What Are The Best Sports To Bet On?

What Are The Best Sports To Bet On?

The problem with asking ‘what is the best sport to bet on?’ is that people bet for different reasons. Many of us bet for the love of the sport, some of us bet to make watching the game more exciting, and the remainder - they bet for profit.

We’re going to focus on that last group, those that want to profit on sports betting. While all betting sites are looking to make profits of their own, there are some sports that stand out as being just a little more profitable than others. Let’s take a look at them!

Factors Affecting Betting Profitability  

There are a whole bunch of factors that affect most profitable sports to bet on. Some of them are completely within your control, and as with many things in the world of gambling, some of them aren’t. Below are the three main considerations when picking the best sports to bet on.

Sportsbook Hold

Looking for a sportsbook that has a low hold is never a bad idea for long term profitability. The hold refers to the percentage of money a sportsbook makes on bets, by skewing the probability ratio to over 100%. If your sportsbook has a hold of more than 5% on most betting lines, you might want to find another one!

Accuracy

If you’re not interested in the sport then you won’t want to study it. If you don’t want to study it, then you’ll struggle to make informed bets. Everybody knows that (outside of following tipsters) making informed bets is the only way you’re going to see returns. So, consider how much you enjoy the sport, how much you know about it - and how accurate that’s going to allow you to be.

Return on Investment

The final one on the list is an incredibly important one when it comes to the math behind finding the most profitable sports leagues. Return on Investment. The best way to look at this, is to find the most profitable sports, then look at their most profitable teams - and see which would make the most money with the same investment. The results for this are pretty interesting, so we’ll get into them below.

Best Sports to Bet On

When betting on the moneyline, the below sports have historically offered the largest return on investment for the top five teams (ranked by ROI).

• College Football: this is far and away the highest return on investment sport when it comes to moneyline betting. However, it is worth noting that this is likely because of the small number of games and the unpredictability of the sport. 
• NFL: next on the list is the NFL and this makes sense. This is a profitable sport to bet on, so sportsbooks need to make a smaller percentage hold. 
• College Basketball: again, like college football, college basketball can be unpredictable which accounts for the above average ROI.
• NBA: basketball is next, but remember, the ROI calculations only work for the most profitable five teams, not the ones that won the most!
• NHL: the NHL comes next thanks to some surprise winners with long odds.
• MLB: finishing us off is baseball!