Bovada is our top choice for online poker play from the United States. Their poker.bovada.lv website operates on the Bodog Poker network which helps provide a ton of player traffic and extremely soft. Many speculators like this site as it offers one stop shopping for both sports betting and poker playing. Although Mainly known for its sportsbook Betonline.ag is an 'ALL IN ONE' Gambling site.
What's a better way to gamble? Are you better off playing poker, or would you make more money betting on sports?
It's an interesting question with a lot of factors. I once read in a book about gambling professionally that successful sports bettors make more money than any other kind of gambler, including poker players.
But that's an over-simplification. Some people are better at playing poker than they'll ever be at betting on football games.
The purpose of this post is to compare both types of gambling and draw some conclusions about which might be a better fit for you.
The Biggest Similarity
The biggest similarity between betting on sports and playing poker is that you can theoretically do so professionally. Everyone knows that a percentage of poker players make their living from the game. A lot of people also know that a percentage of sports bettors also make a living from their activities.
We have some statistics about the percentage of poker players who are actually profitable, and it's a smaller number than you might think. Somewhere between 85% and 95% of all poker players lose money over time.
That makes the percentage of players who are true poker pros quite small indeed. We don't have the same data for sports bettors, but my guess is that it's a similar percentage, if not smaller.
In either case, the profitable poker player and the profitable sports bettor looks for inequities in the market. Then, he pounces on those inequities to get a mathematical advantage.
Another Big Similarity
The other big similarity is that, if you're going to profit long-term from either activity, you need a bankroll big enough to withstand bad luck. Both poker and sports betting outcomes can be random. You're not playing chess, here, and you need enough money to avoid going broke in the short run.
Think about it this way. The casinos have an advantage over the gamblers who show up there. But some gamblers come home having won a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars. This doesn't hurt the casinos' profits at all. They have plenty of losers who are covering your winnings.
But if the casino didn't have enough money to stay in the game for the long run, it couldn't stay profitable. The amount of bankroll you need for each type of gambling is similar.
If you're playing poker, you should never buy in for more than 5% of your bankroll. This means that if you're going to buy in at a table for $100, you should have at least $2000 in your total poker bankroll.
Sports Betting And Poker Sites To Play
If you're betting on sports, you should never wager more than 1% of your bankroll on a single game. If you're really aggressive and confident, you might risk 2% of your bankroll on a single sports bet.
This means that if you want to bet $100 per game, you should have a bankroll of $10,000. And that bankroll is money you've set aside specifically to gamble with. It needs to be money you don't need for any other purpose.
Both Types of Gambling Cross Borders
Until recently, this wasn't true. For the most part, a pro poker player was limited to playing with his local buddies. He certainly wasn't playing internationally on any kind of regular basis.
And if you're betting on a football game, you're usually dealing with a neighborhood bookie that you met in a bar somewhere.
But with the rise of the internet, you can now tap into a worldwide marketplace of competitors. Regardless of where you're from, you can still find websites to play poker for real or bet real money on sporting events.
Those companies, unless you live in one of the tiny handful of US states which legalized online gambling, operate internationally by necessity.
If you're going to play poker or bet on sports on the internet, you need to make sure you're comfortable dealing with international customers and competitors.
Online Poker Is Dying as a Form of Professional Gambling
If you're an average poker player, you can probably forget about making any money playing poker on the internet. Even if you're good, with a tight aggressive approach, you're facing all kinds of collusion and bots. Your opponents probably have more data about your poker playing tendencies than you do, and they know how to exploit those tendencies.
Online sports betting is tough, too, but for different reasons. Internet-based bookmakers charge a higher vigorish than most traditional sportsbooks. This makes it harder to win in the long run.
Think about the kind of win rate you need to have just to break even if you're having to risk $120 to win $100, which is common online. Then, compare that with the $110 or $105 you'd have to risk playing in a traditional, brick and mortar sportsbook.
Another Big Similarity
The other big similarity is that, if you're going to profit long-term from either activity, you need a bankroll big enough to withstand bad luck. Both poker and sports betting outcomes can be random. You're not playing chess, here, and you need enough money to avoid going broke in the short run.
Think about it this way. The casinos have an advantage over the gamblers who show up there. But some gamblers come home having won a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars. This doesn't hurt the casinos' profits at all. They have plenty of losers who are covering your winnings.
But if the casino didn't have enough money to stay in the game for the long run, it couldn't stay profitable. The amount of bankroll you need for each type of gambling is similar.
If you're playing poker, you should never buy in for more than 5% of your bankroll. This means that if you're going to buy in at a table for $100, you should have at least $2000 in your total poker bankroll.
Sports Betting And Poker Sites To Play
If you're betting on sports, you should never wager more than 1% of your bankroll on a single game. If you're really aggressive and confident, you might risk 2% of your bankroll on a single sports bet.
