Why You Shouldn’t Try to Earn a Living with Sports Betting

Sports betting is hyped up to be the answer to a lot of financial problems, but it’s far from that.

If you have signed up at a top bookmaker in the UK, or at one of the best bookies in Australia or in any other part of the world, then you shouldn’t see that as your golden ticket. 

Approaching betting with the hope of trying to earn a living from it is the wrong approach. Sports betting has its pitfalls if not approached properly. 

For the average punter, looking at betting as a pastime is the way to go. That takes the financial pressure off, releases the stresses of losses, and will allow you to celebrate those winning bets when they happen.

Isn’t Betting About Winning?

Punters want to win every bet. But no one does. Sport is filled with tremendous variables which can’t be accounted for. Strong odds-on favourites in the match outright market for fixtures get upset.

It only takes a rogue tackle, a dodgy VAR decision or a moment of lack of concentration from a goalkeeper to turn a game right on its head. So nothing is the absolute ‘dead cert’. While betting is about winning, the deeper level of it is as a hobby status, is the work that goes into making a betting pick.

Research Is Half the Fun

Sports betting isn’t that easy to win at. If it were, bookmakers would be struggling to stay in business. You don’t just look at the weekend’s coupon of Premier League fixtures and pick all the favourites. 

Sitting down and pouring through the statistics like head-to-head, shots per game, expected goals, first-half goals and clean sheets is half of the fun of football betting.

This is the information that you will use to strengthen the validity of a football pick. When a winning bet comes along due to all that work you have put in, then the rewards feel bigger. 

Balance the Bankroll

Managing your bankroll, the funds that you have to spare to gamble with is hugely important. You set your budget and don’t go over it. A simple budget approach, for example, is setting yourself a sum for a month of sports betting.

Take between 2-5% of that total budget for each bet that you place. That should give you a rough idea of how many bets you are placing in a month. From there split that across the weeks of the month and then even by day to have a plan.

Chasing Losses

One big reason why you shouldn’t approach sports betting to try and earn a living is that losses are going to happen. Invariably, if you are throwing huge stakes at bets to try and win big profits, then the risk is even bigger.

The problem with losses of big stakes is that it puts you behind the 8-ball. Suddenly there is a bigger hole to make up. That generally leads to risking more, of throwing the planned bankroll out of the window. It’s a slippery slope from there.

Life as a Professional Gambler

The dream of living a life as a professional gambler isn’t a feasible one. For starters, you would need excessive wealth that you are prepared to lose, just to try and target the kind of numbers that would give you a living from gambling. It’s just not a reality for most people.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

There is a slow, calculated approach that a lot of casual punters take. That’s targeting smaller profit returns on a fairly consistent basis, rather than going all gung-ho on a life-changing big win. You can play a football acca, for example, for a low stake that could bring a big return. They are risky, wild bets anyway. But throwing one unit of stake at one acca every weekend is a whole world away from staking 100 units on an 16/1 outsider in a horse race.

Don’t bet just for the sake of betting. Have realistic expectations and don’t expect to get rich overnight. Choose only reliable and trusted bookmakers, you can always check their lists at Match.Center where they are regularly updated.