The type of sports bettor you will ultimately become depends largely on your motivation for betting. Treating betting as a casual pastime will usually result in exactly that: a person who has chosen sports betting as their hobby.

A question often asked by beginners is whether there really are people out there making a sustainable living off betting on sports. The answer is a resolute YES. What needs to be understood right from the beginning, however, is that professional sports bettors are people who are putting in the necessary effort required for turning any hobby or job into a real profession.

There are 5 types of sports bettors. By looking at the key characteristics associated with each of the 5 types, the options as well as the levels of effort required becomes clear.

The Casual Bettor

This category casual bettor covers those people who enjoy placing a handful of bets every year, and mostly on major sports events such as the Super Bowl or the Rugby World Cup. Casual bettors may even skip years without placing any bets.

This category of bettor will often only place a wager on an event when prompted to do so by friends, and purely for the fun and solidarity of the experience when out having a good time in a group.

Betting For Entertainment

The bettor who bets purely for entertainment may bet on the occasional sporting event, or even on a more regular basis, such as only on weekends when a certain sport is being played. This type of bettor will however always bet with entertainment being the focus and will sometimes place a small bet on each available race broadcast within a specific time slot.

The Punter

The punter is a regular bettor. Punters will however not adopt much of a professional or permanent approach to betting on sports. Their approach won’t usually include proper record-keeping, research, or an attitude of continuous learning and improving.

For the punter, the placing of a bet is about entertainment and fun first, and profit later. Punters too, will often have several small bets placed on various events.

The Semi-Professional Bettor

The semi-professional bettor is usually an individual who is employed full-time in an occupation or profession other than full-time sports betting. They are often working towards becoming a full-time professional sports bettor, and will usually focus on a particular type or category of sports betting.

Their chosen category may be a type of sport they feel they may be good at from a betting point of view, or even one they’ve had a great deal of success with in the past. Many semi-professional bettors will however stick to one or two categories of sports simply because they do not yet have the time required for diversification.

The Professional Bettor

Professional bettors generate most of their income from betting on sports, and in many cases even all of their monthly income.

Pro-bettors will always regard betting on sports to be the means to freedom and opportunity to do what they really enjoy doing.