The seven deadly sins of 80% of horse racing bettors

Can you stop the rot and become a racing angel?

Sin 1 Listen hype

Horse racing is the ultimate carnival of gossip. And like all gossip, most of it is sheer nonsense. Especially when such exaggeration refers to the favorite. Exaggeration, understatement and pure blood mentality are usually the rule. And every day, thousands of unsuspecting and inexperienced bettors make mistakes. Learn to ignore the hype. Make your own predictions based on the available form and you’ll find that those elusive winners aren’t so elusive anymore.

Without 2 Bet without strategy

This is one of the classic mistakes. How many times have you supported the favorite only to see him lose. So maybe you tried to bet on the next favorite just for him to win. Then, frustrated, he backed that bet on the 10/1 shot only to see the well-backed second seed sail home while his 10/1 nag struggles to come home in sixth. Does this sound familiar?

Well here is the answer, choose a strategy and then stick to it. If you want to back up the favourite, then back up the favourite. Just be a little more picky about the ones you back up. Improve your strike rate and you will improve your profits. If you want to put the favorite, put the favorite, just make sure why you want to put the favorite. Specialize in what you know best, stick to your guns even when things go against you, and you’ll soon find that all those ups and downs will work themselves out.

No 3, you greedy motherfucker

There are so many opportunities over the course of any race day that most of the time you have plenty of options. But any experienced bettor will tell you that too many options are bad. Why? Due to the saturation effect of the bets. Let me explain. You make four strong, well researched and carefully considered bets and lo and behold, they all go in. Well done. But what is this, that cunning little devil is whispering in your ear. Back another. Quick while your luck is still in. And so you do. Only this time you didn’t really study the form and your selection lost. Dammit. So you go back in, hoping you can recoup that loss. But oh darling. Done on the line again.

Greed, my friend, will always win you out. In fact, the books have it. The more bets you make, the more chances there are of reversal. Place the optimal number of bets you can qualify for and then fold. Stop. No more bets. Keep your benefit. Tomorrow there will be more races. And more chances to win. Remember not to make more bets than you can easily study.

Sin 4, lazy chump

For most bettors, form study consists of carefully looking at the list of horses in the racing publication, taking note of their recent placements, and checking the featured verdict for positive feedback. Some punters even check the collateral form. You should be ashamed. How can you expect to make money if you don’t take the time to look at the big picture? If you don’t do this for every pick you make, then you deserve to lose.

Gambling for profit is a tricky business at the best of times, one full of variable conditions that conspire to confuse and mislead bettors from making the right decisions. Weight, ground conditions, topography, distance, stall position, number of runners, pacing tactics, and dozens of other considerations influence which horse will win a race. So stop being so lazy, check out the past form of each horse in question and make sure you know as much as possible. Only then can you make an informed decision and have any hope of making a profit.

Sin 5 Where did my Bank go?

Losing your bank is a common problem among undisciplined gamblers. Usually it could have been avoided by having better control of your money. Try saying that to someone and they’ll laugh at you or try to take the block from you for being a cheeky asshole. Truth be told, money management is one of the most difficult areas of gambling for profit to master. Why? Due to fluctuations in fortune that can and do occur over the course of days, weeks, and months.

It usually doesn’t take more than one or two strong reversals to throw off most bettors. Few are prepared for the emotional ups and downs that come with serious gambling. Add to that the fact that many of us cannot afford to lose our money and you have an additional psychological key that will constantly work to deprive you of your betting bank.

So what can you do? Well, first you need to put a betting bank in place. How much depends on you. Just make sure it’s not money you need for bills or life in general. If you can’t afford to set up a bank, then you can’t afford to gamble, period. There are no exceptions to this ever.

Once you have a bank in place you need to set a limit, don’t aim higher than you can afford. Make sure that when you place your bets you only bet a portion of your bankroll. 20% of your bankroll is a suitable maximum betting limit, while 5% is a perfect size for normal betting opportunities. It’s up to you to decide where your limits should be, but once you stick to them, regardless of profit or loss. This will help you cope with those bad patches that affect us all. The golden rule is to keep your head down and protect your bank.

Without 6 Systems going off the edge of the cliff

This one is easy to avoid. There are some people who go and buy systems and find it hard to stick with the system even if it is a profitable system. They don’t have the patience to follow the system through losing patches. On the other hand, there are those bettors who religiously follow a system or group of systems without considering the big picture.

Too often, these people have several profitable and winning systems, but in all those winnings they have one or two losing systems, sometimes very losing systems. And that takes all the profits, usually much faster than it was made.

But there is a very easy answer to this problem, keep track of all your systems day by day and at the end of each week add up all the profits and losses. Do the same thing at the end of the month and you’ll never be stuck with an unprofitable system. Don’t get so infatuated with a system that you can’t abandon it if it fails. The systems are a tool to help you maximize your profits and keep you from losing your mind with all the options on offer. Just don’t overdo it.

Sin 7 Record Keeping

Very few punters actively keep records of all their bets. It’s too much hard work. But here’s the thing. How can you really know that you are betting your best unless you can analyze your betting history?

There is often a lot of information hidden in these records. When I reviewed mine a few years ago, I found some surprising items. The first was that I was useless in picking the winners of the chaser chases, I had huge losses in these types of races. So I stopped participating in hunter chases and my earnings increased. The next thing that became apparent was that selling and claiming races also cost me money even though I was making a profit overall. I made some changes to the way I approached these races and once again improved my performance.

If you keep betting logs and review them once a month or even every other month, you will quickly see which areas you are strong in and which areas need improvement or simply should be avoided. There is no point in wasting time trying to improve a poor area of ​​effort. Focus on what you are clearly good at and then improve. Good luck.