. If you’re playing yourself, this is where you start to make profits close to what you would get in an average job. Many part-time poker players make a side income of 1-3k a month by playing with a bankroll in the range of 5-10k.
Investing with a large bankroll (+10k)
When you put in a bankroll of over 10k EUR/USD, you have plenty of investing options with both betting and poker. Some lucrative options include staking live tournament players and buying picks from the best horse racing handicappers that cost 300-500 per month. In live tournaments where the buy-in is in the range of 100-300, the fields are often soft and great returns can be achieved by skilled players. Horse racing handicappers are not cheap, but their returns can be very large, often in the range of 110-120% – they come with high variance though, as the odds for the races can go as high as +40!
Conclusion
Both betting and poker are viable investment vehicles if you approach them the right way. You should calculate how much you can spend on picks with betting. With poker it’s important to figure out whether you want to play on your own, or if staking other players is your thing. In both endeavours, patience is a very importance factor, as the value of them will be realized only in the long-term. Whichever way you choose, we wish you the best of luck!
