Sports Betting – Here’s Where You’re Going Wrong

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Something we can all agree on, it’s never nice to be told when you are doing something wrong. Which counts double if it happens to be something you are seriously into and would like to consider yourself an authority on.

Take sports betting, as an example. There are literally hundreds of millions of people all over the world who absolutely adore sports betting. Unfortunately, not all of those taking part in this kind of pursuit will be successful. In fact, research shows that a rather paltry 5% of those who regularly take part in sports betting are what could be classified as ‘successful’. As for the rest, it’s a case of coming out worse off, to one extent or another.

All of which in turn adds up to a picture where realistically, you are probably going wrong in one or more areas. Which in turn means that the sooner you accept these shortcomings, the quicker you can address them and improve.

So at the risk of offending those who like to think they’ve got a pretty strong handle on their activities, here’s a quick rundown of just a few things you may be getting wrong with sports betting:

Betting Something You Don’t Understand

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First of all, and for reasons that should be relatively obvious, it really isn’t a good idea to wager money on anything you don’t fully understand. Making the best possible judgment when it comes to sports betting means intensive and on-going research, addiction to sports journals and building a professional-level understanding of both the sport and the event in question. Anything to the contrary represents poor decision-making, resulting in the kind of endeavour where you are tipping the odds against yourself.

Expecting to Get Rich
While there will always be a select few who do indeed strike it rich with sports betting, it’s of the utmost importance to regard the whole thing as nothing more than a bit of fun. Sports betting is all about adding a little further enjoyment and excitement to something entertaining in general – it is certainly not something to get into if you expect to get rich. Of course, you can certainly improve your chances of winning at least something by dedicating yourself to the pursuit and becoming an expert. Nevertheless, this is something that takes time, effort and patience to say the least – even then, it may not necessarily pay off.

Favouring Your Favourites

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Dedication to the teams you support is all well and good, not to mention admirable. However, you need to be brutally honest and realistic as to their chances of winning, when it comes to sports betting. Chances are that if your fellow supporters found out that you had bet a large amount of money against your team, you would probably find yourself and a lot of trouble. However, if it is something a foregone conclusion that your team is going to lose, betting any money on them whatsoever simply out of loyalty is an absolutely terrible idea. You may feel like you are going against the grain and have a little guilt to deal with, but it all comes with the territory or with sports betting.

Buying Into Superstitious Stuff
There are so many sports fans, pundits, players and gamblers all over the world who comprehensively buy into all manner of spiritual mumbo jumbo, in order to ensure Lady Luck is on their side. Some only bet on certain days of the week, others take note of what their horoscope tells them to do and there are even those who buy into astrology and tarot cards. The only problem being that in each and every one of these instances, it’s nothing but a load of pure garbage. Like it or not, superstition and all-things spiritual have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on reality when it comes to sports betting. Which means that you can stock up on all the lucky rabbit’s feet in the world, but it still isn’t going to help you succeed if you make poor decisions.

Not Comparing Odds and Margins

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Generally speaking, there isn’t a great deal of difference from one leading bookmaker to the next, when it comes to odds and margins. However, there will always be certain instances where specific bookmakers offer astronomically different odds from one another, which when combined with their own unique margins could add up to a very big difference if you happen to win. As such, one of the biggest rookie errors of all is that of not comparing odds and margins before placing a bet – especially given the fact that there are so many convenient odds-checking websites and tools freely available.

Listening Too Much to Insiders
Make no mistake about it – not everybody out there wants you to be successful. Likewise, even in the cases of those that do indeed have your best interests at heart, you cannot necessarily rely on their judgement or predictions. It’s one thing to listen to so-called insiders and industry pundits in general, but it’s something else entirely to go against what you yourself know and believe. The only thing you need to bear in mind is the fact that if these insiders and experts really did know exactly what was going to happen to such an extent that you can trust them, chances are they’d be wagering small fortunes of their own on the event and making enormous fortunes as a result.

Betting Under the Influence
Last but not least, one sure-fire way of pretty much guaranteeing yourself unnecessary and potentially heavy losses is to make the mistake of betting under the influence. The simple fact of the matter is that anything with the potential to impede your judgment is exactly the kind of thing you should be staying away from, when it comes to sports betting. Losing is bad enough, but coming to the realisation that you lost on the back of a frankly ridiculous decision due to being inebriated at the time can be nothing short of soul destroying!

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