Sports’ betting is not only a popular pastime but a lucrative business as well, with billions of dollars wagered globally each year. There are two main reasons for this. The first, and most obvious one, is the extreme popularity of sports themselves, with millions of players watching and following their favourite sport, whether their passion is football, tennis, golf, baseball, Formula One or a myriad of other games played throughout the world. For many, betting on sports is a natural progression to their enjoyment of them.

The second reason is that betting on sports, at the basic level, is easy and requires limited knowledge. You can place a wager and still win. However, if you want to take your interest in betting a little further, which are the best sports to choose and why?

Research has shown that the best chance of success in betting is to concentrate on one sport only, rather than spread your gambling activity over a number of different sports. With this factor in mind, then, which sports should a gambler want to consider on which to wager? The basic rule is to choose a sport where the success percentage is greater than the odds at which you bet. It is simple to calculate this.

The success percentage represents the number of correct answers expressed as a percentage of the total number of predictions made. Thus, if you make 10 bets, and there are 5 winners, then the success percentage is 50%.

It is then important to understand the odds which are being quoted for a particular outcome. An important point to note here, is that a decimal quota is inversely proportionate to the probability of an event occurring. So, for example, if odds are quoted at 1.6, that is equivalent to a 62.5 % probability (100/1.6).

In this case then, if our success percentage is 50%, and the odds on success are 62.5%, this is not a good sport on which to bet because the probability is that the player will lose money overall.

This can be further illustrated as follows.

If the percentage of success is 75% or above – in other words, out of 10 bets 7 or more are winners – and the odds are 1.5 (i.e. 66%) then players will, on average make money.

Similarly, if the percentage of success is 60% - six out of 10 bets win – and the odds are 2.5 (i.e. 40%) then again, players will be successful on average.

However, if the percentage of success was 60% and the odds were narrower, for example, 1.4 (i.e. 71%), then a player is not likely to make money.

In this instance, making 10 bets of €10 each at odds of 1.4, would result in winnings of €84 (€10*6 wins *1.4 odds). Given that the stake was €60 (€10 bet for each successful bet) then the net gain on the successful bets would be €24. However, it is also important to remember the stake money for the 4 losing bets of €40 (€10 for each losing bet). When this is taken into account, then the player has actually lost €16 in total (€24 - €40), as their profits have not covered their losses.

This type of example should be borne in mind when decide on which sport to bet.

For example, whilst football is the most popular sport and has more money wagered on it than any other sport, it is not necessarily the most attractive from the betting point of view. This is because the odds are complicated by the possibility of a draw, and, furthermore, football is a low scoring game, so the live odds do not vary greatly.

Instead, it is better to choose a sport like tennis (ATP) or basketball where there are many more options to better on the score or variants of it, and where the live odds vary much more. This is especially the case if a player knows a little bit about the sports, the main players, their statistics and performance in tournaments

To really be successful in sports betting, therefore, each player needs to review the success of their own bets and determine in which sport they perform best. That should inform their decision as to where they will place their next bet.