Surviving “The Dip” as a Sports Bettor Part 3

If you have reached a point in your sports betting career where you feel like you are pouring time, money, and effort down the drain, you may have reached what business guru Seth Godin refers to in his New York Times Bestselling book as “The Dip.”  This is the point at which you have hit a plateau in your profitability measured against your effort, or maybe even suffered a drop.  Please read Surviving the Dip as a Sports Bettor, Part 1 and Surviving the Dip as a Sports Bettor, Part 2 for an introduction to this concept. 

At this point your frustration can be overwhelming, and you may be thinking about quitting.  If so, I believe that there are a number of “quitting” questions worth examining.  I want to address those now.

1. Should You Quit Betting with Real Money?

Who says you have to throw in the towel altogether?  It is bad enough throwing time and energy down the drain, but why keep throwing money down as well?  Do yourself a big favour: whatever is going on, quit betting live with real money, at least for now.  Doing so will stem the cash bleeding and allow you to focus on whatever is holding you back with a lot less stress.  I think this is one of the smartest things you can do if you are losing bet after bet.  Go back to testing strategies and running analysis.  Bet on paper before you bet live again.  Sometimes you need to quit the battle to stay in the war.  Once you start seeing profit on paper again, you can begin wagering real money and get back to building up your bank account.

2. Should You Quit the Strategy You Are Using?

This is another option you should consider before you think of stopping betting completely.  If you have been using a betting strategy that has not been paying off, and you just cannot get it to work, you may want to toss it aside and find a new one.  There are so many ways you can make money betting.  It makes no sense to continue to back a bad investment, and sometimes a strategy is a bad investment, even if you feel like it should work because someone else is using it successfully.  Not every strategy is ideal for every punter.  You may need to find another which fits better with your betting personality (though I question you not to go on a search for a “perfect” holy grail of betting methods).

Going back to the drawing board is rough, but it may be enough to keep you in the game.  Plus, oftentimes you do not have to go all the way back.  You may find a variation on your system that works.  The knowledge and experience you have built up are there at your service.  You never have to go back all the way to square one.  Draw courage from that to persevere.  Plus, even if you do have to replace your strategy completely, the lessons you have learned about betting psychology, money management, and the sports and teams you follow will still be there to guide you.

There are a couple of other issues pertaining to quitting I want to get into, namely whether you should quit any services you are relying on and whether you should throw in the towel after all.  Read on to Surviving “The Dip” as a Sports Bettor, Part 4!