Common Sports Betting Mistakes

Sports betting mistakes are common. It’s easy to go flying into the world of gambling without an understanding of what is required to be successful. Sure, there’s more than a dollop of luck in landing one of the biggest sports betting wins, but to be profitable day-to-day, there’s a blueprint to succeed.

Focused on betting with friends or beating the bookie, it’s important to avoid these frequent sports betting mistakes.

5 Sports Betting Mistakes

1. Not being impartial

Even beyond the teams we have supported through thick and thin, we all have our favorites. It’s impossible not to as a sports fan. There are teams, players or coaches we prefer over others.

This can be a trap. Bettors need to think clearly when placing wagers. Betting decisions need to be thought through clinically rather than emotionally (for the most part, at least).

Forcing impartiality isn’t easy. There are always biases at play when humans make decisions, and the same goes when picking which bet represents value.

A solution to this mistake could be to simply not bet on games that involve your favored teams. If that proves too restrictive, it might be worth outweighing your favored teams/athletes…

2. Insufficient data

Data is the bedrock of successful sports betting. More data is more knowledge and it should allow a more informed betting decision. Exploring the numbers further can help take your mind away from preconceived notions of a team and place a wager based on reality rather than perception.

Sites like team rankings provide loads of helpful information for bettors. The Sports Reference pages are a must to spot trends as you cast your eye over the latest sports odds.

Some gamblers will rely far too heavily on gut instinct. The best sports bettors will base their decisions on the numbers. There are several sports betting tips apps that provide you insightful data which can inform your betting decisions in a variety of ways.

3. Getting too ambitious

We’ve all seen the viral stories. A bettor chucks $100 on an 11-fold parlay and they’re waiting in anticipation of the last couple of games. Winning a life-changing sum is the dream of every sports bettor, but lengthy parlays are a mug’s game.

They can be good fun, though should never be a staple of sports bettor looking to make money.

Parlays are tempting. The massive odds lure in wagers, dreaming of what could be if this seemingly reasonable set of events plays out.

Stick to shorter odds bets, stick to singles and maybe stretch it to a double on occasion if there’s a particularly tantalizing option.

4. Reckless with money

A key to sports betting is to not chase losses. Obviously, it’s important to only bet what you can afford, but it’s also crucial to keep to your set units per bet. Having a sports betting profit is about regular wins even if the individual returns aren’t going to break any records.

Even bets that seem like overwhelmingly good value will lose on occasion. Going ‘all-in’ might seem like a good idea, but if that misfires once or twice, it can take a long time to make up for that misjudgement.

Be wary of what you’re betting. Don’t throw money at bets when you suffer a couple of losses.

5. Being too busy

Another symptom of chasing losses, sports bettors can sometimes place too many wagers. Rather than searching for value, they are too easily convinced of any bet as a sensible wager.

Of course, it depends on the time you have to put into it, but there’s a finite amount of time for research. If you are placing too many, they are not all going to be well-researched decisions.

There’s a desire to have plays all over the place on a particularly busy day of sports. That’s fine, but be wary of overdoing it.

Read More: 5 of the best sports betting apps