There is a strange disconnect in how bettors think about value. Most people obsess over edges in bets, promo structures, and CLV, yet completely ignore the value of their own time. They will grind out tiny promos, click through clunky interfaces, and chase pennies of expected value without ever asking the basic question: “What is my time actually worth?” That question sits at the heart of the time value of money in sports betting.
A $25 promo in under a minute
Novig recently ran a promotion where all users could deposit $25 and get $25 free. It took me just under a minute to complete. Was it worth it? If I can make $25 of essentially free expected value in one minute, then the implied “hourly rate” for that action is enormous. As long as I value my time at less than about $1,500 per hour, that 60 seconds was a profitable use of time.
That is the right way to look at these opportunities: how much expected value the action generates, how long it takes, and whether that implied hourly rate clears your personal time-value threshold. If the answer is yes, it is worth doing. If not, you are better off spending that time elsewhere, whether that is on higher-value betting opportunities, modeling, content creation, or something completely outside of betting.
When limits make betting not worth it
This same logic explains why many sharp bettors simply stop when they are limited to pennies. If you are restricted so heavily that your edge only produces a few cents or a couple of dollars per bet, then your expected hourly return collapses. The bets may still be +EV in a vacuum, but they are no longer +EV relative to your time.
You still have to research, log in, navigate menus, place the bet, and track it. The cognitive load and time investment are basically the same whether you are betting $5 or $500. Once the product of edge times stake gets too small, even great bets become bad uses of time. If the expected edge cannot justify the time investment, the value is gone.
The sidewalk test
The time value of money shows up everywhere in life, not just in betting. If Elon Musk walks past a $100 bill on the sidewalk, it is probably not worth his time to stop and pick it up. That sounds insane to most people, but only because they do not internalize the math. At his level, his productive time is simply worth far more than $100 per minute.
This is the same logic as an average person stepping over a penny. If your time is worth even a modest hourly rate, the actual value of stopping, bending down, picking up the coin, and resuming your walk is negligible or even negative. What is funny is that many people easily accept the Elon Musk example, but fail to apply the analogous reasoning to their own decisions. They will spend ten minutes chasing the equivalent of a penny in expected value on a bad promo or a tiny limit.
Translating time value to betting decisions
In sports betting, every decision can be evaluated through two lenses: expected edge and time cost. You should be asking what the expected profit from a given action is, how long it will take to realize that expected profit, and whether the implied hourly rate fits what you consider an acceptable use of your time. A juicy risk-free promo that takes five minutes to execute and yields $50 in expected value is excellent for almost anyone. Grinding marginal odds differences for a few cents of edge per bet across thirty minutes of work might be terrible unless you are at a stage where any small gain and experience are worth it. Logging in to a book that has you limited to tiny stakes is often no longer worth it, even if the bets look good on paper.
The math does not care about the story you tell yourself. If the implied hourly return is low, your time is better spent improving models, finding new edges, working on your platform, or doing something non-betting related that has higher payoff or personal value. Seeing it this way helps separate truly productive grind from busywork that just feels like action.
Know your personal “hourly”
The key is to consciously decide what your time is worth. You do not need a perfect number, but you should have a rough hourly value in mind, a sense of which tasks clear that bar and which do not, and the discipline to say no to low-value actions even if they feel like free money. When you combine that mindset with a solid grasp of expected value, you start to see the betting world differently. Some promos become obvious slam dunks. Some small-edge grinds reveal themselves as time sinks. Limits stop feeling personal and instead become simple thresholds where the math flips from “worth it” to “wasteful.”
The time value of money is not just a finance concept; it is a framework for all your betting decisions. If you care about edge, you should care just as much about what your minutes are worth.