Betting for beginners

One topic that we talk about a lot in betting psychology is how to set realistic goals and expectations for a sports bettor and why it is so important to avoid setting unrealistic goals and expectations.   But how do you actually figure out whether a goal is realistic or not?  How can you figure out if it is useful or distracting? 

Recently I have been discussing why it is important to track your bets (see my blog post on Why Track Your Bets? Part 1, and why you may want to consider purchasing software to help you do it. If you haven’t yet, please read Why You Need Sports Betting Tracking Software, Part 1. Once you have, continue on to learn a couple more great reasons to consider making the investment in tracking software.

We talk a lot in betting about setting realistic goals and expectations as a sports bettor, but one thing we do not talk about as often is why it is so important to do so.  What are some of the things that can go wrong if we set out with expectations and goals which are too lofty to achieve?  What are the dangers in aiming too high?  Can you really be too ambitious?

Whether you are just at the beginning of your journey into sports betting or you have been at it for a while and simply want to get to the next level, it can be a challenge to keep making forward progress.  Sports betting requires a lot of work if you want to be a winner, and it can be overwhelming trying to juggle all your tasks and figure out what to do next.  Sometimes all that pressure can just make you freeze.

When you are new to the world of sports betting, you probably have some pretty lofty goals—assuming that you are betting primarily for income and not for fun.  You might think to yourself, “I will become a sharp within a year, and after a few years of doing this, I could have hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even more.  I could even become a millionaire.”

In a couple of recent articles (e.g. Why Track Your Bets? Part 1 and Part 2), I discussed the importance of keeping track of the wagers you make when betting on sports. Actually, calling it important is a bit of an understatement.

If you are just getting serious about betting on sports, it makes sense to think about starting a log. This can take the form of a spreadsheet where you take notes about the wagers you have won and lost, what types of bets they were, and why you took them. A detailed journal to go along with this spreadsheet is a great idea.

If you are into casual sports betting, you may place a number of wagers before you start thinking about taking things to the next level and tracking your bets.  Many punters initially start out betting just to have some fun and get more involved with their favourite teams and sports.  So they don’t take notes, and months or years may go by before they realize, “Hey, I could be pretty good at this if I had a betting system.”

Football, a.k.a. fútbol, or as those in the US call it, “soccer,” is one of the most popular games in the world, especially in Europe.  Football’s fast-paced action and simplicity make it easy and fun to follow.  Still, everyone has to start somewhere, and if you’re new to football, you need to know the basics before you can bet.

The Field

When you are analysing a sports team, it is important not only to pay attention to the starters, but the secondary and tertiary players as well.  In the sports world, we talk a lot about “depth.”  If you are new to following team sports and not just to sports betting, you may not be very familiar with the concept.