Below is a list of some of the most common mistakes made by novice sports bettors. In order to be a successful bettor, you need to employ the best strategies and avoid these common pitfalls.

Betting with your gut

If you have completed our course, you know that there is a large amount of novice and casual bettors who place wagers based on biases or visual observations. These are not handicappers and use no betting system or analytics, which will result in eventual losses. If you are serious about betting, you need to have a proven strategy or system that works in order to be successful. There are many different options as we outlined in our course, but simply betting based on gut instinct is never going to work in the long run.

Betting too many parlays

Parlays, and teasers for that matter, are typically bad bets to make with terrible odds. But people love the thrill of betting low amounts of money for the chance to win big. Sportsbooks also advertise these wagers far more than any others because of the significant statistical advantage they have over the player. Inexperienced bettors typically bet a lot of parlays because of someone they heard that turned $50 into $5,000. Don’t fall for this thought process. Successful bettors grow their bankroll through consistent winning, not through some 8-team parlay!

Don’t chase losses

Many inexperienced bettors will try to make up for a bad week or weekend by placing one large wager, hoping to offset or overcome their losses in one game. You want to avoid this approach as it can put you in a very precarious and difficult situation should you lose. You have to understand that bad weeks happen to every player no matter the skill level, you just need to determine what went wrong, and refocus on being better the following week.

Not line shopping

This is covered in great detail the course as well, but every bettor needs to make sure they are line shopping before placing a bet, or finding the best lines/odds available for a certain wager. It only takes a few minutes to line shop with mobile betting, but some bettors still refuse to do it. Don’t fall in love with one app or service. Even if you only make 1-2 wagers per week, line shopping is going to save you significant money over the course of the year.

Predominantly betting on favorites and overs

The general public is infamous for predominantly betting on the favorite and the over. Everyone likes cheering for points and the better team. But that’s not always where the value is at. Because the public leans that way, the odds and lines can sometimes be artificially pushed in that direction, resulting in value on the other side of the wager. Professional bettors are notorious for finding value on underdogs and the unders in games, so be sure to objectively evaluate each team and game before placing your wager.