Advice

Top Ten Things Not To Do For New Bettors

When you decide to take your betting from recreational to a more serious past time then like learning anything this is the time when you are likely to make the biggest mistakes. This post looks at the top ten mistakes that are made when going from recreational betting to serious betting so that you don’t need to make them.

1. Unrealistic Expectations – It is very easy to have unrealistic expectations due to the amount of hype surrounding new systems and the lure of big wins. If you are making 10% ROI with 300 selections a year then you are doing well. If you are only making £30 per year this is because you cannot afford stakes of £1000 otherwise you would be making £30,000. You cannot turn £100 into £10000 in 30 days unless you are extremely lucky.
2. Trying To Find A System That Always Wins – There is no system that always wins and you will not find it. A high strike rate for win bets is 30%. If you place 100 bets you are going to lose at least 70 of them and probably more. You need to get used to losing your bets if you want to become a professional gambler.
3. Thinking It Is An Easy Way To Wealth – Nothing can be further from the truth. It is certainly possible to make a living, and a good one at that, from betting but do not think that this is easy. To be successful in this business requires a lot of dedication and you will find that you will be putting in more hours than a standard job to begin with.
4. Over Betting – When beginning in this industry you want to make as much profit as quickly as possible and so bets are placed that are way too high for the bankroll that you are using to bet with. This can lead to bankruptcy very quickly, if in doubt then don’t risk more than 1% on each bet.
5. Rushing – This can defeat you before you have given yourself a chance. Because betting is associated with the thrill of winning a lot new bettors rush to place bets without planning properly. Controlling this is very important and if you can control the urge to place bets at the beginning until you are ready and have carefully planned your selection method, betting method, staking method, work rota etc… then you will have a very strong starting advantage to becoming successful.
6. Trying To Create A System Without Understanding The Basics – It is very tempting to jump in and start trying to build a system with some of the software that is readily available to allow you to do this before you have learnt the basics of the sport you want to bet in. You may think that you know a lot about it, but I can assure you that the majority of you won’t when you start to begin to dig a bit deeper than the surface. Take the time to learn the sport inside out first and you will be making a difficult task a little bit easier.
7. Not Using Proper System Testing Strategies – When you first build systems it will be fairly easy to make profitable ones. Why is this? Because you are not testing them properly. They may work well in the past but you are doing what is known as back fitting them. In other words you are making them perform excellently on the set of results that you have. When you begin using them for real they will not win. There are methods of testing that you will need to learn to prevent this from happening.
8. Unprepared For The Emotional Stress – For most the life of a professional gambler is very stressful and it is this that stops them from doing it. Even though this may not be recognised in this form, it can lead to losses which of course prevent a professional career. The emotional control needed for this business must not be under-estimated. If you are only betting a few hundred races a year then you can expect to have periods of months when you are losing. You need to be prepared for these periods from the beginning in order to make sure that you don’t start to make rash decisions.
9. Being Happy With Just One Working Method – When you find your first method that produces a profit for you the joy will be immense and rightly so. Do not let this moment of joy make you think that you have now found the holy grail and you never have to work again! You need to add many more methods to the pot as the market is constantly changing and old methods will eventually stop working. There is a shelf-life in sports betting methods and if you are not prepared for it then you will not be able to stay ahead when your method begins to fail.
10. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare – You must prepare. If you were going to start a property business then you would prepare everything to the finest detail in advance before you put any money in. This is just as important in professional betting. It is a business like any other and you must prepare everything to the finest point before investing your money. This is the biggest downfall of those new to betting.

These 10 reasons are the major obstacles that new bettors face. If you go through each one and make sure that you have covered it before you place your first bet then you will be in an excellent position to look at becoming a professional.

I run a course that shows you how to go from novice to professional bettor at www.puntology.com

Michael Wilding

Michael started the Race Advisor in 2009 to help bettors become long-term profitable. After writing hundreds of articles I started to build software that contained my personal ratings. The Race Advisor has more factors for UK horse racing than any other site, and we pride ourselves on creating tools and strategies that are unique, and allow you to make a long-term profit without the need for tipsters. You can also check out my personal blog or my personal Instagram account.

2 Comments

  1. Hi Michael
    Very sensible advice! I have taken most of it already and the one system I have devised
    is continuing to make slow,steady progress. What I need now is one or two more systems to give
    me a portfolio.
    Best wishes
    John

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