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Understanding Sports Betting Trends

Sports Betting Trends

Sports betting is an activity that often doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

Sure, it might seem as though you’re just watching sports games and gambling. And maybe success might appear at first to come down primarily to luck.

But in fact, sports betting is highly nuanced and has a lot more to it. For starters, most of us don’t bet on sports purely to earn money. That’s part of it, sure, but we also bet on sports because we want to make those games even more exciting by adding a variety of live bet selections. Perhaps the only experience more nail-biting than watching your favorite team play, is watching that team play and knowing that you have a large amount of money riding on the outcome!

What’s more, is that sports betting is actually highly strategic. Your ability to win depends on you detaching yourself from who you want to win, and thinking instead about who is actually going to win. And about what the odds are, and whether you’re willing to take this risk or that.  In order to win you must be strategic and learn the various strategies to consistently win, try this site out to learn how to bet online and the best tips to win.

In fact, if you get really into it, sports betting can become highly mathematical and learning how to bet would require not just luck. And that’s where betting trends come into it.

So, Just What Are Betting Trends?

Betting trends do not tell you who the hottest new team to bet on is!

Rather, trends refer to the data provided by the sportsbook that you are using, and serve as an indication as to which team or player is receiving the most votes. So let’s say that two teams are playing one another, the trends would reflect which team was getting the most bets or votes, and you would see this number in percentages. In fact, betting trends are sometimes actually called betting percentages.

This gives you a very useful barometer, allowing you to see what the general consensus is, and what other sports fans think the outcome of that given matchup will be.

So, all you need to do is to place a bet on whichever team has the most support right?

Not quite…

How to Use Betting Trends to Your Advantage

If you simply bet on the team with the highest percentage, then you likely wouldn’t be as successful as you could be.

Who are the teams that have the highest percentages? Simple: the ones that are the most likely to win. The bookies know this too, and so of course those teams are probably the ones that have the worst odds. If you bet on a sure thing, then you are unlikely to earn big if they win – because there was never much doubt.

On the other hand though, it is when the trends go against the odds that you might get an early indication of something interesting happening. What does it mean if the odds are stacked against a particular team or player, but they nevertheless are receiving a lot of cash bets? It suggests that the general public knows something that the bookies haven’t picked up on – perhaps they’ve been enjoying a winning streak, perhaps they’re just demonstrating a little more swagger and confidence. Either way, this is then going to present you with an opportunity to bet on a game with long odds, and potentially have a better than average chance of winning.

That said, there are some other things you need to consider too. For one, ask yourself whether the site you are using is a fair representation of the wider population. If the site has a brick and mortar bookie that is located in a specific area, then could those people just be betting on their home team?

Fortunately, some sites will provide betting trends aggregated from multiple different sources, providing you with even more information.

Bet Smart, Win Big

If you want to get even savvier, then look for unusual trends that don’t necessarily stand out like a sore thumb. What does it tell you if a team that has no chance of winning on paper is still getting a few more bets than equivalent match-ups? This is still worth further inspection.

Truly smart betting though means taking all this into account while also weighing up other information. So, when you spot something interesting in the data, consider it alongside what you know about that team, what you know about that game, and even what you know about the weather. In many ways, this becomes similar to playing the stock market!

So you see, there is a true science and an art to sports betting. This is not just something you can do to waste a bit of cash – if you are careful and precise, then it can actually be an exciting way to turn your knowledge and love of sports into large amounts of cash. And it helps that it also happens to be a whole lot of fun!