How to Make the Transition to Professional Gambler Online
Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Over the course of the last two decades, the iGaming has exploded at an incredible and exponential rate. This trend is also being sustained if the most recent figures are anything to go by, with online bingo alone enjoying double-digit growth of 12.5% in the year ending September 2019.
As online gambling (and especially casino and poker gameplay, which accounts for an estimated 56% of the online GGY in the UK) has become increasingly popular and lucrative, it has also attracted a higher proportion of high-rollers and players who may consider themselves to be professional gamblers.
It’s also clear that iGaming operators are increasingly reliant on such players, with a review of the PlayNow.com website as far back as 2017 revealing that 5% of players accounted for a staggering 45.9% of all wagers.
Clearly, high-rollers and professionally-oriented players are driving iGaming market growth and market expansion in the UK. So, if you aspire to make the difficult transition to becoming a professional gambler and making a success of this career choice, what are the key considerations and steps to follow?
1. Understand That Casino Platforms Are Designed for Casuals
We’ve already touched on the fact that the casino vertical dominates the online GGY, but the same report we referenced earlier also showcased that slot gaming alone accounts for nearly two-thirds of the casino GGY in the UK.
While there are many potential takeaways from this, it certainly reaffirms the notion that casino platforms are designed largely from the perspective of casual players. After all, while high-rollers make a disproportionate number of wagers, it’s casuals that support the underlying business model and underpin a huge base of players.
With this in mind, anyone aspiring to make a career (or at least a viable living) from iGaming will need to compare the market carefully before selecting a casino platform that can support such objectives.
The first thing to keep in mind is that there’s really no such thing as the perfect casino, as each will have its own unique quirks and flaws depending on your wider outlook, preferred gambling activities and existing bankroll.
You’ll also need to ensure that you’re playing at a licensed and secure casino; namely one that has been fully accredited by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and boasts a minimum 128-bit SSL encryption across the website.
Beyond this, we’d recommend reviewing a casino’s full games’ library and range of verticals before making an informed decision, paying particular attention to the return-to-player (RTP) rates associated with specific titles.
This number is presented as a percentage and relays how much you can expect to recoup for every £1 wagered on average, while it also offers a unique insight into a game’s variance and the balance between risk and rewards.
Take progressive jackpot slots, for example, which typically boast an RTP rate of around 90% and are categorised as high-variance games. This means that while players are unlikely to achieve regular base game wins, the size of cash payouts is relatively large and there’s also a chase to pursue seven (and in some cases eight) figure jackpots.
This is ideal for high-rollers or aspiring professionals with a desire to chase lavish returns, while this process also highlights how serious gamblers who want to pursue incremental returns can instead target low and mid-variance games with RTP rates in between 95% and 98%.
By keeping these thoughts in mind and making a genuinely informed decision, you can identify the casino platforms and games that are best-suited to helping you achieve your objectives.
2. Always Review the T&Cs and Associated Wagering Requirements
Whenever you register for a new casino platform or look to cash in on a generous welcome bonus, the single most important thing is that you review the relevant terms and conditions in detail.
Of course, this is to be recommended to casuals in most instances, but if you’re a serious gambler who wants to grow your bankroll it’s absolutely imperative that you understand the precise agreement that you’re entering into as a new player.
Let’s look at welcome bonuses, for example, which often serve as deal-breakers for players who are choosing a new casino platform at which to register. Such offers are often presented in a deposit-match format, which sees operators match and exceed your initial deposit up to a specified value.
For instance, an operator may offer a deposit match of 100% up to the value of £10 and with a minimum deposit level of £10. So, if you credit your new account with £10 and opt-in to the offer, you’ll receive a total of £20 with which to play.
This type of offer may also include a finite number of free spins on a selected slot or range of available games, creating a multifaceted bonus that’s more likely to appeal to casual and serious players alike.
While the notion of gambling with free money may be enticing, however, professional gamblers will testify that best welcome bonuses represent a veritable minefield that must be navigated carefully.
More specifically, the concept of ‘free’ money or capital is inherently misleading, thanks largely to the wagering requirements that are either applied to the combined value of the deposit and the bonus or the funds that are added to your account as part of the offer.
A wagering requirement is typically presented as a multiplier, and in simple terms it refers to the number of times that you’ll have to play through a bonus before you withdraw any of the associated winnings.
So, let’s say that you unlock a deposit-match welcome bonus worth £20 and this offer has a wagering requirement of 35x. In this instance, you’ll have to play through a total of £700 before you can withdraw any of your winnings, and this needs to be factored into your bankroll and financial planning as an aspiring professional.
