Top 8 Mistakes Unsuccessful Sports Bettors Make

During my time running a sportsbook in Las Vegas I came to learn the successful habits of the rare few who made their living at sports betting.

And I also learned the bad habits common amongst the players who lose.

In previous articles here at PredictEm, I’ve talked about some of these bad habits.

For example, in my article from June 6th, I explained why it’s not wise to vary the size of your standard betting unit.

And in a follow-up article posted on June 15th, I talked about how bettors shouldn’t put their money on a game just because it’s on TV and why, if you do bet a game just because you want to watch it with a rooting interest (which ALL bettors do) it’s the only time you should vary the size of your standard wager.
You should lower it.

In addition to those two, here are the major mistakes made by amateurs and losing bettors.

1) Doubling Down

Losing is part of your own personal Battle with the Books. It sucks, but it happens. How a sports bettor handles losing a game is a big part of whether he will win or lose in the long run.

Professional sports bettors remain emotionless after a loss. They take it in stride, shrug it off, and move on to the next game.

Amateurs and unprofessional sports bettors get angry. They can’t accept the loss. They want their money back, and they want it NOW.
And damnit, they’re going to get it!
So, they double down.
If they lost $110.00 trying to win $100.00 on their last game, they bet $220 on their next one.
And more often than not, they find themselves down $330.00
Don’t double down.

2) Chasing

It’s Sunday morning. You’ve done your handicapping work, checked your stats, and checked the lines. You have your NFL bets selected, two early games circled, and one in the afternoon. You make your three bets.
The games are over, and you’ve won one and lost two. The Sunday night game is not one of your original picks. You have no system, trends, or feel for the game, but you’re in the red for the day, so you make a bet on the late contest and hope for the best.
This is almost always a mistake.
Do your handicapping.
Make your bets.
Live with results.
Don’t press your (bad) luck by adding bets you hadn’t planned on making.
Don’t throw good money after bad.
Live to fight another day.

3) Betting Too Many Games

Here’s some of the best advice you’ll ever get:
The books HAVE to put a line on EVERY game.
That is the book’s disadvantage.
Bettors do NOT have to bet every game. They can pick and choose their spots.
That is the player’s advantage.

The more games you bet, the more you reduce the house’s disadvantage and decrease your own advantage.

Too many bettors look at the full slate of games and consider any that they don’t bet on a potential loss of money, so they bet too many games.
Don’t be greedy, pick your spots and don’t get crazy betting most or all of the games on the board.

4) Betting Big Money Favs on the Money Line

After taking losses on point line wagers, many bettors start looking at laying BIG money lines instead of point lines, mistakenly believing it gives them a better chance at winning.
WRONG. It doesn’t.
This mistake is especially prevalent during baseball season. I’ve seen it firsthand – MLB is generally the sport that drains players’ bankroll faster than any other sport.
Switching to BIG money Favs to avoid the point line is a recipe for disaster.

5) Betting Every Day

Everyone knows why casinos don’t have windows, don’t have clocks, keep the temperature cool and comfortable, and keep the drinks flowing. Because the house knows the longer you stay at the table, the better their chance of getting your money.
The trick to winning at the casino is to get in, win some money, and get out.
Don’t overstay and push your luck.
The same principle goes for sports betting.
Jump in, jump out.
Don’t bet every day. Take a day off once in a while and enjoy the other parts of your life. Knowing when to take a day off is important.
Life has flows, ups and downs. You have to be able to read the signs and recognize when it’s a good time to take a day off.

For example, after you’ve lost a couple of games in a row, it’s a good time to step back and take a day off before you find yourself on an extended losing streak.

Or, if you go to work and get laid off, and on your way home, some idiot who’s texting while driving hits your car. Then, when you get home, you walk into the kitchen and find a Dear John letter stuck in the fridge with one of those little fruit magnets. The note is from your wife telling you that she’s left you. AND she took the dog. You have to be able to read the signs; you have to recognize that this is probably not a good day for you to take the Toledo Rockets laying points in that night’s Wednesday Maction.
Or any other bets.

6) Going All In

Sports betting isn’t poker. When your bankroll gets low you’re going to be tempted go all in at some point in an attempt at a quick fix to get back your losses in a hurry. Don’t give in to the temptation. Keep a steady head, maintain a steady betting unit, and try to work your way back into the plus side.

7) Jumping on Winning Streaks/Trends

When their own handicapping methods aren’t working, a lot of bettors start looking for a winning handicapper, someone on a hot streak so that they can tail his bets.

There are two mistakes with this thinking.

First, remember, 98% of sports betters lose, so looking for a winning handicapper is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. And the internet is full of guys who post fake records—caveat emptor.

Second, the main problem with jumping onto an already established winning streak is . . . Reversion Towards the Mean.

If you don’t know what reversion towards the mean means, don’t make another bet until you research it and understand it.

I see it all the time on the internet.
A bettor gets hot and goes on something like a 16-4 run, 80%, and right away, others want to tail him on his next play. But an 80% win streak is not sustainable. The value on that play was 20 games ago, not now. The key is to anticipate and jump on a trend at it’s early stages, which is very difficult to do.

If winning was simply a matter of finding someone who’s hot and tailing his plays, everyone would win. And everyone does not win.
As you well know, most people lose.

Established trends may be something you want to incorporate into your handicap, but they’re just one minor part of the big picture. And here’s a bonus bad habit, one that is, in my opinion, the worst of them all.

8) Not Keeping a Database of Your Plays

Let’s say you take money out of your savings account and buy a small business.
As a business owner, you have a business plan.
You have a budget.
You set goals.
You track revenue and expenses.
You keep a P& L (Profit and Loss) statement.

You learn which areas of your business bring you profit and which are a drain on expenses. And you make changes accordingly.
You do all the things necessary to operate a successful business and ensure the safety of your investment.

Why do you treat sports betting any differently?

Isn’t it an investment, just like owning your own business?
Don’t you invest money in it?
Do you set goals?
Do you track revenue and expense?
Do you know which areas of your betting are bringing you back profits and which are losing you money?

If I were a betting man (and I am), I would estimate that 98% of sports bettors dump money into accounts and use it to make bets without tracking those investments in any way.

They don’t keep a record of when they bet on Favorites. They don’t know if they’re profitable or losing money when they bet on Dogs.
Same with totals – do they make more money betting totals rather than sides? Do they make more money betting Unders rather than Overs?

How can you expect to be profitable if you don’t know your own numbers??!!

That is no way to run a business.
It’s a way to go out of business, or in this case lose your bankroll and have to redeposit into your betting account. Over and over again.

Those are the eight bad habits that losing sports bettors make. Avoid them and I guarantee you will have a much better chance at winning.

One last tip: Always take free money. Some sportsbooks offer bonuses up to 100%. Take advantage of them all! Check out Predictem’s list of sportsbook bonuses.