Whatever sport you follow for your betting, horse racing, soccer, tennis etc, making the following mistakes could be costing you dearly. Whatever betting systems or method you apply and whether you choose to bet or trade the sports on a betting exchange or online bookmaker is irrelevant. If you are making any of these mistakes you could easily turn the most statistically profitable sports betting system into a long-term loser. These are 3 areas that the “Professional” gambler will have mastered:

Mistake 1 – Discipline

Let’s get this right out into the open now; gambling for many is an addiction. There are numerous physiological reasons for this, connected with the production of dopamine within the brain associated with the euphoric feeling created by winning. This article is not intended to discuss this in any detail, but suffice to say that this is what the bookmakers feed off for their profits. The problem is that this dangerous cocktail of betting and dopamine will lead the undisciplined gambler to force bets when they know, deep down, that the criteria for there method is not fully met or that the odds are not in their favour. This lack of discipline in betting can be further magnified after losses have occurred and lead to a spiral of bets, chasing the losses until the amounts required to recover become insurmountable. The professional gambler will always apply a level-headed and disciplined approach.

Mistake 2 – Not Keeping Records

In order to be successful, irrespective of the betting systems or methods you use and whether you use an online sports book or your local bookmaker, the professionals will keep records of all the bets they have placed, effectively keeping a “profit and loss” account of their transactions as any well-run business should. Without this it is all too easy to conveniently forget the large losing bets, or conversely focus only on these, forgetting the regular winners. Accurate record keeping not only serves to confirm that the long-term profitability of your betting business is on course, but gives you the ability to remind yourself of the overall performance which can be invaluable in riding out the inevitable losing runs.

Mistake 3 – The Butterfly Effect

As a consequence of the above mistakes, a third classic error leading to a failure to profit from betting is what I term the “Butterfly Effect”. The lack of discipline and accurate record keeping, combined with the disappointment of not seeing instant massive financial rewards causes the losing gambler to flit regularly from service to service or method to method in a vain attempt to find the “Holy Grail”. For many that holy grail has always been in front of them, hidden in plain sight, but without employing the correct psychological and business like approaches most gamblers will carry on looking for the next best thing having unknowingly allowed the real opportunities to profit pass them by.

I hope this goes some way to further explaining the reasoning behind our philosophy that “Betting is a business, gambling is for idiots”, the cornerstone behind Big Mikes successful Strategic Betting approach

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