7 Sports Betting Tools That Will Help You Win
Outlier Team
Sports betting used to involve a lot of manual calculations. As technology has advanced, a lot of that mathematical burden has been shifted towards online tools that can not only get the job done, but do it faster and more efficiently.
If you’re looking for a helpful hand, here are the best sports betting analytics tools out there along with our recommendations for which brands and sites to use.
Odds Comparison Tool
If you’re new to sports betting, you’ve probably heard someone tell you that you should always shop around for the best odds. Of course, that sounds easier than it sometimes might be in practice. The challenge here is that if you’re doing this manually, then opening up multiple tabs on your browser, getting logged in everywhere and eyeballing the lines one at a time can feel like a lot of work.
The efficient way to do this is to rely on an odds comparison tool. Outlier has one for our customers and that will make this a much more comfortable process. To start, Outlier pulls in the odds from several books and puts them on one screen for you. You don’t have to examine each site and see what the best odds are; this tool will flag the best odds on whichever side you’re looking at. The odds that are being pulled in are up to date up to the second, so you’re always going to get a fresh look at what’s happening in the market.
Shopping for the best odds is important. Save yourself the time by relying on automation to get this done, so that you can be more efficient.
Recommended Odds Comparison Tool: Outlier
Betting Tracker
There are those who treat sports betting as a fun, recreational activity. If that’s where you’re at, there’s no great benefit to using a betting tracking tool. Just know your general limits, go out and have some fun. However, if you do feel like you can win at sports betting in the long run and want to treat this more like a business, you have to start tracking your moves. That means finding a betting tracking tool that will allow you to input your bets, monitor them and see where your success is coming from.
The manual, more old school way of doing this is with an Excel sheet. Simply open up a new file and create a ledger where you track the bet, the sport, the sportsbook, the odds, the amount wagered and whether you won or lost. The challenge with this is that nowadays, there are more efficient ways to do this. Tracking it manually and then mining the data for trends later on will be quite time consuming.
A better way is to use a betting tracker tool like Pikkit. All you have to do is sign into your sports betting accounts through the app and then it will reel in all of the data for you. Then you’ll be able to see all sorts of trends and make decisions based on that. For example, if you see that you’re making good money with baseball but losing with football, that’s a strong tell as to what you should focus your time on. Or if you have great success with single bets but lose almost all of your parlays, that data will support ditching parlays from your strategy.
Great news (maybe the greatest):
I'm on @pikkitsports. If you want to see what I'm on every day, just follow me over there. Feels right.
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/w5wiNm77s4 pic.twitter.com/0q5JyjKVio
— John Hyslop (@sloprules) March 15, 2023
Whatever the way you choose to do this, make sure that you do, in fact, engage in tracking your bets if you want to take sports betting seriously.
Recommended Bet Tracking Tool: Pikkit
Whether you’re someone who avoids social media like the plague or records daily TikTok dances with your family, you’ll want to have a Twitter account. The reality is that Twitter is where sports betting news, conversations and picks happen, and you want to be a part of it. It’s a fantastic resource and if you’re not plugged in, it will likely impact your success rate with sports betting.
In terms of breaking news, there is no faster source than Twitter right now. That means that when a player is announced out of the lineup by a leading sports reporter or the team directly, you’ll want to be following, so that you can make your bets accordingly. If you’re waiting for the news to break on the ESPN television network, you’re going to be minutes or hours behind the curve until they share the news.
Nathaniel Hackett as a play caller
offensive rank & EPA/play:
2013 BUF – #25 offense, -0.08
2014 BUF – #27 offense, -0.07
2016 JAX – #24 offense, -0.07
2017 JAX – #12 offense, -0.01
2018 JAX – #29 offense, -0.16
2022 DEN* – #31 offense, -0.10*gave up play calling after Wk 10
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 15, 2023
In terms of picks, conversation or just other useful nuggets, Twitter is the place to be. Tons of accounts post useful trends and data that will help you make decisions. There are accounts that break down film and strategy, and evaluate how players are developing. That’s useful to keep an eye on. And then there’s a whole world of #GamblingTwitter where people make picks before games, adjustments in-game and talk about different futures they like. Being a part of this and following along will fully immerse you in the sports betting environment.
Recommended Tool: Twitter Official App
Calculators
There are a number of calculators that you’ll want to get familiar with in your early sports betting journey. Most commonly, you’ll want to know about a hedge calculator and a risk-free bet calculator.
