Avoid these Common Sports Betting Mistakes
Using profitable betting systems, various prop betting opportunities and other tools for making percentage bets is part of the trade. However, there are still many bettors repeating the same mistakes. Even bettors who can win at the 52.38% ATS rate needed to overcome the -110 juice at most sportsbooks often see their bankrolls dwindle due to a variety of mistakes.
Here are some of the most common sports betting mistakes to avoid. They are hard to follow sometimes without losing your focus and they become bad habits and losing lessons.
- Changing Unit Size
Money management may be the most important discipline needed to be a successful sports bettor but many bettors make foolish decisions with their bankroll. The most prevalent issue involves overreacting to a winning or losing streak with reckless abandon.
A flat-betting system is the preferred method which requires bettors to wager between 2-5% of their total bankroll on each game. It is best to determine how much risk you are comfortable with losing. However, many bettors will grow overconfident when they win several bets in a row and begin to increase their unit size. A hot streak or cold streak is putting you in a different zone than normal wagering and should be controlled.
Some bettors will experience a brief cold streak and begin to either increase their unit size in an attempt to get back to their original bankroll or get frustrated and stop betting entirely. When you increase your unit size significantly, it only takes a short losing streak before your bankroll runs dry. Risking too much in a single bet and changing from your typical unit size is one of the main reasons inexperienced bettors will go broke.
- Overreacting to Recent Trends
For a winning betting system, a large sample size is most important. Large sample sizes gives you a more accurate advantages in your decisions. How much emphasis bettors will place on the performance of a team over their past five games is just a shortcut to the decision making process.
A team may have won their past five games but a novice bettor will assume the hot-streak that will continue for the next game. Winning teams are overvalued and can win the game but not cover the inflated spread. Teams coming off a loss are undervalued and can cover as a dog or even win outright.
Against the spread (ATS) is the measuring stick for profit and loss and determines the wagering value of a team. Unless you are a moneyline bettor laying a lot of juice, the line or spread is the basis for handicapping value.
- Too Many Plays
Bettors who place 10 plus bets every single night or bet the whole card on a football Sunday are a bubble waiting to burst. There is no money management strategy and betting all the games on TV is a wild way to survive. By not focusing on the top rated plays, you will likely see your winning percentage drop which makes the juice or vig your enemy by slowly chipping away at your bankroll. The bubble will burst when playing the whole card and the bettor goes 1 win and 9 losses or 2 wins and 12 losses. It is a disaster to your bankroll if you have anything left to bet. A bettor can go zero wins and 3 losses and live to play another day.
Keep your plays down to a minimum without second guessing yourself. Losses are part of the game but too many plays is a process of elimination.
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