Trying to narrow all the mistakes sports gamblers make to just the best ten is like trying to corral a herd of cats. That being said, here is my list of the top ten mistakes that sports gamblers make. Unfortunately, most of these are a result of personal experience. They come to you now, in no particular order, all are equally awful mistakes.
1) Free online advise. There is a reason it’s free folks. I have learned to never, ever base a bet on something I have read from some gambling site. I’m sure there’s a site out there where you can pay them some cash and they will give the insight from their crystal ball. Quite frankly, I try to stay away from what anyone says online or in the media about a game. It simply clouds my judgement. I like to watch the games myself, make my own analysis and back up my own picks with stats at tendencies.
2) Betting heavily on favored teams. Sure, during their perfect season, you almost couldn’t miss with the Patriots. God knows they saved my rear all year. Most professional games are rarely blow outs. Generally speaking the talent level is pretty even and you never know when a team will step it up. Besides, the payout is so much better when you hit a money line on a dog. Do your homework and find those dogs with some fight, just make sure they don’t have fleas!
3) Not keeping up to date on the injury report. News flash, teams still practice during the season and injuries happen there. Teams also like to down play nagging injuries so staying abreast, especially of key players health is vital to any sports gambler.
4) Not taking into account home field/court advantage. Sure, there are certain places that home field doesn’t mean a thing. However, if it’s mile high stadium or the team plays in a noisy dome, odds are, there’s going to be some affect. I simply do not bet against the Broncos at home.
5) Over playing or under playing parlays. It’s really tempting to get suckered into putting a lot of time and money into crafting the perfect parlay. The problem is that it’s hard enough to pick one game acurately, let alone 2 or more. If you aren’t necessarily serious about it, sure, throw together an 8-10 team parlay and see what happens. I can guess what will happen, that’s why the pay out is so high. However, I see a lot of upside
throwing together a pick with an over/under. For instance if you think Tampa Bay who are 3 point dogs are going to win based on their defense and a banged up opposing offense, go ahead and parlay the Tampa Bay ml with the under. Look at the increased return as opposed to making two separate straight up bets.
6) Letting fandamonium get in the way of logic. If you make a bet based on your love of a team, it better be for fun or you are an idiot. I simply do not bet on the teams I love. You should never let emotion dictate a bet.
7) The uninformed bet. Hopefully you wouldn’t buy a car that you knew nothing about and hadn’t at least driven around the block once. Why then, would you make a bet on either a team or sport you knew nothing or very little about.
Following the pack. Most of the sports gambling public is wrong most of the time. That’s why the casinos offer sports gambling. If you find yourself following betting trends, you probably also find yourself losing most of the time. You could pretty much make a living by following trends and betting the opposite.
9) Not checking the weather. Is a monsoon heading into Texas? Is it snowing in New York. Vegas knows and you better too.
10) Betting too far ahead of game time. There is something to be said for betting ahead of the pack if you think the spread is going to dramatically shift one way or the other. The problem is, it rarely happens. Besides, so much can happen up to game time. I got hosed when everyone was saying Colt Brennan was going to start against Nevada and what happened just before kick off, oh, just kidding, he’s on the sideline.
So there you have it, my top ten mistakes that sports gamblers make. Avoid these and some other pit falls out there and you may find yourself with some nice earnings by the end of the seasons. Wanna bet?
