Betting psychology

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.”

If you are hoping to become a full-time sports bettor, then you may think that you have found an escape from work-related stress. In reality, sports betting can be as stressful, if not more stressful, then whatever it is that you are doing now.

As a punter, you will have to deal with a lot of challenging emotions.  Anger, fear, and frustration, pride and stress will all take their toll.  But stress is really just the tip of the iceberg.  When you are stressed, you are still motivated—often highly motivated.  But you push yourself and push yourself, and you may eventually find yourself dealing with burnout.

If you dream about becoming a sports bettor for a living, part of your motivation may be to transition out of a stressful 9-to-5 job into a career where you get to call more of the shots. Betting itself however can be quite stressful, and that is a reality you need to be prepared for. In the series, I’ll delve into some of the different types of stressors you will encounter on your journey toward full-time sports betting.

If you are serious about betting on sports, and are thinking about turning it into a full-time job, you may think that you're getting away from the stress associated with a 9-to-5 job. While this may ultimately be true, it is not an easy or fast transition to make. In fact, in some ways it can be even more stressful, especially while you are still balancing betting with a day job. See Sources of Stress in Betting Part 1 for a brief introduction to this topic.

If you actually become a sports punter for a living, you will be embarking on a career which eliminates many of the sources of stress which are ubiquitous in the 9-to-5 life. You won't have to worry about pleasing the boss, clocking in on time, or dealing with difficult coworkers. You will be calling the shots in almost every respect. The only exception of course is that you will be required to follow the rules that you set for yourself. These are the rules that help you to profit time and again.

Most gamblers struggle to keep their emotions in perspective, but the danger of wagering on emotion is perhaps more pronounced for sports bettors than for any other type.  Not only do you have to deal with the usual highs and lows of winning and losing, but you also may be invested in the teams you are betting on.  You might be pulled two different directions by your mind and your heart.  Your mind may tell you the smart choice, but your heart wants you to bet on the team you support.

The phrase “on tilt” in the world of betting refers to spinning out of control.  Usually this is the result of a major loss or string of losses, but overconfidence can also lead to going on tilt.  There are different types of tilting, for example feeling like you are out of control, you make a desperate bid to get back control, like taking a wager you would normally skip or betting a ton of money.  You lose even more money, and then you spin even further out of control. 

There is a popular phrase in the gambling world that applies as much to sports bettors as it does to poker players and other online casino gamblers.  You know those moments when you lose—or win—a bet, and suddenly it feels like you have become unhinged from your entire emotional axis?  Your thoughts and feelings seem to spin out of control, and you feel like someone has lit a fire in your mind.  You feel a compulsive, desperate urge to wager, even if it doesn’t make any sense.