If you are a professional grade sports bettor, lets say betting upwards of $5000.00 a game in your chosen sport, you will need to stick to the
the 'large liquidity' markets. This will limit you mainly to the large sports betting markets like the NFL, NBA, MLB, and the premier domestic soccer leagues like the Premiership in the UK, La Liga in Spain, Serie A in Italy, the Bundesliga in Germany etc. The NHL does provide opportunities but limits are often much lower, which can make it tough to get your money on at the right price or spread.
The problem with these major sports betting markets is that the edge to the player is small and often hard to find because many games are pretty much priced up correctly. If you do not think that you have an edge, then at the professional level there is no point placing a bet. The advantage of the major sports betting markets is that you can of course get your money on because the sportsbooks will take decent sized bets.
Add to that the fact that you can bet up to the maximum at more than one sportsbook then you will understand that getting a $20,000.00 bet on isn't too much of a problem, even if many sportsbooks operate a 5 -10K ceiling on customer bets.
The professionals make their living by betting big, on a relatively small edge / advantage and getting as much turnover, in terms of numbers of games bet, as possible.
Serious money can be made on sports betting, especially when it comes to soccer. The US sports market is not actually as big as we Americans like to think it is. Compared to soccer, which has a global betting base from China to Argentina, Australia to Greenland - taking in all the continents, our sports betting markets pale in significance. Some Asian bookmakers take sports bets of $100,000 - $200,000 and more.
The fact is however, that most people are recreational bettors and are happy betting a few bucks to a few hundred bucks and for those who are prepared
to do a bit of research and look at the less 'mainstream' sports betting markets - they can make good profit margins on the less popular or secondary sports and sports leagues - basically you should aim to become an expert in your chosen sports niche.
Odds compilers can't hope to cover every sports betting event or be experts in every sport. So a recreational bettor can get a substantial edge by specializing in sports such as lower league soccer, college football, college basketball, darts, snooker, handball, athletics and the like. It may not make the bettor rich because the sportsbook will not generally take a lot of money on this type of sports betting event, but he/she could get a much better edge and therefore a bigger return on their money in percentage terms.
You need to make your choice, if you are ready for professional sports betting status or if you prefer to focus on the fun, recreational side, but either way there is good money to be made.
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