What sports betting taught me?

I have seen and observed numerous people’s sports betting patterns in the last 5 years. In these 5 years I have seen pretty much seen all the sports betting world offers. The making of fortunes, the losing of life savings, hobby, addiction, rehabilitation, and what not. I’ll share my thoughts based on what I have consumed in my experiences and interactions with the bettors.

The four major aspects involved in sports betting are — sports, numbers, money and emotions.

1. Sports — Always stick to the sport you know and have knowledge about. I have seen people gambling on the sport they have not followed all their life just because their sport is not on at the moment! That is pure gambling and if you are betting on those sports, you sir/mam are addicted. Avoid that. Stick to your sport. Stick to your teams. Stick to your individuals. The teams and individuals’ whom playing patterns you have followed and are aware about.
2. Numbers — Know your odds. This rule is the same as that of stock trading. When you are managing an equity portfolio, you always have a stop loss and target in mind. The only difference is you won’t end up losing everything in the stocks but you’ll end up losing your stake in sports. Always remember winning & losing 50% is better than losing 100% of your stakes. Keep your ego aside and always cash out at right moments.
3. Emotions — The real obstacle to long term success in betting is being able to control your emotions. When you are winning money you’ll feel you are on a heater — NEVER DO THAT. Stick to your bets. There is no thing such as momentum in betting. Every bet is independent of the previous outcomes. Same happens when you are losing — you’ll try to cover up the losses by putting a bet of higher stakes — NEVER DO THAT. Stick to your ratios. Never play the covering up game.There will be bad beats but remember you’ll get lucky too.
4. Money — The most important probably. First of all, don’t rely on sports betting to run your household, it will never be & it should never be your primary source of income. Take a chunk of money from your savings — and stick to it. Never re-invest before a pre-decided time. Decide your ratios i.e. you won’t bet more than 20% of your remaining stake in any bet — no matter how alluring a bet seems. Always remember it’s sports & you see surprises day in day out. If you’ll stick to your ratios no bad beat can affect you.

The thoughts I put are just random & I am not even proof reading. At least this topic got me started on the writing part.