In our introductory betting guides, we discussed the importance of having a proper mindset designed to react properly to adversity and variance of sports betting and adopting the mastery approach that aims to beat the game at all costs.
There is another very important aspect in being a successful sports bettor, this aspect is also important in all other forms of gambling and betting. It is the ability to only focus on your long term results, with little regard to the short term.
What Is The Long Run?
There is no one set amount of sports bets that can be considered the long run. This depends greatly on the volatility of the bets you are placing and the number of bets you place daily, but it is reasonable to say that hardly anyone can talk about the long run without at least a few months’ worth of bets
The short term results don’t matter at all. The best bettor in the world can make all the right bets and still lose for weeks on end and even if you bet favorites you could easily lose 10 consecutive bets with a little bad luck.
Placing lots of profitable bets over a long period is guaranteed to return a profit on the other hand and the true masters of the game understand that only the yearly outcome is what really matters, while daily, weekly and even monthly results are far less important as they are subject to so much variance.
Accepting The Losses
Losing is practically a daily thing when it comes to sports betting. Absolutely no punter out there is able to win on a daily basis consistently, no matter how much they try. Even the best have losing weeks and months, so understanding and accepting this concept is extremely important for your long term success.
So you are probably wondering how many bets it is normal to lose. This depends greatly on what kind of events you are betting. If your bets are such that the average odds are under 2/1, you will naturally need to lose less than half of them in order to profit in the long run, but some very successful punters will often place bets on 10/1 or 20/1 outcomes and they expect to lose quite a few of these before finally winning one.
The crucial thing to remember is that you are not in it to win every single time, but rather to win over the course of time, which simply means winning more than you invest.
All Aboard For ProfitVille
Sports betting for most players is just a form of entertainment but for professional sports bettors it is a business and must be treated like one. Just like any business, your main objective and end game should always be nothing other than pure profit.
Everything you do between the moment you start betting and the moment you count the profits is just a means to an end. When you start a serious career as a sports bettor remember that profit is your one and only goal and make sure your every decision is made with the long term profit in mind.
This means you will need to turn off all emotion, forget all the rivalries and love/hate relationships you may have with particular sports clubs and simply focus on mathematical analysis and finding the right spots to bet, no matter what your “feelings” tell you.
Waiting Out The Long Term : Bankroll Management
As we already mentioned, the long term can take quite a while and if sports betting is your only source of income you may have to survive for some time without any profit and this is where bankroll management comes in.
If you are looking to actually become a success at sports betting, we absolutely recommend you only start once you have enough of a bankroll to survive some pretty bad variance and enough living money for at least a few months. It’s either this or working another job to pay your daily costs while you build up your betting bankroll, but given how tiresome betting can become, working another job and successfully betting sports may be quite difficult.
Your best bet is to save up until you have enough money to embark on a journey where your other expenses are paid for and you have at least a few months of free time during which you can bet sports and do nothing else.
The Sweet Taste Of Victory
If you bet in a profitable manner and have just a tad bit of luck, it is likely that after a few months’ time you will have built up a very substantial bankroll and probably enough profits to be able to use a decent chunk of them on your own expenses and needs. It is at this point that you can say you have won, when your bankroll is healthy and there is plenty of money left over to withdraw and spend on yourself.
As a professional sports bettor, it is best not to withdraw your funds too often and keep your bankroll growing until it is large enough that you can leave it healthier than it was at the start and withdraw some profits on top. The wait may be relatively long, but the sweet taste of absolute victory at the end is certainly more than worth it.
