It’s January, which means that most people all over the globe are making New Year’s resolutions. While most folks will focus on getting out of debt or losing a few pounds, sports bettors are setting goals that will hopefully lead to a more profitable 2025.

For those who are new to my column, I’ve been betting on sports almost daily since 2001. To kick off the New Year, I wanted to share with you some of the lessons I’ve learned along my journey of becoming a profitable sports investor. Here are 5 tips to make more money in 2025!

1. Be Obsessive about Finding the Best Price

This is something that has made and saved me a ton of cash over the last few years. Back when I first started betting sports, I only wagered with one sportsbook, and I shudder to think how much money I wasted by not having multiple outs. Price shopping is something that isn’t discussed enough in the sports betting space.

So, how many sportsbooks should you have at your disposal? The answer is as many as humanly possible. If you don’t have accounts with all of the legal sportsbooks in your state, you are missing out on getting the best of the number and on more juicy signup bonuses.

If you’re worried that checking prices will be too time-consuming, don’t be. Modern-day technology makes it easier than ever to price shop. EatWatchBet offers a free odds screen that will quickly tell you which sportsbook in your state is offering the best side or total. Every half a point matters if you’re serious about turning a profit in sports betting!

2. Track Your Bets

This is something a mentor of mine beat into my head early in my sports betting career and I’m so thankful he did. Tracking your wagers will make you a better sports bettor over the long haul. Having the ability to go back and study your previous bets will let you know where your strengths and weaknesses are as a sports investor.

For example, I have over 6,000 tracked plays since 2018. A few years ago, I noticed that my long-term ROI in the NBA is only around 1%. My ROI in almost every other sport is in the 3% range. With this info in mind, it’s easy to see why I don’t spend as much time capping the Association anymore.

If I didn’t track my plays, I’d still be investing a ton of time betting a sport that barely returns any profit. The point is this: Tracking your plays allows you to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Think of it as a built-in SWOT analysis for sports betting!

3. Almost Never Buy Points

This is something I had to learn the hard way and it cost me several units of profit in the early going. It’s embarrassing to admit this, but I used to buy at least half a point all the time back in my early days. A few bad beats by the hook drove me into thinking that I could somehow avoid that heartache by paying -120 juice.

Let’s talk about the problem with that line of thinking. Our human brains lie to us all the time. We remember the bad beats by the hook but forget all the times we got lucky and won by the hook. The breaks really do even out over the long haul, so don’t pay double the juice. It’ll only cost you lots of units.

Need more proof that buying points is a waste? Let’s math things up a bit in here! At standard -110 juice, a sports bettor has to win 52.4% of their wagers to break even. However, if we buy the hook for -120, the break-even rate moves to 54.5%. That’s moving the target 2.1% in the wrong direction!

A lot of folks will say to me, “But Mikey Nobs it’s only 2.1%!” However, these well-meaning people don’t understand that we’re in a business with very tight margins.

For example, my ROI since 2018 over those 6,000 plays we talked about is 3%. If I took -120 juice instead of -110 on all of those plays, my ROI would have dropped to less than 1%. You give up too much of your edge when you buy points!

Okay, I’ll admit that I will on rare occasions make an exception with the key numbers of 3 and 7 in football since those numbers come into play so often. However, on the rare occasion that I buy the hook, I never pay more than -120. Having access to a wide variety of sportsbooks means that I can usually find the hook without paying for it.

4. Focus More on Player Props

I’m an old-school sports bettor, so it took me a bit to come around to wagering on player props. However, I’m incredibly thankful that my boss taught me how lucrative they can be back in 2021.

Check this out! My overall ROI for all plays is 3% but that number shoots up to 10% on player prop bets. That’s even with the subpar NFL season I’ve had! How cool is that?

Why is the player prop market so lucrative? I’m glad you asked! It’s because the sportsbooks put a low betting limit on them, which leads to it being a much less efficient market than standard sides or totals. This is especially true in college football or college basketball player props!

5. Take More Days Off

I placed 880 bets in 2024, so you may find it shocking that I included this tip in my list of New Years Betting Resolutions. However, the longer I bet on sports the more I realize how important time off is. I took more days off last year and it was a big reason why we profited 76 units.

Grinding away at stat research to find positive expectation wagers is more mentally draining than most folks realize. You need to give your brain a nice reset and stay away from the screen as much as you can. This practice will allow you to stay sharp and weather the highs and lows that come with sports investing.

How do I implement this? I take 1-2 days per week where I don’t bet on anything, and I watch no sports of any kind. Think of it as a Sabbath from sports betting. I know it sounds crazy, but it’ll pay more dividends than you realize. Thanks for reading and best of luck in 2025!