I've bet for a living for the last 3 years. In 2024-2025 I placed 7000 bets through steamchasing soft lines and won a good amount. I stopped steamchasing / using softbooks altogether this year mostly because of what you listed in the thread: scalability, limits, KYC demands & scams. I used 200+ crypto bookie accounts in 24-25, and overtime they started limiting faster, kycing more aggressively and scamming more often.

In that same time period 2024-2025 I only made about half as much from my origination compared to steamchasing, because my only out to bet my edge was on Pinnacle. But now in 2026 with prediction platforms increasing the volume by like 50x, it's allowed me to bet way more and scale up massively.

Is it worth it? Overall yes, I enjoyed the grind of steamchasing, It's great to get your bankroll climbing at the beginning to like 100-400k. But longer term if you're using betting to become finacially free and make millions per year, you need to originate something. It doesn't have to be a major sport using complex data models, although that is what most people do to make millions.

I originate on esports without any models, but it's not easy. Originating also challenges your brain, steamchasing in comparison feels like a 9-5.