How a College Student Makes Money With OddsJam

Hey everyone! I’m Ray, a 22-year-old sports journalism student at Arizona State. If you have any questions about any of the content in this article, please reach out to me directly at [email protected].

I’d be happy to help you understand the product and give you more of my own personal OddsJam tips I use to consistently profit. I’ve seen my bankroll increase from less than $1,000 to over $10,000 in a matter of months and enjoyed benefits like free hotel rooms in Las Vegas and extra spending money for the weekends. 

When I turned 21 last fall, I signed up for as many sportsbooks as I could to take advantage of all the signup bonuses. Unfortunately at this point, I did not know about OddsJam, so I did not maximize those bonuses to the best of my ability. To avoid making the same mistake I did, click here to read about sportsbook signup bonuses, and here to see what’s available to you in your state.

Now that I had signed up for a variety of sportsbooks, I quickly noticed that I was seeing different lines and odds. I became frustrated with manually searching for the best price for my bet, so I googled around looking for a site that could do it for me. 

That’s how I first came across OddsJam. I signed up for a free trial and instantly became fascinated by this math-based approach to sports betting, particularly the Positive Expected Value (EV) page. I decided to try the Positive EV plan for a month. 

As someone majoring in sports journalism with a focus on writing, I was excited when an email from OddsJam came into my inbox saying that the company was looking for writers and other content producers. 

I eagerly responded, and began writing a lot of evergreen content and learning more and more about the product and math behind it while doing so. I still didn’t have much extra money to bet with, but I was making my money back on the industry plan just betting $20 or $25 per bet with a bankroll of under $1,000.

I wasn’t seeing the level of ROI that Alex Monahan and other users see though, and that’s because I didn’t have the experience necessary to pick and choose the clearly profitable opportunities from the EV page. This was before the time of recommended filters, which are back-tested and proven to be extremely profitable.

I spent hours watching videos like this to try and fully understand the product. Monahan’s Bible of Sports Betting is another great resource for anyone starting out.

After writing evergreen content during the spring semester, I joined the team as a summer intern. Although I was in California for most of the summer so I could not bet, I tracked bets I would have placed off the EV page and learned the ins and outs of the data that makes +EV betting so profitable.

I decided to invest $3,000 into a bankroll for the fall semester. I track my bets in three ways: OddsJam bet tracker for all +EV bets, Pikkit for the books able to be synced, and a spreadsheet for all my account balances, net deposits and withdrawals. 

Although I primarily bet using +EV, I still like to bet with my heart or personal opinion sometimes for fun. Profiting using +EV betting allows me to occasionally throw together a fun parlay or bet on a team that I like for reasons other than +EV. 

Feel free to track my progress on Pikkit here: https://links.pikkit.com/user/oddsjam_ray

Here’s a snapshot of how EV betting has treated me this semester. I have input a custom date range of Aug. 13 when I came to Arizona for school up until I’m writing this article on Dec. 14.

It’s been a very profitable semester for me. A 10% return on investment is better than I could have ever expected and honestly is better than I expect in the future. As you can see above, this past week has been particularly hot. I anticipate an ROI between 3-5% going forward. 

What makes that so crazy is it’s a different type of ROI than in the stock market. If you invest $1,000 and have a 10% ROI after a year, you have $1,100. A nice $100 profit for sure, but I’m investing my bankroll every single day into the market of sports betting.

For example, if I spread $3,000 across several different +EV bets and earn 10% ROI, I profit $300 that very same night once all the bets have settled. The next day I can invest $3,000 more, and profit another $300. 

Of course, the profit is not linear. There will be hot streaks and cold streaks. I have lost over $1,000 in a day a few times. I have also made over $1,000 in a day several times. Do not stress over downswings or get too high and up your unit size significantly during the hot streaks. You can read more about variance here.

Trust the math over hundreds of +EV bets. You can see in the above chart I’ve had a few losing weeks, and dozens and dozens of losing days over the past few months. 

However, look at what happens when I toggle that view from weekly to monthly:

More profits have given me a larger bankroll, which is why I expect this chart to keep increasing over time. Over a large sample size, +EV betting will make you money in the long run. 

Again, please reach out to me at [email protected] with any questions. I hope to help more of you profit from +EV betting! Be sure to check out our Betting Education hub as well.