The 7 Deadly Sins Every Losing Sports Bettor Commits

If you only followed mainstream media coverage of the sports betting scene, you’d be forgiven for thinking bettors beat the bookmakers with regularity. After all, sites like ESPN and USA Today only write about Las Vegas sportsbooks when the house suffers a particularly drastic downswing.

Major “public” favorites winning big can indeed lead to the occasional losing day for sportsbooks. But overall, they clean up thanks to consistent losers. Most sports bettors who simply can’t get over the hump tend to blame their misfortunes on bad luck. In reality, however, they’ve fallen prey to the seven deadly sins every losing bettor makes along the way.

1 – Failing to Put in the Study Needed to Make Picks Offering Positive Expected Value

Just picture the scene as a group of old college buddies descends on Sin City for a weekend getaway.

Everybody is flush with cash and raring to go, and tonight features a smorgasbord of playoff basketball and hockey games to choose from. The boys stroll into the sportsbook, size up the big board overhead, and get to talking:

“Ovechkin is a beast, bro. He’s gonna get a hat trick tonight and slaughter the Penguins!”

“I like the Bucks to beat Philly tonight. I heard Embiid is hurt, and we all know Giannis is just too good for the Sixers to guard down low without him.”

Within a minute or so, the hopeful crew emerges holding high-dollar tickets backing the Washington Capitals and Milwaukee Bucks to close out their respective postseason series. If the two teams, both underdogs on the moneyline, manage to do just that, the guys will have more than doubled up to start their adventure in Vegas.

Then, the games start, and reality sets in quite quickly. As it turns out, Capitals legend and bona fide “beast” Alexander Ovechkin won’t get a hat trick tonight. He’ll be at home thanks to a freak injury suffered at home just hours before the puck drops. And speaking of injuries, Philadelphia 76er star Joel Embiid wasn’t injured enough to miss the biggest game of his young career, so he’ll be suiting up and gutting through it.

With one superstar hockey player out and another stud basketball player unexpectedly in, these guys have the short end of both sticks. They probably should’ve been tipped off by each team getting tagged with underdog odds on the moneyline, but these aren’t exactly sophisticated bettors.

As it turns out, the removal of Ovechkin from the lineup doomed the Capitals to a dispiriting 5-1 loss. And in Milwaukee, the road team benefited immensely from Embiid’s surprise return in a 116-102 romp.

Just like that, two tickets get torn up and discarded, while the sportsbook manager tallies up the night’s winnings.

Had these hypothetical bettors simply researched the games, they certainly would’ve reconsidered their picks made on gut instinct alone. Sports bettors who aren’t prepared to watch the game, read recaps and reviews, study box scores, and seek out advanced metrics are bringing dull knives to a gun fight.

2 – Betting on Hometown Teams and Favorite Players in Spite of the Odds

Continuing the previous example, let’s say one member of out motley crew does decide to fire up ESPN.com before firing off a bet.

This enterprising lad discovers the grim news about Ovechkin, but lo and behold, he’s also a huge hockey fan who hails from the nation’s capital. Even though he knows better than anybody in the bunch just how valuable “Alexander the Great” is to Washington’s cause, he can’t bring himself to bet against his beloved Caps.

A pal recommends sitting the game out instead, but our plucky puck-head convinces himself that he can’t not bet on his team’s big game either.

With that, he lines up with the rest of his compatriots and wagers $300 on Washington at (+120) odds. Three hours or so later, that money is safely secured in the sportsbook’s safe, while our dejected Capitals fan laments his fate:

“I knew we were toast without ‘Ovi’ in there, what was I thinking? But… I’m never betting on those cheap shot artist Penguins anyway, so my hands were tied. On to the next one.”

Walk inside any sportsbook in the country and you’ll inevitably see diehard fans adorned in their teams’ colors and gear. These bettors follow their hearts rather than their heads, much to their own peril.

Foolishly placing futures bets on perennial doormats to win it all. Backing huge moneyline underdogs to win outright when merely covering the spread will suffice. And indeed, supporting their favorite team via wager despite major injuries and other limiting factors.

