Sports betting involves risk. Simply put, if you make a bet on a game, there is a chance you will lose. It comes with the territory, unfortunately. That’s where the adage “never bet what you can’t afford to lose” comes from. The sooner you understand that concept, the better sports bettor you’ll be, and the more you’ll enjoy sports betting too.
So instead of asking, “how can I avoid losing?”, we should be asking ourselves “how can I put losses behind me quickly and move on?” It’s a tricky question to answer, because there’s no right way to answer it. However, fundamentally, it starts with being comfortable with losing whatever money you deposited to play with. So if you deposited $100, you have to be comfortable with the fact you could lose the entire $100. Of course, the goal is to win with that money, but if you start from a place where you know there’s a chance it can go to 0, you’re in a good position.
Secondly, as someone who most likely watches a fair amount of sports, you know there’s crazy comebacks, unforeseen events, and injuries that dramatically swing the outcomes of games. Tough losses will happen. Sometimes you’ll make a bet and just know early on it was the wrong side, but sometimes there will be a ridiculous penalty called against your team, or a big 9th inning rally that gives you a loss you didn’t expect. Think of it like the baseball regular season. With 162 games, there’s bound to be plenty of ups and downs throughout the season. It’s only natural. You have to know and appreciate in a sense that it’s part of the game.
Lastly, you just have to realize that winning is hard. Being successful in this industry is hard. One of the best hitters in baseball history, Ty Cobb, hit .366. That is the gold standard for batting averages, and with the way the game is played today, will likely never be caught. Hitting .366 still means you failed to get a hit in about 63 of every 100 at-bats! In most professions that would be considered a failure, but context matters. Context matters in sports betting, too. The best sports bettors in history typically only hit around 57% of the time. It’s extremely difficult and those little margins matter a lot.
At the end of the day, the best way to get past losing is to accept that it’s going to happen. You can’t dwell on it. It doesn’t impact your next bet unless you let it get in your head, or you start chasing your losses. Those are recipes for failure. Just keep calm and carry on. This is the way to get past losing.