5 Signs You’re a Terrible Sports Gambler

The main problem with being a terrible sports gambler is that it can cost you a great deal of money. This means that you need to determine if you’re a terrible sports gambler now, so you can either quit or learn how to improve your skills.

Here are five signs that you may be a terrible sports gambler. And you can also learn how to improve if you’re guilty of any of these five signs. Most struggling sports gamblers can improve if they know where to put in the work and if they are willing to keep working until they start making a profit.

1 – You’re Losing Over 50% of Your Point Spread Wagers

The math is clear when it comes to betting on point spreads. On average, gamblers win 50% of their point spread wagers. Some sports gamblers win a little over 50% of their point spread wagers, and some lose a little less than 50%.

The reasons why you can trust the math of point spread wagers include:

• With a point spread, there are only three possible outcomes. You place a wager on the correct side and win, place a wager on the losing side and lose, or the bet is a tie or push.
• Millions of point spread wagers are placed every year, and the large number means that the average is something you can use without being concerned about variance or deviation.
• The sportsbooks set the lines effectively on average, creating something close to balanced action, which locks in profits.

All the sportsbooks need to do is set lines that create balanced action to guarantee a profit. When a sportsbook charges a standard 10% vig, if they take the same amount in wagers on each side of the line, they lock in a profit of roughly 5% of the total wagers.

Here’s how the math works.

A real money sportsbook takes $110,000 in wagers on each side the line, all at the standard $110 to $100 vig. This is a total handle of $220,000 on the game. Half the money is given back to winning gamblers, and $100,000 of the $110,000 on the other side is also paid out to the winning gamblers.

This leaves a profit of $10,000 for the sportsbook. Depending on how you want to run the numbers, this is a profit of either 5% or 4.55% of the total handle on the game.

Here’s what all of this means.

Over a long period of time and/or large number of wagers, you can win 50% of your point spread bets using any method you want. You can let your dog pick teams, or toss darts to pick them. With no handicapping ability at all, you can win 50% of the time.

This means that if you’re winning less than 50% of your point spread wagers, you’re a terrible sports gambler.

2 – You Bet on Teams That You Root For

This is something that most amateur sports gamblers do, and it’s something that most professional sports gamblers don’t do. You should avoid placing wagers on teams that you root for. If you’re making wagers on teams you root for, the odds are good that you’re not a good sports gambler.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t root for the teams you place wagers on. Of course you want your bets to win. But almost every sports gambler has a problem accurately evaluating teams they’re fans of.

Anything that hurts your ability to evaluate and handicap games needs to be eliminated. The main problem most sports gamblers have when trying to evaluate their favorite teams is that they overvalue the abilities and possible production of these teams and players.

They want their team to do well, so they tend to ignore or discount poor performance, and predict better than normal results in the future.

Stop making wagers on your favorite teams. And don’t start making them in the future until you learn how to properly evaluate games without any bias. Many sports gamblers never learn how to do this, so they don’t bet on games with teams they root for. The good news is that there are plenty of additional games available to place wagers on, so it’s not going to stop you from placing bets.

3 – You Bet Too Much on Each Game

How much do you wager on every game you bet on? What percentage of your total bankroll is the amount of your answer to the first question? Of course, if you’re not working with a bankroll, you can’t answer the second question.

The first thing you need to do is establish a bankroll for your sports gambling. The size of your bankroll when you start doesn’t matter as long as you have a bankroll. You can find betting limits that work with almost any size bankroll. If you have a small bankroll, you can get started with an online sportsbook that accepts bets of $1 or less.

The next step is learning how much to risk on each game that you bet on. Before you read the answer, try to come up with a range as a percentage of your total bankroll to see how close you can get to the correct answer.

Most sports gamblers bet far too much in comparison to the size of their bankroll when they bet on a game. And this is even if they have a bankroll.

The correct sports gambling range is from 1% to 5% of your total bankroll on a single contest. And it’s best if you stick with a range of 1% to 3% unless you have an easy way to add to your bankroll when you have a losing streak.

Never make the mistake of thinking that you’re not going to have a losing streak. Even the best professional sports gamblers have losing streaks. You need to have a large enough bankroll to survive during a losing streak so you can still profit when you have a winning streak.

4 – You Don’t Know How to Identify Value

The most important skill you need as a sports gambler is the ability to identify value. When you evaluate and handicap sporting events, the purpose is to identify value. You should avoid making any wagers until you identify value.

Identifying value means predicting the outcome of a sporting contest and finding a line that gives you a good chance to win if the results are close to what you predict. This isn’t easy, but many sports gamblers are able to learn how to do it.

If the way you’re choosing which teams and lines to use involves anything other than finding value, you don’t have any realistic chance to win in the long run.

The best way to learn how to identify value is to start evaluating games and predicting outcomes. Then compare your predictions with the lines available to make bets on.

I recommend doing this on paper without placing any real wagers until you prove that you can make a profit. Record everything in a notebook or keep it in a document on your computer. This is a low-cost way to practice your handicapping skills and learn how to identify value.

5 – You Spend Less Than an Hour Evaluating a Game

You just learned why identifying value is so important, and the truth is that it takes time. You might be able to learn how to find value spending less than an hour on each game once you’re a seasoned professional. But if you’re not turning a profit now, you need to be spending as much time as you need evaluating each game.

The minimum amount of time I recommend sports gamblers spend evaluating each game is one hour. If you can’t think of how you can possibly spend that much time evaluating a sporting event, then you’re not considering enough things.

Every sport produces a wide and deep range of statistics you can use, and there are more news outlets to access than ever before. Use every resource you can find to help you evaluate sporting contests.

You can learn how to cut down on your average time spent per contest as you learn how to identify games that don’t offer value. To do this, you need to look at the available lines before you start evaluating games.

Conclusion

Now you know if you’re a terrible sports gambler. But you also know what you need to do to correct many of the mistakes you’re making now.

The best piece of advice on this page is to not get in a hurry and bet on paper as you learn how to handicap games. This way, you can actually learn how to win without taking much risk.

Make sure that you’re spending enough time evaluating games and that you learn how to identify betting value. Once you learn how to do that, all you need to do is protect your bankroll and you’re all good to go!