Are you done with losing money and keen on winning like a professional as an amateur sports bettor? Do you need to learn a secret formula to do that? Not actually, but below are five tested tips that you can try as you place your next bet:
Knowing the Odds
If you ask a professional punter who they’re betting on, you might be surprised to learn that it’s not always the one they think will win. This is important to mention because successful punters typically just place their bets on outcomes they think will occur, instead of what the odds seem to show. These pros stack up their wins over time by looking out for results underestimated by bookmakers. They could bet on the favorite or on the underdog, but always when the odds are positive.
Mind Before Heart
Many people bet for emotional reasons instead of an objective assessment of the probable result. They may bet for their sports idol or maybe for their city or country. Of course, the bookmakers will respond by tweaking their odds as deemed necessary. What this means is that the odds-on favorite to win could be chosen simply because they are popular rather than how the bookmaker assesses their odds of winning. So if you’re already emotionally invested in your favorite team, forget it and take it slow when betting on any outcome.
Knowledge Wins
As you may know, Warren Buffet, one of the most successful stock market investors ever, advises against investing in something you don’t understand. This holds true even in sports betting. You want outcomes that are more likely to occur than the implied odds on offer, but before that happens, you need in-depth knowledge in your preferred games.
The Big Picture
There are times when people get so engrossed in sports betting that they tend to be obsessed with statistics and having to analyze them before deciding which players or teams they should bet on. According to a study by the Journal of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), you can actually harm your chances of winning if you do that. Not to say that you should ignore the data, but experts advise looking at the overall picture instead of being overwhelmed with small and usually irrelevant factors.
Accepting Losses
Lastly, regardless of how great you become at sports betting, accept the fact that you will lose a lot of games. We all hate losing, but if you let your losses eat you, you may just end up in the middle of a psychological phenomenon called the sunk cost fallacy. It’s when you feel so bad about losing money that you start to behave irrationally, making you lose even more. In other words, like the pros do it, accept that there will be good days and bad days.
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