By A Correspondent | There is a lot of information to absorb to get the most out of betting. There is getting to grips with the full understanding of sports odds, bookmaker margins and implied probability. Then there is trying to leverage positions at different betting sites to try and get the most value for a bet, comparing bonuses offered by different bookmakers or trying various betting apps with daily free spins.
There’s also a lot of information around that could give bettors the wrong idea about what to do. There are myths floating around about sports betting that are just flat-out wrong and of no use to the punter and can hurt their betting bankroll. Here let’s explore the top three myths that need to be busted.
Myth #1. Only Bet on Favourites
One of the most common pieces of advice given to new bettors that could be costly to their pocket is to just bet on short-priced favourites. Not only is it a really weak strategy, but it offers the bettor nothing in terms of growth.
What makes sports betting popular is learning all the nuances and trying to find an edge. If you just make rote bets on favourites, then you are not gaining any valuable information that is going to help you down the line.
There is also just how baseless only picking strong odds-on favourites is, as they don’t win all the time. Let’s assume five bets, all at 1/3 (1.33 decimal) odds are placed with a 10 stake each. Four winning bets would return 3.33 profit each, so a total of 13.22. But if the fifth bet loses, then from a total risk of 50, all that would be returned is 3.32 profit.
If only two or three of the bets won, the winnings won’t cover the initial outlay. It’s not that you should never bet on favourites, but only when the time is right, and not exclusively.
Bookmakers frown upon players who only ever bet on short-priced favourites because it undermines the sport of betting, by trying to win a lot of small amounts from very low risk. This type of strategy can lead you to get banned by a bookmaker.
Myth 2. That You Are Due a Win
Another sports betting myth that needs to be busted because of how it can cost you money, is expecting a streak of bad luck to end. This is a gambler’s fallacy. One bet has nothing to do with the next. A great example is a coin flip – if there have been six ‘heads’ in a row, the chance of the streak ending by a ‘tails’ coming up on the next flip has not changed. It’s still 50/50.
Streaks happen in sports betting, but it’s just random chance, and a streak is just as likely to extend as it is to end. This fallacy is not a good mindset for punters to fall into.
Out of desperation for a losing streak to end, people start chasing losses by making bigger, riskier bets which can make the situation worse. The better option is just to simply take a breather, step away from sports betting for a couple of weeks, and use the time to go back and look at your strategy to see if there is anything that needs to be tweaked.
Myth 3. Paying for Betting Tips Is Value
Perhaps the biggest myth that punters fall for is that there is value in purchasing sports betting tips. People want tips to try and get an edge, or access to some secret winning formula that has been generated by some magical algorithm.
As soon as you part with money to buy a tip, you are giving away some of your potential profit margin. It’s like the sportsbook adding an extra chunk of overround (bookmaker margin) into their odds so they can gain a bigger profit by devaluing the odds.
Even if the tip happened to win, you wouldn’t get as full of a return from it as you should. If people selling tips and systems had products that could deliver a promised 90% win rate, then they would be millionaires and wouldn’t have any need to sell tips.
There are plenty of good free betting tips out there, so valuable insights can still be gained, and as long as there is true transparency over results, then they can be a valuable part of your research.
But also never just rely on tips for your bet. Take what they suggest and then test it against stats for yourself because at the end of the day, you are playing with your stake and therefore the risk is all yours.