A hedge calculator is a tool that allows you to compute the exact amount of money you need to put on the other side to reach an equilibrium. For example, if you have a bonus and want to hedge it to ensure yourself a profit, what’s the perfect wager on the other side to maximize it? A hedge calculator will tell you. If you have a $50 bet at +120 and then the odds on the other side are -110, you punch those figures into a basic hedge calculator and it will tell you the amount to bet on the other side. That number ensures that you have the same profit regardless of outcome.
A risk-free bet calculator is similar to a hedge calculator but the math is slightly different. In this case, you’re not betting cash on both sides, so you have to account for that. A risk-free bet only pays you out the winnings; you don’t get your stake back. While the risk-free bet calculator will mostly look and function like a hedge calculator, it takes into account that notable difference. For example, if you have a $50 risk-free bet and you have odds of +500 on one side and odds of -600 on the other, the calculator will tell you exactly how much to bet at -600 to achieve equilibrium regardless of the outcome.
A risk-free bet calculator is similar to a hedge calculator but the math is slightly different. In this case, you’re not betting cash on both sides, so you have to account for that. A risk-free bet only pays you out the winnings; you don’t get your stake back. While the risk-free bet calculator will mostly look and function like a hedge calculator, it takes into account that notable difference. For example, if you have a $50 risk-free bet and you have odds of +500 on one side and odds of -600 on the other, the calculator will tell you exactly how much to bet at -600 to achieve equilibrium regardless of the outcome.
There are some other tools like a parlay calculator that you’ll probably come across but that’s not all that useful nowadays. There was a time where it was helpful to have a site to crunch the numbers for you and that’s when this tool was created. However, You can simply input your parlay at any sportsbook and it will calculate the payout for you; you don’t need a separate tool in most cases. However, for things like hedging and maximizing risk-free bets, you will want to have those handy at all times.
Recommended Tool: Rotowire
Odds Converters (Decimal/Fraction/American)
One simple tool you might need from time to time is an odds converter. Nowadays, almost every sportsbook lets you toggle the odds from decimal to fraction to American. When you’re logged into your account at the sportsbook (sometimes you don’t even have to be logged in), you’ll see settings or a dropdown where you can switch from one to the other.
There will be times when you’re stuck doing a comparison and this type of tool is helpful. This will often come up when you’re speaking to a friend or having a discussion in a betting forum, and the other person uses Decimal odds as their go-to and you use something else. Simply head over there and punch in the odds in whatever format you have and it will convert it into the other two styles. It’s quick and simple, and a good way to translate one type of odds into another.
Recommended Tool: Ace Odds
Public Percentage/Money Spit Tool
Once you move past the beginner stages of betting, you’ll start to understand the use case for knowing where the money is on a game. In short, the Coles’ Notes here is that the house always wins and the average Joe bettor typically loses. Of course, this isn’t 100% accurate all of the time because the recreational bettor will win from time to time. Overall, though, Vegas tends to have the edge.
If that’s the case, it would be great to know where the money is for certain games. That’s why sports betting tools like Outlier will show you the numbers for every single game on the board. We bring the data right to you.
Every single second of every single day, Outlier is pulling in the direct money numbers from the likes of BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and more. When you’re using the tool and see the money percentages, that’s a compilation of all of the books that we have relationships with. That gives you up-to-the-second data on where the money is for every single game. Then you can see the numbers and draw your own decisions: do you want to bet with the house or do you want to bet with the public? Having that data at your fingertips is just one extra piece of intel that can help shape your wager.
Recommended Tool: Outlier
Bonus Hunting With Sports Betting Tools
Sportsbooks are often quite generous when you first open up your account and start playing. They compete for customers and dangle various incentives to get you to sign up and play. When you do, in fact, get around to opening your account and playing, you want to make sure that you’re getting the biggest bonus available.
Many sportsbooks will advertise their welcome bonus right on their site, so check the homepage or promotions section. Those are generally easy to find and collect. However, the day-to-day bonuses are not always evident. You should get on their mailing list and subscribe to push notifications, so that you don’t miss out on their ongoing sweeteners. They do their best to encourage you to check-in with them each day by either logging in or opening their app.
At this point Reddit Sportsbook is my daily bible
— 🇸🇱 (@trap_dabo) December 29, 2021
While there is no one ‘tool’ to track all of the offers on the market, the best thing that you can do is join a community and follow the conversations to make sure you’re not missing out. We recommend joining the Reddit community r/sportsbook. Each day, bettors are conversing about the incentives that are out there, what books are offering boosts, risk-free bets, reload offers and more. Beyond that, they’ll discuss how you can get the most out of the opportunities. As long as you’re tuned in, you’re more likely to pick up on the various promos out there to pad your bankroll.
Recommended Tool: Reddit r/Sportsbook