Quick start: your first +EV bet
A five-minute walkthrough for a brand-new SmartStake user — from picking your sportsbooks to watching your first bet settle in the tracker.
From zero to your first tracked bet
This walkthrough covers the shortest path to a tracked +EV bet. It assumes you have a SmartStake account and at least one sportsbook account you can place bets with. The whole process takes about five minutes once your books are set up.
Step 1 — Choose your sportsbooks
SmartStake reads odds from 70+ sportsbooks, exchanges, and DFS sites, but you only want to see bets at books where you actually hold an account. Open Settings → Bookmaker selection and enable the books you use.
This filter matters: the Positive EV feed will only surface bets at the books you have selected, so every edge you see is one you can act on immediately. If you add or close a sportsbook account later, update this list. For help deciding which books to prioritise, see Choosing your sportsbooks.
Step 2 — Open Positive EV
Navigate to the Positive EV tool from the main sidebar. The feed loads automatically and refreshes every few seconds as odds move across the market.
Each row in the table is one bet at one sportsbook where the offered odds are currently beating the estimated fair (no-vig) price. The rows are sorted by EV% by default, putting the strongest mathematical edges at the top.
Premium access
The full book list and one-click add require Premium. Without a subscription you will see a limited selection of books and will need to add bets manually. A free trial is available if you want to explore the full toolkit before subscribing.
Step 3 — Read a bet card
Before taking any bet, understand what the numbers are telling you.
- EV % — expected value as a percentage of your stake. A 3% EV bet returns an average of three cents per dollar staked over a large enough sample. This is the primary signal; higher is better.
- Book odds — the price the listed sportsbook is currently offering you. These are the odds you will actually bet at.
- Fair odds — SmartStake's no-vig estimate of the true price for this outcome, derived by devigging the sharpest available books. When the book odds are longer (better for you) than the fair odds, the gap is positive expected value.
The Width column shows how far apart the sharpest books are on this market. A narrow width means the fair price is well-agreed; a wide width means more uncertainty in the edge. For a full breakdown of every column, see Reading the Positive EV table.
Step 4 — Add the bet with one click
When you find a bet you want to take, click the Add to Bet Tracker button on that row. SmartStake opens a slip pre-filled with the book, the market, the line, and a suggested stake. Review the details, adjust the stake if needed, and confirm.
That confirmation records the bet as a Wager in the Bet Tracker. For more on how the slip works and how to edit a wager after the fact, see One-click add.
Step 5 — Watch it settle
Once the game is over, the Bet Tracker grades your wager automatically. Moneyline, spread, total, and common player props (including combo props like PRA) all settle without any action from you. The result rolls into your running profit and loss.
Open the Bet Tracker at any time to see the status of open wagers, review graded results, and check your overall return on investment. See Bet Tracker overview for a full tour.
Where to go next
You now have the core loop: find an edge, understand the numbers, add the bet, track the result. From here:
- Finding positive EV bets — how the fair price is built and what qualifies a bet.
- Reading the Positive EV table — every column and filter explained in detail.
- Choosing your sportsbooks — how to build an account portfolio that maximises the edges you can reach.
- Bet Tracker overview — grading, profit and loss, and everything the tracker records.
- Odds, prices, expected value, conversion rates, and profit figures shown are estimates based on the last data we retrieved. They can change at any time — confirm the current price at the book before you bet, as odds may move and entry errors can occur.
- Any numbers, screenshots, and worked examples shown are illustrative only. They are not representative of typical results and your results may differ.