This means that if you want to bet $100 per game, you should have a bankroll of $10,000. And that bankroll is money you've set aside specifically to gamble with. It needs to be money you don't need for any other purpose.
Both Types of Gambling Cross Borders
Until recently, this wasn't true. For the most part, a pro poker player was limited to playing with his local buddies. He certainly wasn't playing internationally on any kind of regular basis.
And if you're betting on a football game, you're usually dealing with a neighborhood bookie that you met in a bar somewhere.
But with the rise of the internet, you can now tap into a worldwide marketplace of competitors. Regardless of where you're from, you can still find websites to play poker for real or bet real money on sporting events.
Those companies, unless you live in one of the tiny handful of US states which legalized online gambling, operate internationally by necessity.
If you're going to play poker or bet on sports on the internet, you need to make sure you're comfortable dealing with international customers and competitors.
Online Poker Is Dying as a Form of Professional Gambling
If you're an average poker player, you can probably forget about making any money playing poker on the internet. Even if you're good, with a tight aggressive approach, you're facing all kinds of collusion and bots. Your opponents probably have more data about your poker playing tendencies than you do, and they know how to exploit those tendencies.
Online sports betting is tough, too, but for different reasons. Internet-based bookmakers charge a higher vigorish than most traditional sportsbooks. This makes it harder to win in the long run.
Think about the kind of win rate you need to have just to break even if you're having to risk $120 to win $100, which is common online. Then, compare that with the $110 or $105 you'd have to risk playing in a traditional, brick and mortar sportsbook.
Either way, you can make a living with either type of gambling. With poker, you need to put in more hours sitting at the table grinding it out. In fact, depending on which game you play and at what limits, you'll face a much lower variance with poker than you will with sports betting.
After all, when you're playing poker, you're making multiple bets every hour. Compare that to a sports bettor who's making bigger bets but is limited to betting just once a day or even just once a week.
Another way to look at this difference is in terms of your probability of winning a bet. In poker, you can fold until you find yourself in a situation where you have a 65% to 80% probability of winning, then bet heavily when you're in that situation.
Poker Online Betting
You will rarely, if ever, find yourself placing a sports bet where you have that probability of winning. The best sports bettors in the world are thrilled with a win ratio of between 53% and 57%.
When you're winning a lower percentage of bets, your variance increases, because you will unavoidably lose more bets over the long run.
What's a Good Return on Investment?
Your return on investment is the amount you've won compared to the amount you've risked. The higher that percentage is, the better.
In poker, return on investment is usually used by tournament players to measure how well they're doing. Realistically, the best poker players in the world are lucky to see a return on investment of 25% to 35%, which is an impressive number. (Compare that with the kind of ROI you'd see on a savings bond.)
In sports betting, your return on investment will almost surely be in the 5% to 15% range, and that's if you're one of the elite.
Return on investment isn't the only way to measure how successful you'll be at a given gambling activity, but it's good to track it and be aware of the difference.
Conclusion
Which is better to bet on? Poker or sports? This post doesn't provide a definitive answer, because that answer varies too much from one person to another.
If you're lousy at poker but good at sports betting, it's obvious which kind of gambling you should do. The reverse holds true, too.
If you're good at both, you should do both. Many professional poker players are also pro sports bettors. What about you? Which activity are you good at betting on?
Leave me a comment and let me know.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The Ohio state legislature failed at passing a sports betting bill last session and doesn't have any legislation currently in the works to legalize it in the current session. Regardless, the state's governor believes that it's coming soon.
In a press conference Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine said that legalized sports betting is 'inevitable,' while alluding to the fact that his citizens are either betting in neighboring states or on unregulated offshore online books.
'Sports betting is already in Ohio. We are just not regulating it,' said DeWine. 'This is just something that I think is inevitable and it's coming to Ohio.'
The House passed a sports betting bill last year, but it ultimately died in the Senate. Even without another bill circulating currently, DeWine went on to say that legislators are 'working that process' and that he will weigh in on any proposal at the current time.
What Is The Best Site To Bet On Sports
Ohio is surrounded by states with legal sports betting and DeWine could be worried about tax dollars leaving the state. The same argument was used by a pro-gambling group that successfully pushed for expanded gambling in Nebraska.
Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia and Michigan all have expanded gambling markets and legal sports betting of some sort. Michigan and Pennsylvania have all forms of gaming both online and at brick-and-mortar establishments.
Kentucky, Ohio's neighbor to the south, is the only state that it shares a border with that doesn't have sports betting. The state's governor Andy Beshear, however, was elected in part because of his pro-gambling campaign. Recently, he has been outspoken about bringing sports betting to the state.
DeWine's comments don't necessarily mean that any legislation will come through, but when a politician makes a decisive statement like this, it holds some weight. Last December, a Connecticut lawmaker said sports betting was a lock to come to the state in 2021. The government agreed to terms on a sports betting agreement with one of the two major tribes Tuesday afternoon.
Sportsbook Poker Ag