You can decide on either path, but if you remain blindly loyal to a team at the betting window, just remember that old saw about worshipping false idols.

3 – Neglecting to Shop Around Various Sportsbooks for the Best Odds on Offer

Another big mistake which dooms far too many sports bettors occurs before a bet is even placed.

With so many sportsbook operators, both in Las Vegas and online, the crowded field breeds competition. Oddsmakers are ostensibly tasked with posting fair lines which accurately gauge each side of a bet’s relative chances. But their job is more complex, as they also seek to attract interest on both sides.

Back in my day, we’d have to run around town and play phone tag to find out which bet shop had the best lines on a given game. Fortunately, bettors today can simply search online or use various sportsbook apps to shop for the best number.

Gaining a minuscule bump in potential profit by shopping for lines might seem like a waste of time, but it’s a gold mine over the long run.

4 – Shying Away From Big Moneyline Favorites Because Small Payouts “Aren’t Worth It”

One of the oddest phenomena associated with consistent sports betting losers is based around leaving money on the table.

Let’s say you have a big EURO soccer tournament slate on the day’s docket. Given the major disparity in talent between different national teams, some of the favorites are offering ugly moneylines. Spain is getting (-600) to beat Croatia (+750) in regulation time, which means bettors must risk $600 to earn $100 in profit.

Conversely, your usual $100 bet unit would only pay back a $16.67 profit, a paltry amount considering the C-note at risk.

When the moneyline becomes so steep that a lot of dollars only brings back a little in return, this suggests the sportsbooks believe the favorite winning is a foregone conclusion. And it usually is too, what with Spain demolishing Croatia to the tune of 4-0.

Why would a bettor decline these opportunities to score “easy” money on major moneyline faves? Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s one of the most common sports betting mistakes in the game.

5 –Sticking With Parlay Bets Even When All Evidence Shows They’re Unprofitable

If you’re online brushing up on your sports betting knowledge, chances are you already know about the pitfall of parlays.

By offering bettors a chance to turn $10 into $1,000, parlays up the ante in terms of potential profit. You’d need to cash 100 tickets at $10 a pop to collect a cool grand, but a single eight-team parlay ticket can also turn the trick.

Of course, your odds of nailing eight winners out of eight picks are next to nil, which is why the sportsbook is always happy to book parlay action.

6 – Forgetting to Keep a Record of All Previous Plays and Results

I’m a stickler for keeping records concerning my gambling wins and losses, as this process helps me analyze my own plays using objective data.

Alas, my fellow bettors aren’t always so rigid with their recordkeeping, while others don’t even remember which tickets they tossed last week.

Tracking every wager you place using a spreadsheet or notepad is crucial for further development. You can sort through the statistical noise to determine which bets, markets, and odds are producing profits more consistently than others. And in doing so, you’ll soon start weeding out the wagering which doesn’t offer any tangible benefits.

7 – Responding to Adversity by Chasing Losses and Making Stupid Bets

Finally, the worst sin a sports bettor can commit occurs in the moments after a ticket goes up in smoke.

Directly after a last-minute loss or similar bad beat, you have a massively important decision to make—tuck your tail and live to fight another day or keep betting in hopes of breaking even.

Folks who try to dig themselves out of a hole just keep getting deeper, and that maxim holds true at the sportsbook as well. When the cruelty of random variance rears its ugly head, the last thing you should be doing is betting impulsively to get it all back.

Instead, head home and clear your head, before studying tomorrow’s schedule and preparing yourself to place favorable bets in Round 2 and beyond.

Conclusion

Sports betting is such a unique form of gambling because it attracts a crowd who would never be caught dead at the blackjack table. By bringing casual sports fans into the arena of casino gambling, the sportsbook serves as many players’ first taste of that all-important action.

Accordingly, mistakes will be made along the way as beginning bettors learn the ropes. Mistakes can be forgiven though, provided the person making them realizes their error and corrects course. It’s when a mistake becomes a habit that sports betting’s seven deadly sins wreak their havoc.