What is Value Betting? Everything You Need to Know

As online sports gambling continues to gain popularity worldwide, more users are joining the fold. The most established bookmakers process millions of wagers each month on sports and competitions, including the National Football League, Australian Rules Football, and the English Premier League. Fixtures come thick and fast throughout the year, and bookmakers love to offer odds, promotions, and specials.

If you haven’t gambled on sports in the past or have only a small amount of experience in the sportsbook field, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. For active users, online betting is fast-paced and great fun, and it gives followers an opportunity to use their passion for sport to target a profit. But if you lack vital betting experience, it can be a confusing industry filled with jargon, strange odds, and complicated markets.

Fear not. Your dedicated team at Whop is here to help. In this article, we shine the spotlight on value betting, explaining why it’s important to find the value each time you gamble and where you’ll discover the best odds available on your pick. In short, we have everything you need to know about shopping for value, and by the end of this page, you’ll be ready to claim your share of the most generous odds.

Why Bookies Offer Value

Before diving into the thick of our article explaining value in betting and why it’s important, let’s pause briefly to explain why bookies offer value in the first place. Surely, it would be a fairer and better-understood market if every sportsbook offered the same odds. Perhaps, but it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.

Bookmakers offer different odds on the same sports, competitions, and selections to help them stand out from the crowd, especially when betting on popular events. If all sportsbooks offer +500 on the favorite to win this year’s Kentucky Derby, but one app trades at +750, you’re far more likely to take the bigger odds. By moving the price slightly, bookies can get your attention and encourage you to gamble with them rather than at the competition. It’s a balancing act as traders must get it right between offering the most generous price to keep bettors happy and protecting their profit margin to appease the board.

Creating a price that’s both value to the customer and attractive to the business is no mean feat. It’s not an easy job being a betting trader, but it’s great news for gamblers. By understanding why bookies offer value and finding the best odds, you can get more for your stake each time you wager on sports results. 

Bookies must offer competitive odds to secure a steady stream of new customers while ensuring their loyal members keep coming back for more. This is a smart approach, but you can use their generosity and eagerness to please against them.

How to Find Value When Gambling

Let’s now investigate how you can get that lovely value each time you wager on sports. Where will you find the best odds, and is there a shortcut that allows you to spend more time betting and watching sports and less time studying betting odds and comparing sites?

You’ll be glad to hear there is a shortcut, and it’s simple to follow if you have a modern smartphone or desktop computer. To find the best odds, you must compare the offers of every major sportsbook and gamble with the app offering the most attractive number. But there are hundreds, if not thousands, of bookies operating in your area, each promising customers the best service. How do you find the one that’s telling the truth?

The easiest and quickest way to locate the market’s top offer is to use a respected betting odds comparison app. Browse the pages and find the bet you wish to make. You’ll see the odds offered by every major sportsbook, with the biggest offer in bold, making it easier to find. The bookmaker with the bold odds is the one you should gamble with, and that’s the case each time you wish to wager on sports. Never take less of a price just for convenience, even if the difference in odds seems small.

That’s why it pays to open an online betting account with as many bookmakers as you feel comfortable with. The more sportsbook accounts you have, the easier it will be to access the best odds. The other benefit of holding multiple betting accounts is you’ll land a welcome bonus with each firm you join. These bonuses include bet credits, risk-free bets, cashback, profit boosts, enhanced place terms, and more. You can give it a try today by researching the best gambling apps in your area and registering an account.

Examples of Value in Sports Betting Markets

Let’s now look at some examples of value using real-life sports betting markets taken from a live gambling environment.

Our first example comes from the English Premier League, as Manchester City played Arsenal on the final day of March 2024. Man City was the home team and the betting favorite to claim all three points. Let's imagine that you placed a bet on Man City.

When checking your sportsbook, you see the Man City win is trading at -120. Pep Guardiola’s team are expected to win, will be cheered on by the home support, and have a fantastic recent record against the Gunners. You lay your stake, betting $100 on a Man City win, returning $183.33 for your $100 spent, leaving a tidy profit of $83. That’s great but wait a minute. Don’t give yourself a pat on the back just yet.

If you had properly researched the industry before parting with your hard-earned cash, you would’ve seen a rival bookie offering the same bet at -110, slightly better than the odds you accepted. If you had bet at better odds, your $100 stake would’ve won you $90.91, as opposed to the $83.33. That’s a difference of $7.58, which is small on its own but adds up over the course of a season or a year of betting on sports.

The Dangers of Ignoring Value When Betting

What are some of the dangers of ignoring the value when betting or of being lazy and taking the first price you see without questioning whether better is available?

The most obvious danger is that you will lose profits by taking the smaller odds. In the example above, the difference was $7.58. Although that seems like an insignificant amount, especially when playing with $100 stakes, that cash is better in your pocket than the bookies'. They make a return on every bet placed, regardless of whether it wins or loses. The traders are already in a strong position; why would you give them anything extra?

Those small price differences accumulate over the year and could be the difference between making a profit and suffering a loss. Just think: a few more of those near $8 additions to your winnings could drive you across the line and into profit. This will also help boost your confidence around betting and show you fully understand how online gambling works. Take small steps to make huge progress.

Best Value Sports, Markets, and Bets

We now know why bookies offer value, where to find it, and why it’s important to grab your share. But do certain sports offer better value more often? You bet they do.

To get the most from your online betting, it’s essential you know how traders work. The sports that generate the most income for the business are soccer, football, horse racing, basketball, greyhounds, and boxing. There are others, but those six stand head and shoulders above the competition. 

When gambling on these popular sports, traders are more likely to take a risk with their odds to attract new players and encourage current members to return. They look beyond the short-term goal of offering a higher price than the competition and understand that by using generous odds to sign you up, they attract players who may become lifetime members, placing multiple bets on several sports.

Study the most popular sports at your chosen gambling app(s) and hunt for value when huge fixtures come around. Use the bookie’s marketing plan against them to continually secure a more handsome return.

Smartphone vs Desktop: Which is Best for Betting?

When betting on sports and hunting the value, is it better to gamble using your laptop or smartphone? Both share the same sports, odds, promotions, and markets, but apps have something sites don’t. You can gamble on sports from anywhere in the country using your smartphone. Simply take your device from your pocket, log in, find your selection, and gamble. It’s no more difficult than that.

Another positive of using your mobile handset is that you will always get the top price. Suppose one bookie is offering +200 on your team when every other site is +100. When betting on the website, you must wait until you’re back at your desk to gamble. If you’re at work, you’ll likely have to wait until you get home. By then, the game could be over, or the price could change, and you could miss it. But that’s not an issue with smartphone betting.

You can use your smartphone to bet when and where you want, meaning you’re always just a few clicks away from the great odds you deserve. 

Become a Better Bettor with Whop

There you have it—everything we think is worth knowing about getting the best value each time you bet. We covered why bookies offer different odds, the quickest way to find the best price, and which sports offer the biggest value. Now, you’re ready to use your newfound knowledge to help you profit from online sportsbook gambling.

If we pick the most important feature of this article to remind you before signing off, it would be not to think the difference in odds is too minimal to bother. Small prices can quickly add up to large profits, and getting as much cash for your stake is the name of the game.

Want to elevate your predictions? Sports pick communities are great for bettors eager to improve their gambling knowledge. You’ll find many Telegram channels and Discord groups run by industry experts who share their experiences, advice, and betting suggestions. Follow these groups for picks and a greater understanding of the gambling industry.

Whop is home to the best sports pick communities on the internet. Knowledge is power, so why not learn from the cappers and place educated sportsbook bets?