Five Key Principles to Remember in Sports Betting

In this article, we will look at what the end goal should be, understanding the competition you are betting on, that the most important thing is not always winning, and finally, taking care of your money.

As you can see, since the creation of Bet2invest, sports betting is not just about mastering a few elements, it is a long-term effort, over several years, that will help you progress. No matter the sport you bet on, the foundations for success are the same for many bettors. Although simple, these foundations are essential.

Despite their importance, the basics are often overlooked by many when it comes to betting. Neglecting these core principles is a mistake you simply cannot afford if you want to make a long-term profit. It may seem obvious, but if you can take these principles on board and stick to them, you will likely see a positive impact on your betting experience.

Understanding basic concepts is just the beginning of the journey. Bettors, especially those that many aspire to emulate, have spent years developing the knowledge and skills necessary to not only identify inefficiencies in the betting market but also to take full advantage of them. However, this does not mean they have forgotten those very first lessons learned.

Whether you are at the beginning of your betting journey, starting 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 where they lose track of what they are actually trying to do. If you are betting for entertainment, this may not necessarily apply to you, but for many bettors, the goal is to make a positive return on the money they have spent.

While each bet you place can potentially 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 due to 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 increases the chances of forgetting 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 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, analyze the bet for what it was, move on, and remember your end goal.

Know Your Competition

Often, when people first start betting, they think all they have to do is beat the bookmaker. The bookmaker takes their money and the goal is to try to 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 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 you are never going to win - even if you do win the odd battle, plenty more people 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 who 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 is 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 mentioned earlier, 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.

People may believe that bettors 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 analyze 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?

Behavioral 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 behavioral 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 judgment – which obviously doesn’t bode well in a world of risk where money is involved.

Look After Your Money

A €10 bet and a €10,000 bet can mean the same thing to different people. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you bet, optimizing your bankroll is key to achieving success over a long period.

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 maximizing 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 optimizing 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 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 a 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.