Winning Percentage for Sports Bettors

This is the time of year when I have very mixed emotions. It is my favorite time of year because I love the NFL playoffs and of course the Super Bowl is the ultimate game. However it also signals that the end of the football betting season will soon be over.

Last week a received an e-mail from a reader wanting to know what percentage of games you need to win in order to make money when betting football and what percentage would constitute a good handicapper.

When you bet football in casino sports books you have to pay a percentage on losing bets. This is called the vig. The odds are 11-10 which means if you want to place a bet on a game to win $100. It would cost you $110. If you win you would collect $210. (Your $110 original wager and your $100 winnings.) Now to be a successful handicapper you have to make up for the vig on the losing bets so to breaks even you need to have a win percentage of 52.4 percent. If you can achieve a long time winning percentage of 55 percent it is considered very good. Anything over 60 percent is excellent however most bettors don't sustain this percentage over the long run.