There are quite a few elements to keep an eye out for and with such complicated terminology and maths involved, how are you supposed to know what everything means? How will your knowledge of the racing industry affect your betting strategy?

These phrases are a fraction of the terms, phrases and names used in the horse racing markets and they are important as they all form a solid picture of what/where/when and how. This is what the entire betting structure is based on and the odds are affected by them. 

You do not need to know anything about horse racing to make a profit, many trader will argue this, and I agree. However, I would state that the more you know, the more of an edge you will have over the markets.

The only way you can successfully implement a profitable strategy is to follow some simple rules:

1. Research your method thoroughly BEFORE beginning to trade.
2. "paper trade" at the beginning to prove it works.
3. Commit to the long term and accept that any strategy will take thousands of trial bets before the true trend of the betting strategy will develop.
4. Be patient and stick to your guns. When you hit a long losing streak, wait it out and do not give up. This is why it is important to trade on paper first.
5. Practise, practise and practise BEFORE you go live and use real money.

When you have proven to yourself that the strategy does work and it is producing a positive return on investment, then you trade with real money and you begin. 

This applies to all aspects, sports or trading method. You can be a professional trader on the Betfair Exchange or an amateur matched bettor, you have to have patience and practise to master this.

All bookmakers, such as Ladbrokes or Bet 365, have different rules and terms and condition on their bets. This can make things tricky when trying to calculate potential profit and pitfalls. Therefore it can be an advantage to automate the selection.

Here is a simple method which I use and I have a proven record of over 2,000 bets which produced a very nice profit with only £2 each way stakes. Check out this 2,000 bet trial I have done of a ​"Value Based Betting Strategy".

The method is a value based system where the software is programmed to use the law of large number in conjunction with shifting odds which allow for value bets to be placed at specific times.

Over the course of many months there is a slow but steady upward trend as selections are chosen based on value. The odds of the winning horses are often higher than 20/1.

There is a big difference between using betting systems and trading. Becoming a full time sports trader is a long term process and is very involved and you have to get to grips with live market movements, resistance points and much more. 

A betting system, however, is a more "hands off approach" because either you follow a tipster or you use a pre-set strategy of some sort which have set criteria that you repeat over and over again, hoping that the long term outcome profitable.

As I said this method is generally a "hands off approach". For example, if you join Betting Gods, you simply place the bets which are sent to you everyday from a professional tipster. Pretty easy, right? They send you a small selection, with the best odds, and you place them with the bookmakers, such as William Hill.

This is a very low risk and steady method of generating a positive ROI because you can browse though over 20 full time tipsters, ranging from horse racing, football, golf and boxing.

You can choose a tipster which uses a betting staking strategy you are comfortable with and you can stop at anytime you wish.

Learning to become a sports trader is a whole other animal but it is a viable way to find a guaranteed system. The word "guaranteed" here is subjective because this depends on your edge in the market. If you have an edge, an entry point which meets certain criteria, then you can in effect create a guaranteed betting strategy. Confused? You should be!

Trading the horse markets is far too big a topic for me to cover in this article. I suggest you check out this page for more information on learning pre-race horse trading.

This is the most important aspect. You must have a long term mind frame because your profitability depends on it. The image below is from a case I created study over 60 days and I placed almost 2,000 bets. Do you see the trend?

Do you also see the importance of having a long term view of your results?

There was a very long downward trend around the 9th day which continued for over 20 consecutive days afterwards. Regardless of which strategy or trading edge you have, this is what your long term profit/loss chart will look like.

A proportion of your bets will be profitable and some will lose, in the short term your losses may exceed your winnings, but if your strategy has a solid reasoning and foundation then the long term trend will be profitable.

This is entirely up to you. Making a profit with horse racing, or any sports for that matter, is a long term and emotional journey.

You must have a strong nerve and be able to withstand long period of losing money. The GOOD NEWS is that you can control your staking amount and you can use low stakes so the emotional side of things can be controlled.

Personally, I highly recommend trying to make money online with sports trading of some kind. Which method you decide to go for its up to you.