Sports betting is not a simple as following a set of guidelines or rules in order to guarantee success. What works for one person may not work for another. That said, there are some core principles that all bettors will benefit from following. Read on to find out the five key principles that all bettors should remember.
The fact that Pinnacle has thousands of articles in its Betting Resources archive highlights just how much there is to learn about betting. Regardless of what sport you bet on, the foundations for success are the same for a lot of bettors. Although simple, these foundations are the key.
Despite the importance, the basics are often overlooked by many when it comes to betting. Neglecting these core principles is a mistake that you simply cannot afford to make if you want to make a long-term profit. It might seem obvious, but if you can take on board these principles and stick to them, you will likely see a positive impact on your betting experience.
Grasping basic concepts is only where the journey starts. Bettors, especially the ones that many aspire to be like, will have spent years building the knowledge and skillset to not only identify inefficiencies in the betting market, but to take full advantage of them. However, this doesn’t mean they have forgotten about those very first lessons you learn.
Whether you’re at the start of your betting journey, beginning to enjoy success, or have been at it for decades, the five key concepts outlined in this article should always be at the forefront of your thinking when placing a bet.
Remember the end goal
Many bettors will have experienced a period of time when they lose track of what it is they’re actually trying to do. If you’re betting for entertainment this won’t necessarily apply to you, but for many bettors the aim is to make a positive return on the money they have spent.
The best bettors out there aren’t just the best because they know how to win. They are the best because they know how to lose and not let it affect them.
While every bet you place has the potential to win or lose you money, it is foolish to measure success on a bet-by-bet basis - even a smart bet can lose you money because of variance. This means bettors should remember that sports betting is a long game and while there will be ups and downs, the aim is to simply be up in the long run.
Getting too caught up in individual bets only makes you more likely to forget the bigger picture. Whether it’s reacting to a loss and trying to recover some funds or getting too carried away after a win and placing bets with little thought or reasoning, bettors should always think about the impact these decisions could have in a week, month or a year’s time.
Betting requires hard work, patience and dedication. You aren’t going to enjoy overnight success and even if you do, you could just as easily lose the fruits of that success the very next day. Whether you win or lose a bet, analyse the bet for what it was, move on and remember your end goal.
Know your competition
Often when people first start betting, they take the view that all they have to do is beat the bookmaker. The bookmaker is taking their money and the goal is to trying take some of the bookmaker’s money back. However, as you begin to learn more about betting markets and how they behave, it soon becomes clear that it is more about beating other bettors.
Of course, it is the bookmaker who posts the odds that you bet with and the bookmaker who collects the deposits you make so it’s easy to see why people want to take them on. Unfortunately, that is a battle that you are never going to win - even if you do win the odd battle, there are plenty more people that have lost it (bookmakers wouldn’t exist if this wasn’t the case).
Once the odds for a market are initially posted, it is other bettors that help shape them. It is these bettors that you are competing against to try and get any value that might be on offer in the market.
It also important to remember that this competition with bettors is all relative. It doesn’t matter if you can accurately predict the outcome of soccer matches before they are played, if there are people out there that have more accurate predictions than yours, those are the ones who will get the reward.
It’s not always about winning
As previously mentioned, with so much randomness in the world of sports, you will find yourself on the end of some bad luck in betting. You could place a bet that if the event were to be played 10 times over, you might win nine of them and it just so happens this was the one time your bet ended up as a loss. This is why it is important to remember that you aren’t going to win every bet.
An extra €3.40 for one bet might not seem like a lot, but that could soon add up to over €1,000 in a year. All of sudden, it then becomes a lot more appealing.
People may believe that bettors who are known to make large sums of money from betting have some kind of golden touch. But the idea that an individual can always find the perfect bet and have everything go to plan so that they always win is complete nonsense. These bettors will lose, but they will just lose less often than they win.
Given that losses are one of the few certainties in betting, knowing how to deal with them is a fundamental part of being a bettor. One exercise bettors might find useful is to try and analyse why a bet lost, review everything you knew beforehand and ask whether you would place that bet again. If the answer is yes, then you’ve done all you can. If the answer is no, perhaps it’s time to rethink your decision-making process in the first place.
The best bettors out there aren’t just the best because they know how to win. They are the best because they know how to lose and not let it affect them.
You don’t have complete control
One of the hardest things for any individual to accept is the lack of control they have over something, especially when it’s something where you feel like you are making all the decisions. Everyone should know they have little influence on how a game of soccer plays out, but how many know they aren’t in full control of what they bet on or why they bet on it before that soccer match?
Behavioural biases can have a massive impact on your decision-making process in betting and the sooner you become aware of that, the better. This is not only something you should acknowledge as a bettor, but something you should constantly remind yourself of. You can’t have control over these behavioural biases, but having an awareness of them and how prevalent they are will certainly help you.
Everything from selective memory of certain events and changing a past opinion, to the reason why we do or don’t place a certain bet can be impacted by these biases. By their very definition, they make us deviate from rational judgement – which obviously doesn’t bode well in a world of risk where money is involved.
Look after your money
A €10 bet and €10,000 bet can mean the same thing to different people. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you bet, optimising your bankroll is key to achieving success over a long period of time.
Money management is a crucial part of betting, whether you’re taking it seriously or not. If you’re betting for fun, you should only bet what you can afford. If you’re betting for a living, maintaining a bankroll while maximising your potential wins and limiting your potential losses is the difference between having a career and going bust.
Getting the most out of your money doesn’t just apply to optimising your stake for each individual bet, it applies to the odds you bet with as well. The difference between odds of 2.34 and 2.36 might seem minimal but in the long run, even small difference counts in betting.
Comparing odds (or line shopping) might seem like a lot of work for little reward, but this is another example of where the narrow mindedness of looking at your results from bet to bet can have a negative impact. An extra €3.40 for one bet might not seem like a lot, but that could soon add up to over €1,000 in a year. All of sudden, it then becomes a lot more appealing.
These five key principles are still such a small part of betting. However, out of the countless things to learn, remember and consistently execute, they are a good place to start. Remembering your end goal, knowing your competition, understanding it’s not all about winning, that you don’t have control and that you need to look after your money isn’t going to guarantee success. It will certainly help though.