About 15,000 sports fans in Australia were surveyed earlier this year to understand the gambling behavior, the number of sports made in past one year and individual attitudes towards sports betting. It was found the probability of sports betting decreased as people get older. Moreover, those who were university educated tend to get inclined less towards sports betting.
The survey simultaneously found gender differences varied with age and more among the youths. Number of sports bets declined with increase in age. The youths believed sports betting were harmless and part of their enjoying sports.
It is usually argued gambling leads to significant public health issue and result with negative impacts on wellbeing of families, communities and of course individuals. It is sometimes linked to major depressive disorders.
The survey focused mainly on gambling choice among sports fans in Australia and the participants were at least 18 years of age.
A data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics revealed there were 6.8 million of active gamblers in the country in 2015 and about 1.1 million of them were at serious risk of harm from related problems. Some of these gamblers are being affected adversely like social and economic costs.
Rise of Sports Betting
Sports betting or mobile sports betting is an emerging sector in the gambling world. It is believed to be normalizing gambling and the youths are getting attracted easily. The segment has shown significant increase in popularity and participation in recent years. During the year 2017-2018, the largest year-on-year percentage increase in losses was witnessed.
National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL) and other such major professional sports promoted gambling products and services heavily like stadium signage, uniform naming rights, promotion of odds in TV broadcast and formal sports partnerships. A term was coined thereafter. McGee said gamblification in 2020 and the word became ubiquitous. As an aftermath, a strong research focused in the ways to prevail the gambling promotions.
What is Sports Betting
Sports betting is related to predicting of sports results and simultaneously placing a wager on what comes out. The bests are most common in American football, baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing, track cycling, boxing and mixed martial arts. It is sometimes extended to the non-athletic events like political elections, reality show contests, horse racing, underground cockfighting that is of course illegal event and greyhound racing. Similarly, sports betting has become popular in entertainment events like the Emmy Awards, the Oscars and the Grammy Awards.
Easy Sports Betting Tips for Beginners
Gambling is one of the top five uses of the internet alongside shopping and social networking and despite its obvious popularity, it is often viewed as a taboo subject in terms of learning.
The gaming industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and constantly growing. New customers arrive in their droves at the doors of online bookmakers every day and yet there is still little discussion of learning in the gambling community, which is even more peculiar considering the significant amount of money which can be won or lost on sports betting.
Understanding the Bookmaker – How Bookmakers Make Their Odds in Sports Betting
With an awareness of good gambling practice, the application of basic logic and an understanding of simple probability, sports betting novices can avoid some of the pitfalls which can put a serious dent in their average winnings.
The first thing to understand that bookmakers look to make an overall profit by spreading their potential losses across the board on any event, so that no matter what the outcome, they will secure a small percentage profit.
For example, a bookmaker needs to take a good spread of bets on all horses in a race to ensure that whichever horse wins, the total of value of stakes taken, outweighs the outgoing liability. The bookmaker is helped in his attempt to secure a profit by offering odds which allow him to pay out less than his overall takings. So in a nutshell, he is going to be offering the punter a price less than the true probability of each selection winning. Therefore if you were to bet on random selections with no knowledge of the event, you would inevitably lose money in the long run. So knowledge is everything in sports betting, relying on luck will inevitably lead to bettors going bust!
Beating the Bookmaker – Tips to Help improve Your Sports Betting
So, with the knowledge that punters are almost always offered poor value, what can they do to gain an advantage or edge over the bookmaker?
Here are five tips to get you started:
- Sign up for more than one bookmaker and register with the betting exchanges like betfair which offer the best prices on many events. You can take advantage of the free bets offered by bookmakers when you sign up. If you sign up with 10 bookmakers, you could easily pocket a few hundred pounds or dollars in free bet winnings. Free bet websites can show you who is currently offering the most attractive bonuses for new customers.
- Use a price comparison website to find the best price for the bet you are making. This odds comparison site covers all the top sports and is excellent for horse racing. See which suits you.
- Be aware that some bookmakers specialise in certain sports and are more knowledgeable in those sports than others. However, bear in mind that it is rare for them to make big mistakes in pricing. If you come across what seems to be an obvious error, call and check it and get a verbal agreement of the price with a trader. This prevents the bookmaker from using the palpable error get-out clause and retracting the bet later should it win.
- Bet on what you have best knowledge of. The more specific and detailed your knowledge of a sport or event is, the more chance you have of outwitting the bookmaker. Bookmakers odds are set by traders who are sports specialists. But they may not have the personal knowledge you have of your favourite club, sportsman or sportswoman.
- Bet at the right time. Prices are mobile in many sports and can shorten or lengthen over time. For example, betting on a major football game in advance may be preferable if one team is likely to be backed heavily as kick off approaches. The price of a very popular team, like a national soccer team, may shorten on patriotic popularity, rather than its actual chance of winning. The same may apply for a popular horse at a big race meeting.