Emotional Sports Betting Will Lose You Money

Emotional Sports Betting Will Lose You Money

We get it…all sports are full of emotion. As the jackpot games progress, all the ups and downs that make it exciting also cause us huge highs and deep lows. For many fans, watching their team lose can make them both angry and sad. And when the team wins, they feel like they’re flying on adrenaline and dopamine. So you can imagine that if the fans have such a huge spectrum of emotions during a game, then someone whose emotional sports betting, with money riding on the results, is going to be even more animated as the game progresses.

But making decisions based on your emotional state is never going to end well. Emotional sports betting decisions made like this are going to end up costing you a pretty penny as you’re unable to see beyond your gut feelings. This leads to self-destructive sports betting and can end up as a wrong-headed feed-back loop, whereby your emotions cause you to keep losing over and over.

Chasing Your Losses Gets Expensive

No one likes to lose. Most of us are bought up with the idea placed into our heads very early on in life, that losing is somehow bad or negative. This normally starts with sports but can encompass many areas of life. So when a sports bettor sees that his team or athlete has failed to come in first or win their game, it’s easy to see red. As the losses mount up, the punter will bet even more in the hope of recovering those losses. When it comes to sports betting or any betting for that matter, this form of behavior is fatal to your bankroll. Winning at sports betting requires a cool head and should be based on finding value. To that end, you can’t force value onto a game or into a team or player.

Leave Your Emotions At Home

Likewise, you can’t handicap a game with emotion. Whenever you go emotional sports betting, then with your emotions entering the equation, then it’s going to end badly. Taking control of your emotions is essential when it comes to putting money on sports. Some punters have learned how to control their emotions. They are able to “step back” and see the whole picture clearly. To the point that they can bet against their favorite team, simply because at that moment, it represents good value. Other bettors can never leave their emotions behind. As a result, they continue to lose money hand over fist.

In order to bet well, then you should look at sports betting as a business. This will increase your jackpot winning chances. You should see your bankroll as your investment funds. The bookmaker’s lines are the market and your handicapping skills are your product. So the idea is to make a profit through your handicapping skills. Essentially, you want to be winning at least 55% of all your spread bets. Yes, that means that you’re losing 45% of the time. But, if you’re being realistic, then armed with this information should make you realize that losing is also part of the equation of winning. You can’t win them all. So happily accept those defeats and keep an eye on the larger picture.

Emotional Sports Betting: Putting Money on Your Favorite Team

There are two factors that will ensure that you continue to lose money when you’re sports betting. One of these is following your favorite team. Yes, it’s only natural to think that as you follow them, then you know more about them. The other misleading factor is information, namely the information you have about your favorite. So, you’re thinking that here’s a team you know all about, and surely armed with this information, is going to make your bets that much more accurate. Sorry to say, but with emotional sports betting the polar opposite is true.

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If you’re a fan, then it’s only natural that you want to see your team do well. The problem with this though is that many punters will overvalue their team. Simply because you want them to do better, you then start to look for reasons to back up your expectations. On the whole, you can’t be truly objective when betting on your favorite team or player. You’ll find that many sports bettors don’t have a favorite team or player at all, as it’s otherwise all but impossible to remain objective. Essentially, in order to be a good sports bettor, you can’t be a fan at the same time. It’s best if you treat sports betting as a business. And that means doing so with a calm and level head.

Popular Team Bias

It’s a given that the most popular teams or players will receive the lion’s share of media coverage. For example, in major league baseball, the Yankees receive more media coverage than any other team. In the NBA, it’s the Los Angeles Lakers. Likewise, the football jackpot is always centered around just a few teams. So what does this factor mean to a sports bettor? Well, for a start it’ll mean that the public will have a built-in bias towards the more popular teams. A sports-book knows this and leverages this knowledge to sucker punters. As the greater share of bets is on popular teams then the bookies set the lines against them. This means that you can find some value in betting against popular teams. The important takeaway here is that you ensure that you don’t have any sports bias towards any team or player.

Emotional Sports Betting: No Action, No Fun

There is a common type of bettor who is happy to bet on games but has zero interest in the sport they’re betting on. If there’s no money riding on the result, then there’s no interest. The problem with this approach is that it’s very easy to bet on games with no value. We call this “no action, no fun”. Betting like this will make you take punts that you normally wouldn’t make based on the handicapping. It’s a given that you should never bet on a game unless you can see value there. This is one of the most basic of all jackpot winning tips and tricks. So, no matter how much you enjoy the action, don’t bet unless you see a real opportunity to make money. If you absolutely must bet on the game playing in front of you, then place the smallest possible bet and then forget about it.

Sports Betting As An Escape

You really don’t want to take a stroll down this path. It alludes to the fact that a certain percentage of sports bettors are only betting because otherwise, they should be doing something else. In some ways, it points to an unhealthy relationship towards betting as a whole. And more than anything, it points to a problem gambler. In sports betting, you need to be able to handicap games with a clear mind. You have to be objective in your approach. We see sports betting as a business. The moment you start betting without care or caution is the moment you need to stop and seek help.

Conclusion: Emotional Sports Betting

If you’re going to be making sports bets, then do so with a clear vision as to what you want to achieve. Keep in mind that you should never let emotions get in the way of purely practical decisions. When you bet with emotions, then you’re playing into the hands of the sports-books. Because bias is closely related to emotion, that too should be avoided. Ideally, you should be looking at your sports betting as a business. And for that to work, you’ll need to be as cold and calculating as possible. So leave emotional sports betting out of it.

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