If you are looking to become a professional sports trader you will need to have a think about what sort of equipment you will need in order to gain an edge. I can imagine you are wondering just how much this will cost and just what sort of technology you require.

Well, I will attempt to explain the absolute essential equipment any Sports Trader will need these days and it is actually not as daunting as you might first think.

1- Good Computer

This is obvious and the good thing is that most of us will already have a computer good enough for sports trading efficiently. In an ideal world you will want to use one dedicated computer for your trading and work activities as you want to keep that computer as clean as possible. The point being that once you save files like photos, videos and other things on your computer it actually slows the processor down. When buying a computer do not focus on the hard drive size but actually the RAM size as this is what will help keep your computer processing fast and therefore it will not slow down at crucial times. Try and look for a computer with an 8GB RAM as a minimum, thankfully these are pretty common and most computers will have that. The one you have already might well be fit enough for the task. My only advice would be to try and have one computer for entertainment and one for serious work things like trading.

The good news is that you obviously do not need to go out and buy a space age computer that is really expensive in order to trade efficiently. Your own computer might already be good enough!

2- Good Internet Connection

Yes this is another obvious one but it is important you have a GOOD Internet connection for trading. All the adverts on TV confuse all of us by suggesting that this Internet is better then that Internet when the simple truth is that you just want to have your Internet access provided by a company that is reliable.

Personally, I use Sky Broadband and have not had many problems with it. It very rarely goes out and if it does it is for a few moments at that. I live in London so maybe I am lucky in that most Internet connections will be good in this part of the world but either way you need to ensure that the Internet you use is reliable enough to not lose your connection at random times. You should already be aware of just how good your Internet connection is and, in most cases, it will already be good enough.

Do not get bogged down in ordering some sort of Super Fibre Gravity Optical Boom Broadband package that the companies are currently pushing to us and just focus on getting one that is reliable. If you find your connection dropping often then paying for the upgrade is probably worth it.

3- Sky Sports & BT Sport Subscription

If you are serious about being a sports trader then you will need to have access to either Sky Sports or BT Sport or BOTH. I do not know many professionals who trade and never actually watch the event and if you only trade whatever the terrestrials serve up then you are leaving yourself with not much to trade. With BT Sport getting more and more rights these days you simply have to subscribe to both. Yes it is an additional monthly cost but it is not like you are not going to enjoy the other channels and watch sporting events anyway.
If you are looking to take your sports trading to serious levels then investing in the multi-room service, getting an extra box and TV inside your trading room and having 2 TVs playing at once is something to consider. On the weekends there can be lots of football matches and other sporting events playing out at the same time and this might be the only possible way to keep up. This is not essential though and only something to consider when you are hoping to take your game up to new levels.

TIP: Personally, I stick with my single Sky Box and TV inside my trading “office” but when I do want to watch multiple sporting events I use the Sky Go App on my iPad to show the other event. Sky Go is free with your Sky subscription and is a great app, just be wary that Sky Go is usually about 5 seconds behind the TV action.

4 Software

Finally, the absolute essential thing you need is trading software. I was debating whether or not to include this as an essential at first then I thought about how many professional traders I know that do not use software and the answer was ZERO! If you are serious about your sports trading then use software and you will make your life much easier. I can not remember the last time I traded using the regular Betfair interface and that website is so slow and clunky that I would not ever want to try it again.

Being able to get in and out of the markets with one click and being able to flick from market to market quickly makes life so much easier. The software I use personally is Bet Angel but other ones are available also.

Other Things

These are some of the non-essentials that you might want to consider also.

Air conditioning – If you have an office that gets overly hot or overly cold then investing in air conditioning might help you to be more relaxed when you trade.

Smart Phone – Most of us have a smart phone these days but if not they are worth investing in. Checking your positions on the move if you are a pre-match trader gives you so much more freedom in your lifestyle. I used to have to rush in and out if I had a trade open just in case the markets moved against me but now I can check on my phone and adjust from there if needed.

Multiple Monitors – This was covered in more depth in another article. The main jist was that these days there is not so much need for multiple monitors to trade with and so this slips into the non-essential items list. Only you can decide if multiple monitors will genuinely help you. They do look cool though 😉