Bookies odds are based on what people are betting on, if you have greater knowledge of a sport eg horse racing than the general public ( generally top 10% of the betting population) you will profit. People assume they are competing against bookies but you are really betting against other people, the idea is to find bets of good value. If you have no knowledge use tipsters, only use there NAPS(A tipster's best bet of the day) peoples main mistake in horse betting is they bet on every race, I use 5 of the best free tipsters all of them have £1000+ profit for a year for £10 bets on there NAPS, pretty much all these tipsters have a loss if they would have tipped for every race. So 5 tipsters at £1000 profit is £5000, step it up to £100 bets and you would have £50000 !! £1000 bets and £50000
GAMBLING IS NOT STUPID you are making your money of stupid people which is 90% of gamblers, poker is the same concept but takes way more time and effort and is extremely complex. I used to think sports betting was stupid when I played poker as I thought you were just competing against bookies with impossible odds, but you are playing against pretty much people like the OP and people who believe there is no skill involved in gambling throwing there money in to one big pot.
You should not play ROULETTE or BLACKJACK(unless you can count cards :L) you cannot win
becoming addicted to gambling is not always a bad thing its only a bad thing if your a losing gambler, I'M ADDICTED TO GAMBLING but you don't see me losing £500+.
someone said that gambling shouldn't be seen as a way to make money, I disagree. If you see it as a way to make money you will take it more seriously and therefore wont make stupid decisions, there is probably some great poker reading this and they will know poker requires concentration, concentrate as much on sports betting and you will have great results. Treat it as you would share trading, you wouldn't throw all your money on a business you know nothing about so why throw it on a horse you know nothing about, horse betting is essentially one big stock market in where you compete against others to get the best odds.
Cliffardo (pro poker player and gambler in the making)