5 Sports Betting Mistakes That Rookies Make

The idea of sports betting is exciting for a lot of people. Not only is there the opportunity to possibly strike it rich when your favorite team wins, but the thrill of knowing that your money is on the line for up to four hours (and maybe even an entire season) can make games much more interesting. There’s that type of gratification that you get from sports betting that instant win tickets or slot machines just can’t give.

If you live in an area that has recently legalized sports betting or are new to the idea of it in an area that has already had it, you don’t want to blindly throw money into it and expect to win. There are a lot of mistakes that new sports bettors make, and these five are the biggest betting mistakes that are all too common.

Betting on Favorite Teams

In almost every instance, someone that’s a rookie to sports betting will place a wager on their favorite team. It’s certainly enticing to want to put some big bucks on your favorite team to win, but you know more about that team than you do any other team. Let’s say for instance that you’re a fan of Duke basketball, and they’re playing a random opponent like Kansas State.

Most Duke fans won’t know much about Kansas State if anything at all. If you don’t know both teams, then it’s probably a good idea to not place a wager. It’s fun to bet on your favorite teams to win, but experts say that you’re better off placing a bet on your team to lose. Consider this hedging your emotions, as you’ll still be happy that your team won, and you’ll receive money if they lose, making it more of a win-win.

Getting Parlay-Happy

Sports betting agencies make more money off of rookies betting on parlays than they know what to do with. There are some people that walk in with $5, $10, or $20, and place a parlay bet on every single NFL game that’s happening that week. The reason for this is that if you hit all of those games, then that $5 can turn into tens of thousands by the time Sunday is over.

However, most parlays are sucker bets, plain and simple. The reason that the payouts are so amazing is that the odds are astronomically high. You may see an article about someone that won $1 million from a $5 bet because they hit a massive parlay, but just know that you have a better chance of winning the slot jackpot.

Not Considering Win-Loss Percentage

A lot of people that are new to sports betting don’t realize that you can lose a lot of your bets and still make money. People get discouraged when they lose a few times, but even the best betters in the world lose countless amounts of their wagers. In fact, the math shows that if you place the same bets with the same payouts every time, you only need to win 52.4 percent of your bets to be profitable.

If you can get anything higher than that number, then you start to rake in some big money. 55 percent is considered to be a solid line for sports betting, with some of the top bettors hitting around two-thirds. If that happens, you might be teetering into the territory of making a career out of sports betting.

Betting Too Many Lines

We just alluded to how you need to continue to make bets and simply get above 52.4 percent to make money, but you still need to pace yourself. There are a lot of rookie bettors that end up making more than a dozen bets in one sitting, and that can deplete your bank roll quickly.

If you don’t know what you’re doing just yet, betting too many lines in one day can be devastating if it ends up being a bad day. Take it easy at first and only bet one or two lines per day. Once you start to get the hang of things, you can start to increase your amount of wagers until you’re a pro.

Not Following Trends

Rookies bet with their hearts way more than they bet with their brains. There are a lot of statistics available at your disposal no matter what level of bettor you are, and it’s important to use those stats.

Take a look at the trends, where the money is going, and how teams are doing against the spread. These are just the basics, with more advanced analytics showing you exactly where your money should be going.