Similar to most of the important things one does in life, you need a plan before embarking on a significant activity. Sports investing is no different than when you place your money in other types of investments - - take the time to think through what you want to accomplish and how you are going to do it. In other words, develop a game plan. The key elements of a sports investing plan include:

Establish Your Objective - Of course you want to win! Who doesn't? Rather, you need to determine the return you desire on the money you place in your Sports Investment Pool (SIP). Whether a person places $5000, $250,000 or somewhere in between in his/her SIP (or another type of investment), a goal (percentage return on your investment) over a time period should be set (your Return objective). The percentage return should be realistic, for example, doubling your money in the next year. Further, you should realize that the time period on which to focus is long, rather than short, term. Specifically, one should think in terms of years not weeks or months. (I prefer to focus on a 1 year period; however, you may want to select a slightly shorter time frame.) This objective is fine, but it should never eliminate or overwhelm the Return objective.

Risk Tolerance - One must be realistic that there is no sure thing in investing, whether it is through the stock market or sports investing. By utilizing the analysis and recommendations of knowledgeable sports investment professionals like me, one can maximize a return over a period of time; however, the possibility of losses always exists. Thus, the amount of money that an individual places in his/her Sports Investment Pool (SIP) should not endanger the person's life style (present or future) if there were significant losses. One key action step for any investor is to reassess his/her risk tolerance at least annually, and more frequently if the person's overall financial condition (not just the level of the SIP) changes significantly (for better or worse) during the year.

Diversification - There are two aspects of diversification: (A) the relationship of your Sports Investment Pool (SIP) to other investments (e.g., stocks, bonds, money market fund, savings accounts and so forth), and (B) determining unit levels. With respect to the first aspect, an individual needs to balance his/her portfolio of investments so that the assets are spread among several different types not concentrated in only one type of investment. You should view your SIP as a longer term investment, not the equivalent of a money market fund or short term bond. This subject has been well addressed by the financial industry, and my only comment is that a SIP should be an integral part of an individual's total investment portfolio.

In investing on sporting events, it is noteworthy to remember that, over a longer period, no one is going to win all of the time or even a significant majority (say 70%) of the time. This fact is no different than trying to select only stocks that will go up. (In practice, knowledgeable sports handicappers expect to win at a rate between 54% and 60% over the long term.) Therefore, it is critical to establish both the size of one unit and the maximum number of units that will be wagered on any sports pick. One important element in determining the size of one unit for you is the number of sports bets you anticipate making during the coming year - - the more bets, the lower the size of one unit. (This conclusion is based on modeling a SIP with the underlying objective of preserving the initial SIP investment over a period of time, say, one year.) Most sports investors make about 1000 sports picks (gaining significant diversification) over a one year period. At this level of sports picks, I recommend making one unit equal to 2% of your starting SIP. This amount should always be the same not to varied during the year.