Without this type of consideration, you may engage in offers and bonuses that actively cost you money, or at least compromise your initial bankroll beyond its organic means.
3. Think Like an Investor When it Comes to Bankroll Management
There has always been an inherent and historic link between investment and gambling, and there are a number of reasons for this.
Both of these disciplines involve varying degrees of risk and choice, for example, while each has the capacity to deliver variable returns in relation to the initial amount of capital laid down.
It’s fair to surmise that the best gamblers recognise and embrace this correlation, while those who achieve the most sustained success also adopt an investment mindset and a philosophy that’s focused primarily on generating additional income through individual wagers.
Make no mistake; this type of serious and detail-oriented approach enables gamblers to successfully overcome one of the biggest differences between wagering and investment; which suggest that the former often leads to long-term losses (in accordance with the so-called house edge associated with specific casino games).
The question that remains, of course, is how can gamblers put this type of theoretical approach into practice? Well, one of the best ways is the way in which they manage their bankroll, as this allows them to make the most of their capital and ensure that this is deployed wisely at every given opportunity.
At its core, professional bankroll management is a process which ensures that you only ever risk a set amount of your overall capital per individual wager. At the same time, the precise amount that you wager should be influenced by the odds of a particular outcome, your probability of winning and the potential reward on offer.
To illustrate the importance of this, let’s imagine that you were to use a simple 50/50 model when wagering. This means there are two evenly-matched outcomes, so you have a 50% chance of winning and a 50% chance of losing.
This qualifies as a medium-risk wager, and in this respect, placing all (or a high proportion) of your bankroll one of these potential outcomes represents an ill-advised and reckless betting strategy.
However, if you were to place a nominal amount or 5% or less on your desired outcome, you’ll effectively spread the risk in line with the associated probability and bottom line return.
One way to aid this process is by establishing a fixed value for a single betting unit, which can be scaled or multiplied according to the value proposition of each individual wager. Ideally, this should be kept as low as possible, in order to allow you as much flexibility as possible when determining individual stakes and distributing your bankroll effectively.
These rules should be applied alongside the basics of bankroll management, such setting an initial sum that should not be exceeded and is not more that you can afford to lose over a predetermined period of time.
By following this type of approach, you can engage in professional and efficient bankroll management that truly respects the value of money and optimises your chances of achieving sustainable returns over time.
4. Evolve Your Gambling Habits as Your Knowledge and Experience Grows
We’ve talked a great deal about slots in this piece, and there’s good reason for this too. Not only do slots dominate the online casino scene, for example, but they’re also ideal for newcomers and represent the fundamental starting point for all aspiring professionals.
While slots may offer different levels of variance and competitive RTP rates in some instances, however, they are fundamentally games of chance. This means that they alone cannot be relied upon to deliver sustainable returns over time, which is why so few professional or serious gamblers build their success with slots as a foundation.
Instead, two alternative iGaming disciplines stand out; namely blackjack and poker. Make no mistake; both of these entities are qualified as games of skill, and why they retain some elements of chance players have the opportunity to deploy strategy and various abilities to incrementally improve their odds of winning.
Let’s take blackjack, for example, which can be played with anywhere between one and eight decks of cards and offers a unique advantage to players with a numerical ability.
This advantage is incrementally effective depending on the precise number of decks used, as players can make real-time estimations about the value of their hand by determining the likelihood of the next card (or cards) to be drawn.
This, combined with professional bankroll management and an appreciation of risk, makes blackjack a viable game for professionals and one where players can constantly improve their odds of winning without influencing the nature of the cards drawn at any given time.
In the case of poker, this is a well-known game of skill, and one where players have historically used everything from an understanding of psychology and body language to a keen numerical ability to gain a competitive edge.
Of course, body language and physical tells are largely absent from online poker, but there are still opportunities for players to gain a competitive edge over their rivals.
For example, there’s a wealth of information on competitive and professional poker players available online in the digital age, with this offering an insight into the behaviour, appetite for risk and success to date. This can subsequently inform your approach prior to a game or tournament, while helping you to potentially preempt their moves in specific circumstances.
Not only this, but you can also observe players as you compete against them and pick up on their subconscious habits and reactions to specific game situations (such as when the stakes are increased or the way in which they play an unhelpful hand).
As the game progresses, this enables you to capitalise and win hands that you may otherwise have lost, which is also why it’s important to manage your capital wisely and settle in for extended gaming sessions that enable you to utilise your full range of skills.
Ultimately, transitioning to games of skill as your experience and knowledge base grows is imperative, as this will help you to statistically improve your chances of winning and bank on more sustainable success.