The first place to start is with your local newspaper. There you can find a wealth of information needed to make a basic, informed decision-standings, records, box scores with detailed game summaries, injuries, transactions, individual statistics, weather reports, etc.

Next, pick up some of the many magazines, newspapers and journals dedicated to sports. Some cover the whole gamut, like The Sporting News, ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated, while others are devoted to one particular sport, such as Football Digest, Baseball Weekly or The Hockey News. Thanks to the Internet, league and team Web sites can also provide you with a wealth of specific information on the sport, not to mention the particular teams and players. Speaking of which, many players have their own dedicated Web sites which are worth checking into as they provide insight into how that person is feeling about the game in general, the contest coming up, his teammates, etc.

One thing to keep in mind when reading is not to become overburdened with statistics, as most are meaningless when it comes to betting. Rather, they make for good bar talk and water cooler arguments.

Instead, pay attention to the critical numbers and player information of the particular sport you are betting on. For example, in baseball, it is the pitcher; in football, the quarterback.

Whereas reading the stats can help you learn about a sport, observation can take you to the next level when it comes to learning. Therefore, watch as many games as you can. Thanks to cable and satellite TV, you can now watch just about every game in every sport. Certain systems allow you to purchase a package which gives you the ability to watch every game in every market. And, in most cases, it is very inexpensive, especially if you take into account the rewards subscribing to such a service can bring.

While watching, keep notes which you may not read about, such as an unlucky bounce, dropped ball or a bad call. These are not mentioned in box scores and news stories, but can really help when trying to evaluate a particular match-up. These small yet key elements can be the difference between a winning bet and a losing one. Also, listen to the announcers (especially if they are the local ones for a particular team) as they may give out information from conversations they had with players and coaches, not to mention their observations while watching off-camera practices.

If you are betting over the long term, don"t be too jumpy by judging a team on its last performance.
Along the same lines, don"t be stubborn. If you made a mistake, admit it and move on. More people lose more than they have to by insisting their initial projections were right. If a team or player is underachieving, acknowledge and reanalyze your judgment. Keep track because you can always redo your projections if that player or team starts to turn things around. The idea is to look for and follow trends.

Before betting, make sure you have a detailed understanding of each team involved. For example,note overall records, home and away records, how the team fares on artificial turf compared to natural grass, night games vs. day games, lefties against righties, etc. Compare the strengths and weaknesses of each team"s lineup. In football, compare the offensive rushing and passing statistics against the defensive rushing and passing statistics. This, combined with knowing the sport can greatly improve your chances. For example, in football, defense more times than not wins the game, especially the important ones. People who do not bet often, usually bet the offense and lose. The same holds true in baseball, where a top-rated pitcher will more than often neutralize a power-hitting team.

In today"s world of free agency, keep track of how teams change from season-to-season and, for that matter, how they change after a trading deadline when a flurry of activity usually takes place. Because of such things as salary caps and expansion in the major sports it is getting harder and harder to keep a quality team together year-in and year-out.

Also, look for teams which change-for better and worse-during the course of the year as players gel or problems arise. If you can spot these trends before the oddsmakers, you can have a good run-usually three to five games-before adjustments are made. As noted earlier, the idea is to look for and spot the important trends.

In most cases, good value falls to the underdog. While most people like to root for the underdog, they do not like to bet it. But, bear in mind, betting the underdog means the team does not have to win, it just has to lose by less than the pointspread in order for you to win. This is usually the case when the spread is large, as most teams tend not to "run up" the score (except in college football, though that is now changing with the new BCS rules going into effect). Usually,when a team gets a comfortable lead, it replaces its starters and does what it can to get the game over with. The pointspread is the furthest thing from a coach"s mind, who most times won"t even know what it is because he is too busy preparing for the game to be worried about what some oddsmaker feels about his team. These types of bets will once again be found in college football.

If you do your homework, you will find during the course of a season games the oddsmakers "missed." That is, they tended to overlook or misjudge the match-up for whatever reason. This tends to happen when a large number of games are being posted at the same time, such as during the period between the months of September and October when all four of the major sports-baseball, basketball, football and hockey -along with college football are being played at the same time. They may be the "experts," but even they can lose track of a game in all the flurry of activity, especially during this period when on a given day each sport can have a number of games scheduled.

Finally, watch the numbers themselves, especially in the most popular betting sport-football. Minor changes in the spread can have substantial implications. For example, the difference between a 3 and 3- 1/2 pointspread can be the difference between a win or loss, as more football games are decided by 3 points than any other margin. Also, pay attention to the numbers with regard to a game"s scoring nuances. In football, teams can score a variety of ways, from 1- point to 7-points in one shot.

When this happens, you can usually find a good value bet, since the spread is more than likely adjusted in anticipation of the large amount of money the public may bet on. In these cases, the underdog is rewarded with a larger pointspread than it deserves. Or, sometimes, the favorite is not favored by as much as it should be.

Pay attention to good road teams. Some make a habit of performing well on the road. Also be on the lookout for teams coming off long trips, i.e., traveling across the country, playing back-to-back games, playing day/night games.

This is why it is a good idea to project ahead by looking at a team"s schedule. Doing this may give you some advantages against those oddsmakers which tend to simply favor the home team.

This comes from knowing the team, because sometimes a bench player on one team could easily be a starter on another, and therefore, just as qualified. Also, some bench players will come out fired up, knowing this is their chance to make an impression.

Also, injuries are usually a good time to get a good value bet, since the public generally overreacts to them and tends to tilt the scale.

Also, pay attention to the stadium. Many arenas have their own wind and noise conditions, as well as other factors. For example, in baseball, it is the rare game when the score is low in the home park of the Colorado Rockies.

Likewise, a team may be in a spot to knock a team out of the playoffs. Or, it may want to revenge a bad lose earlier in the season. Rivalries also push many of the statistics out the window. In the more heated ones, it makes no difference how good or bad one team may be compared to the other, as the games are always close.

By the same token, be selective in your bets. You are better off concentrating your efforts on a few games instead of the whole board. For example, betting every football game each week will pretty much guarantee you lose money. Study up on three to four and bet those, you"ll stand a better chance of coming out ahead in the long run.

Instead, stop, sit down and check your records. Reevaluate your approach. And, while you are in a funk, lower the amount you bet until the winnings start coming back.

Then, when you do hit a winning streak, increase your stake since you will have extra money to play with. But, make sure not to become overly confident and bet the house. Keep your head and senses, because like loosing streaks, winning steaks also come to an end. That is why they are called streaks. Also realize it is much easier to lose it all at once than win it. That said, don"t try to win it all back at once. Take your time and place good, solid bets and slowly build your way back up.

When starting out, place small wagers, increasing as you become better and as value bets pop up. In today"s world, there are sporting events to bet on everyday, so don"t feel compelled to bet for the sake of betting or because everyone else is doing it. Remember, there is nothing wrong with not betting a particular event, even the Super Bowl.

Set limits and budgets and stay within them. Then, fix a percentage of your betting capital for your bets. The pros will tell you to risk no more than 5% on any single bet, no matter how confident you feel.