Making a mistake in betting is heartbreaking, even more so when those mistakes cost you a lot of money.
In sports betting, making a mistake in your bets is expensive, and a single mistake can turn a profitable day into a miserable one.
And it’s especially heartbreaking when that mistake happens to be a minor one, like a slip up in your betting slip or accidentally betting on the other team.
Not only that, but it’s also humiliating. A loss and humiliation are like a one-two punch in the gut if you ask me. However, even if everybody hates them, let’s admit that these mistakes happen often and commonly. But, just because it’s normal for someone to have a slip-up now and then, that doesn’t mean that we have to let it happen because, after all, a simple mistake can cost a lot of money.
Thankfully, we are here to talk about the most common mistake that every bettor, pro or beginner, makes now and then. By discussing them, we’ll know how to avoid them in the future and not lose more money due to these small errors. That said, here are some mistakes you should avoid in NFL sports betting.
Betting on your favourite
Just because it’s your favourite team in the NFL doesn’t mean that they would always win when you bet on them. Before you bet on a team, you should do it with an analytical mind combined with tons of research and a small amount of luck. A lot of professional bettors avoid betting on their favourite teams in the NFL because they deem it to be bad luck.
This also serves as a clear division between them being fans of their favourite team and their betting career. Simply put, you want to watch your favourite team without stressing out about the money you put on them.
However, this also doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t bet on your favourite team at all. You can bet on them, of course, as long as you already deem their odds to win in the game as favourable and advantageous, which you’ll know by clicking on this link.
Forgetting to check your betting slip
Check your betting slips after you received them, people. It’s the number one way to make sure that the clerk got your bet right, and also one of the ways to avoid breaking your heart.
Let’s say you are currently watching a game that is tied up and is now on overtime. Of course, as a smart bettor, you bet on the winning team because they have the most likely team to win. As the game ended, they won, and they cover the spread you bet on.
However, as you go to the clerk to get your winnings, the clerk stated that you bet on the losing team and subsequently lost the bet. Turns out that when you’re making your bet, the clerk misheard you and placed your bet on the losing team.
Unfortunately, this is all too common in sports betting. However, this is easily fixed by checking your betting slips before you watch the game.
Going with the public most of the time
More often than not, people go along with the public bet loss. The public bet by instinct, meaning they don’t make bets based on research but instead with which team they feel will win. Not only that, they go with the obvious favourites like historic franchises, the home team, or a team that has a famous player. Of course, this is a huge mistake.
As a bettor, you need to make an educated guess on who you think will win the game and where to bet to get the most wins. This is why contrarians exist. Contrarian bettors capitalize by betting against the public and relish on those inflated numbers. To add more chances in winning, they also side mostly with the house because, you know, the house always wins.
Chasing Losses
Beating a dead horse once is enough, but some people don’t get that beating it, again and again, will only make them lose more, especially when they’re caught in the heat of the moment.
Most bettors who are caught in a losing streak tend to get heated up even further and end up losing more money than intended. Of course, we’re not saying chasing your losses is terrible; you want to get your money back after all.
However, when you’re already losing a lot of money, you should know that you must take a break and let your boiling blood simmer down. The key here is to not get too caught up in the heat of the moment. Avoid getting too frustrated and chase your losses even more.
Try to get your money back once or twice, but if you’re still losing in those two turns, maybe you should try your luck next time.
Takeaway
These mistakes may be familiar, but it doesn’t mean that we should let them happen to us all the time. Fortunately for us, there are ways to avoid them and subsequently avoid losing a lot of money in the process. One major thing you can do is to always be attentive and patient. Admittedly, we’ll not be winners all the time. That said, in times of losses, we should learn to keep our cool and try our luck the next day.