Many a career in sports betting is born when someone looks at the odds on a sporting event and thinks “That seems a bit generous, I think I’m going to give that a go”. Often, their instinct is accurate and they benefit from a win, but it is important to be aware that initial success is not always followed by a string of wins. Even when it seems like a bet is a sure thing, nothing is ever guaranteed until it has been officially declared.
This is just to remind people that when searching online for the best bookmakers and odds, it’s never a good idea to start seeing betting as a reliable income stream. The reason that you can win and make money on betting is that the possibility exists for you to lose. And if you are looking at the chance to bet on sporting events and make some winnings, it is worth keeping in mind that you need to be doing all the right things to give the best chance of a positive outcome. Even then you’re not guaranteed anything, but it helps to remember the following.
Nothing that you can bet on is set in stone
It is inevitable that, for example, there will be a new Prime Minister of the UK at some point. What we don’t know is who it will be, when they will take office, or what party they will represent. In sport, the future is even less sure, and while it might seem like a good idea to put everything you have on Brazil beating Albania if they were to meet on the soccer pitch, you’d be surprised. Shock results happen, so don’t bet on something just because it seems obvious.
Only bet on what you know about
The world is full of things that we know just a little bit about. Most people with a vague and passing interest in such things will tell you that New Zealand are the best at rugby, that the USA and Jamaica provide the best sprinters, and that Novak Djokovic is unbeatable on the hard courts of the Australian Open. Now let me introduce the World Rugby Champions (South Africa), the Olympic 100m gold medallist (Lamont Jacobs of Italy), and the reigning Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal. People who know about a sport know about edge cases that can make the received wisdom look stupid, so only bet on something you have deeply researched.
Always double-check a bet before placing it
Your betting slip will contain all the information you need to refer to before clicking “Place Bet”, so take the time to read it one more time before you do click. It’s amazing how many people place bets thinking they are betting on a football team to win a match, only to later discover that they had bet on the team to win a tournament overall. Great news of course, if you bet on Leicester City to win a game sometime in September 2015, and couldn’t cancel it when you realised you’d backed them to win the league. But mistakes rarely work in our favour, so take the time to check your bets. This can also allow time for you to back out of a bet you’re unsure about.
