EPTThis is not my occupation nor to encourage people to be as reckless.
I'm only posting my experience, I have not had a negative year betting on starcraft, and I have been doing so since BW. But every bet I place is not done with the intention of making money as a priority. I watch the games live and enjoy having money on the players.
Some of you may or may not know that you can place bets on all the major SC2 tournaments and almost every GSL match at pinnaclesports.
This is the last 2 weeks of my pinnacle sports log showing every bet, loss, and win, I made since the start of this month (yes, sorry guys, I am the one skewing odds single handedly on some matches ;p )
http://www.filedropper.com/pinnaclesc2
Total profit $9,574.24
Initial deposit I started with this month was $1,000.
Since the beginning of the year however, I was down close to $3,000 (lost over $2,000 on that GSL final where MMA beat MVP...), so I am up about $7,000 for the year.
I have definitely improved my skills when it comes to betting on starcraft, although a lot of it common sense with a good serving of luck thrown in!
Some general rules I follow are:
Always bet against foreigners - Now, this is not to say that foreigners cannot beat Koreans, but it is a fact that they are way more inconsistent. They may be completely dominant in 1 tournament, and drop out in the first round for the next. For this reason alone, the odds on them are usually better than they should be - and make a good value bet.
Don't bet on every match - The ones you are not sure of, stay away from (or put small bets only). The ones that have extremely poor returns (1.25 and lower) you need to be careful of and I sometimes refrain from betting on those, unless you are positive it will be a one sided affair.
don't click below if you haven't watched blizzard cup semis
+ Show Spoiler +
The handicap bets are sometimes the best option. Instead of taking risks for small returns on the favorite, consider risking less money on the underdog by betting on the handicap (+1.5). Like can be seen on the game that ended just now in the blizzard cup between MMA and MVP. I thought it was a fairly safe bet at 1.8 that MMA could take two games off MVP.
Luck plays a big part - sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't, I know it's played a large part on my winning streak these past 2 weeks
You may have noticed I bet against Naniwa to win (lucky for me, unlucky for the others). I am very against his actions, because I want starcraft to be taken seriously as a sport. Pinnacle has helped it move into a positive direction by offering odds on the games, but that is put at risk by things like what Naniwa did. Imagine how all those that put their money on Naniwa would have felt when they watched what he did.l.. in any case, there is enough talk about this as is so I will leave it there.But regarding luck, You can see I lost some large amounts on the way up (marineking vs darkforce...), but I also made some pretty risky and large bets that I won. In the WCG, I would have continued to place bets on marineking and supernova, but luckily for me, pinnacle did not offer betting lines for the games they lost in their subsequent matchups! If they did, I would probably have lost between 1-2k there...
Don't look too much into statistics - Historical win statistics for a player don't mean much, their recent performance is much more telling. But players can rise and fall as fast as the tides (MC, Marineking, even MVP for a little bit). Also, map statistics can be taken with a grain of salt. Until there are hundreds of games played on them, the sample size is not good enough to really say much.
This next bit is important -
Lastly, only play with what you can afford to lose. I don't want to encourage anyone out there to gamble recklessly. If you aren't prepared to lose it, then don't place that bet!
I have been betting on SC since odds were offered at pinnacle and have lost my fair share! But it adds even more excitement to the game, and sometimes, I bet with my heart instead of my head. I don't mind though, I often place bets I know I will probably lose, but I did so because I wanted to cheer for a particular player. I've stopped doing that now and will bet against who I am rooting for. That way, it doesn't matter who wins, I either get some money or my player wins, either way I'm happy haha.
Wishing all my fellow punters luck for the new year, post if you have stories about your success with starcraft betting (or non-success if the case may be...).
I'll end with poll, although I reserve the right not to follow the outcome ;p
don't click below if you haven't watched blizzard cup semis
+ Show Spoiler +
