Determine What Sort Of Bettor You Are

For the last few weeks I’ve written about quite a lot of betting strategies. Which is why this week I thought it would be better to go back to the basics and cover a topic that most bettors forget about…

What sort of bettor are you?

This is a fundamental question. In a perfect world you would ask yourself this question before you placed your first ever bet.

In reality it’s a question that you’re more likely to ask yourself after you’ve already been betting for a while.

Have you asked yourself this question?

If you have, then this post is going to help you re-evaluate whether you are still the same bettor as you were when you asked that question.

If you haven’t, then you’re going to love what I’m about to share with you.

Betting’s exciting.

I mean, there’s no greater thrill in the world than watching your horse win and knowing that you’ve made a profit from it.

And it’s the excitement and lure of profits that most punters are drawn to.

Think back to the very first time that you walked into a bookmaker and placed a bet on a horse.

What type of bet did you place?

99% of people will have placed a win bet.

Why?

Because it’s the easiest to understand. After all, bookmakers provide a huge range of different ways to bet on the races.

And they do that because they want you to spend more money with them.

But we’re smart punters. We don’t play by the bookmakers rules.

And we can use the availability of all these different bet types to our advantage.

You see, every single one of us is different. And that means that we have:

• Different levels of acceptable risk
• Different abilities to cope with losing runs
• Different time available
• Different bankrolls

The only person who knows how you feel about these things is… you.

And you’ve got to be honest with yourself here, otherwise this isn’t going to work.

So grab a pen and paper now and quickly write down where you sit for each of the three points above.

What level of risk are you comfortable with? Is it okay to lose your bankroll? Do you need your bankroll to be 99% secure?

Can you cope with a losing run of 2 weeks? A losing run of 2 months? A losing run of 6 months?

Are you able to bet every day? Mornings only? Do you have the time to learn how to form read? Are you free to watch the races and markets as they happen?

Do you have a bankroll big enough to sustain low strike rate selections and make the profit you want? Are you happy to start small and make small profits? Do you want to be professional or are you happy with just a couple of hundred pounds profit a month?

You don’t have to show this to anybody. It’s personal, it’s private and it’s for your eyes only.

Bare yourself to the piece of paper in front of you.

If you don’t, then you’re just making it harder for yourself to reach your potential.

And when you’ve done that, it may take ten minutes or so, you will have in your hands the type of bettor you are.

Okay, it’s going to look a bit long winded. You need to quickly grab another piece of paper and write down a two sentence summary of what you just wrote.

Now you have the type of bettor you are distilled to it’s core elements.

And it’s time to take that information and use it to determine the strategies and bet types that you are prepared to use.

Start with the strategy type that is best suited to you.

For example, if you want your bankroll to be as secure as possible and your risk level is very low. Then the obvious choice for you is a trading strategy.

Next you would consider your availability and bankroll to determine what sort of trading strategy. If you aren’t available during the day you would be looking for long-term swing trades strategies, availability during the day may mean scalping last minute movements in the market. Bankroll can affect this as well. If you have large bankroll you may want to focus on market moving strategies whereas a smaller bankroll may want to focus on maximising turnover to grow it as fast as possible.

As you can see in the example above. Doing this will actually define the betting strategy and approach that is most suited to your personal situation.

So, in summary, you should…

1. Write down your answers to the questions above right now
2. Summarise your answers into two sentences
3. Use these answers to determine the type of betting you should be doing
4. Take the type of betting and use your answers to determine the type of betting strategy you should be using
5. Go and find/build the strategy that suits your personal situation

Stop trying to force yourself into using a particular service or type of bet because the proofing says it is profitable.

It may be profitable for whoever created it, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to suit your situation or betting preference.

Instead determine what your situation and betting preference is and…

…find the right strategy or service to fit it.