Cautionary Notes for Watching the Games You Bet On

Recently, I wrote about the reasons you should consider watching the sports you bet on.  A lot of punters skip watching games, or do not watch them regularly.  Often this is because of time constraints or laziness.  There are a few good reasons to consider skipping the games, but there are also a lot of great advantages to watching.  When you watch games, you:

• Become an expert on your sport and glean insights into the season.
• Are able to put a context to statistics and analysis you read.
• May make important observations about specific players that others miss.
• Have a chance to assess team form firsthand.
• Can place in-play wagers.

So why wouldn’t you want to watch games?  Some punters have a very hard time watching games because of the following potential problems:

• Going on tilt.  For some punters, watching a live game while betting on it is simply too frustrating.  There are so many reasons it is easy to become emotional.  Maybe you are attached to the team or a player, or maybe you are simply scared of losing your wager.  Either way, it can wreak havoc on your blood pressure, and may cause you to make poor decisions.  You might lose confidence in your wager and attempt to withdraw it or offset it with another bet, and end up losing money.

• You may occasionally actually miss opportunities.  Depending on where you live, certain games and certain teams are more likely to be featured on TV.  If you use the broadcasts to plan your future bets, you may miss out on opportunities which are not featured.  It is all too easy to ignore teams simply because your local station ignores them too.  You may also begin favouring teams unconsciously without good reason, because they are favoured regionally. 

• It is easy to give extra weight to things which amaze or distress you.  Sometimes a single incredible play from a player may stand out, for example, and sway your opinion heavily in that player’s favour, even though the move itself could have been a fluke.  Or perhaps you saw a certain player take a heavy fall, and you know he is injured.  While this may impact his play, you may overestimate how much if the spill was particularly nasty to watch. 

This is why some punters cannot watch the games they are betting on, and why others may actually avoid following their sport too closely on television at all.  You will need to take careful notes of how watching vs. not watching impacts your own betting performance and figure out what works best for you.  If you do decide to watch games, it can pay off, but you should always proceed cautiously, with the drawbacks in mind.  There is no right or wrong way to do it.  Just do what is best for your betting style!