6 Reasons New Sports Bettors Struggle to Find Value

Finding value in the sports betting market is one of the only ways to make money. The concept of value is somewhat complicated to explain, but understanding it is crucial.

For the sake of simplicity:
A bet that has value has a higher probability of winning than sportsbooks and oddsmakers believe. If you can spot value where a majority of the betting public cannot, you should be able to earn a profit.

But how does someone go about locating this value, especially if that person doesn’t have experience gambling?

This is where things get tricky.

Finding value in betting odds is a skill that takes some gamblers years to figure out. Even then, their methods and systems aren’t completely effective. If the experts still struggle to understand value, then you can imagine how beginners might fare. Here are six reasons new sports bettors struggle to find value.

1. They Start Gambling Before They’re Ready

Jumping the gun by starting to place bets before you’re ready is a recipe for disaster. While every gambler differs in how long it takes to understand sports betting, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

So, how will you know you’re ready to start betting on sports? That’s a question only you can answer.

But being cautious and taking time to understand the ins and outs of the industry will make you a better gambler, faster. When you rush this process and cut corners, you will likely force yourself to play catch up and likely lose bets in the process.

Instead of making this mistake, there are a few things any beginner should take care of before they start betting.

  • Know how much money you’re going to risk on sports bets.
  • Understand the different types of wagers and how sports bets are presented.
  • Don’t confuse sports knowledge for sports betting
  • Figure out which sports betting site or sportsbook is going to work for you.

Most new gamblers hate being responsible and taking things slow. It’s much more enticing to immediately start placing bets. But without a plan in place that will help you find value in sports wagers, you’ll more than likely struggle to win money consistently.

2. Sticking With One Type of Wager

One of the keys to sports gambling is balancing versatility and the ability to specialize. When gamblers get comfortable, whether that’s with a sport or a wager type, they can get caught in a rut.

For example:
Let’s say you’re in the middle of a run in which you’re only betting baseball over/under bets. You might think you have a solid grasp on this bet, but the fact is that baseball can be very inconsistent and your luck will run out eventually.

When that happens, you won’t have the ability to shift your focus to another type of sports wager.  That’s why it’s so important to become a well-rounded sports bettor who’s capable of understanding every variety of wager.

Please Note:
Knowing about over/unders will serve you well, but you need to be able to combine that with knowledge about spreads, run lines, moneylines, props, and futures.

Specializing in one sport is a brilliant idea for beginners. But you’ll back yourself into a corner if you refuse to be versatile when it comes to the kinds of wagers you’re placing.

3. They Refuse to Get Out of Their Comfort Zone

There are a few stages that most sports gamblers will go through. First comes the learning process, then experimenting. If you’re lucky enough, success and becoming comfortable with sports betting follows.

This last stage is a place where many gamblers never get to.
You should take pride in becoming a successful gambler, but being comfortable can decrease your profit. Let’s assume you’re a new gambler who wants to gamble exclusively on football. You use the entire season to learn from your mistakes and eventually start winning more than 50% of your bets. When the season ends you’ll be fresh out of sporting events to bet on. But that doesn’t stop sports bettors from experimenting with other sports.

As I said in the previous point, it’s important to be a versatile sports bettor, or know how to be at the very least. If your sports gambling knowledge is too specialized you’ll miss a tremendous amount of betting opportunities.

4. Only Betting on the Most Popular Sporting Events

One of the reasons I first started betting is probably the same as countless others who have come before me: entertainment. If you’re a big sports fan, you know how exciting the biggest sporting events can be.

The one thing that makes an event like the Super Bowl more exciting is the ability to bet on it.

When crops of new sports gamblers break onto the scene, many are drawn to the events that see the highest ratings.

This often includes marquee matchups that generate the most buzz and are generally covered by the biggest names in sports media. In their mind they likely assume that more content centered around a particular event can improve their chances of getting informed.

While there might be more content around an event, that doesn’t mean it’s likelier to steer you towards making sharp bets. Not only that but the more money that’s put on one side or another the likelier it is to move the line.

5. They Take Advice From Misguided Sources

Figuring out which sources you can trust to supply you with solid gambling advice is tricky for novices. Gambling, specifically online sports gambling, is exploding at the moment.

Meaning that more and more people are striking while the iron is hot.

That is a good thing for the gambling industry but presents an issue for the average, under-informed gambler. It’s becoming harder to gauge what gambling-related information you should pay attention to.

When beginners break into gambling and are looking for advice, many tell them to do as much research as possible. But if a good amount of information available is garbage, then that’s what these gamblers will base decisions on.

Knowing which sources to trust isn’t an exact science, but you’ll start noticing the signs of a bad sports bettor more as you develop.

6. Shopping Lines Is Inconvenient

If you only take one thing away from this, it should be the following piece of advice. Always make sure to shop for the best odds and most favorable lines possible. There are so many different sports gambling sites that it can be hard to keep up.

Most of the time, the top players are relatively competitive and offer gamblers similar lines. But sometimes there can be some variance in odds across the board.

Let’s say you’re wanting to bet on the number of wins the New England Patriots will have this season.

  • Hypothetically speaking, sports betting site A has the over/under set at 8, while sports betting site B has it listed at 9.
  • You believe that the Patriots will win 9 or more games, but only gamble with site B. If you place that bet, and the Patriots end up winning 9 games, the bet is a push.

However, if you had shopped around you could have easily found a gambling site that offered you more value. Shopping around for lines is one of the easiest things a sports gambler can do, yet many beginners fail to do so.

Conclusion

Finding value in sports bets, like sports betting in general, is incredibly difficult.

Please Note:
Even the best in the business struggle to consistently locate potential wagers that present them with a fair amount of value. So, you can imagine just how difficult this can be for beginners who have no clue how to go about winning money. New sports bettors often struggle to locate value because they want to jump into betting before they’re ready.

Learning through trial and error can be an effective method, but it’s often unnecessarily expensive.

Beginners need to pick something to specialize in.

But if you refuse to come out of your comfort zone, you’re depriving yourself of the opportunity to find value in other markets.

Novices often stick to the biggest sports where the odds are inflated and difficult to understand. Additionally, many will listen to the wrong sources due to a lack of media literacy.

Still, the easiest way to find value is to shop your lines. With all of the sports betting sites out there, chances are that you can find better odds elsewhere.

https://www.thesportsgeek.com/blog/6-reasons-new-sports-bettors-struggle-to-find-value/

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