I strictly limit myself to grabbing promos. Without special (not scalable) offers, I can rarely find durable edges in horse racing because the vig is so high. But I’m a sucker for a sport that takes two minutes and concludes before my early bedtime so I enjoy watching precisely three races each year and getting as much free money out of them as possible. To that end, if you haven’t already, grab a free $10 bet from TwinSpires. Then take their offer (you need to opt in) in which you get your money back if your win bet comes in second or third. I placed such a bet on Journalism for a win if he comes in first and tie if he comes in second or third and a loss (of TwinSpires’ money) if he comes in worse than that.
I’m handing my modest sports betting operation to my eldest son when he turns 18 and thus is allowed to do this himself next year. One can grind out some positive expected value and fun. More than that: it is good training for reading and understanding terms and conditions. Casinos are sharkier than Goldman Sachs (GS). Sure GS writes fairly one sided contracts. But jeesh the casinos are worse. Everything is misleading, just short of an outright lie. Their promos (my primary interest) are designed to create addicts. They want you to never leave. I want to take the money and run. If you don’t perfectly understand the offers, you will get screwed. So more than anything this is cheap tuition.
Always get a profit or a lesson; make a few bucks or spend a few bucks learning to read the footnotes.