Controlling Emotions : Why Impatience & In-Play Betting Destroys Your Profits

Written By: Mike Lovatt
Last Updated: October 10, 2022

Our betting guides have covered a vast range regarding sports betting psychology. This article covers controlling your emotions and remaining calm when betting. Emotions play a big part in any human endeavor, and sports betting is far from being an exception from this rule. In fact, being a very volatile task full of ups and downs, sports betting can cause very strong emotions, both positive and negative.

Humans are naturally inclined to want to win at all things they do and experiencing adversity in any task commonly leads to emotions such as frustration, anger, sadness and rage. This in turn can lead to very bad decisions and decisions such as rash betting can be detrimental for a sports bettor’s career.

In this part of our betting guide, we will discuss the emotional side of sports betting and try to explain why we should keep our emotions in check, how negative or positive emotions can influence the sports betting decisions and what type of betting we should avoid.

Why Inplay Betting Has Made The Bookies Rich

While it may be difficult to win at sports betting at all, there are some people who lose much more than others. In the past, it used to be that people would make their picks and then wait for the results to come in, but the bookies understood that the more bets they can take in, the more money they will be making and inplay betting was born.

The moment technology allowed for it, online bookmakers introduced inplay betting, which allows players to bet on pretty much anything, such as who will win the next point in a tennis match, who will take the next corner in a football match or whether or not a goal will be scored in the next 10 minutes.

Quite naturally, the casual punter was thrilled to see this option introduced as there was no longer the need to wait for many hours to get the results of their bets. Instead, they can now make multiple bets every few minutes and get their results in a very short time, allowing for more thrills, shocks, wins and losses.

However, inplay betting is a true emotional rollercoaster. While professional sports bettors take hours to develop their strategy every day and bet only on those games where they see true value, inplay betting is done in the spur of the moment and casual punters are very prone to making emotional and unreasonable inplay bets.

While we are not saying inplay betting cannot have value for a professional bettor as well, the fact there is so little time to analyze data means you will have to really be on your A game if you hope to make money betting inplay. What’s more, it takes a really strong character or a very well prepared sports bettor to avoid falling under the emotional pressure that inplay betting tends to exert on the bettors.

Inplay betting should be done on occasion and there are some professionals who take inplay as their main market, but it should always be done with caution and just like regular sports betting, you should bet inplay according to a strict plan when it comes to both choosing the bets and the amount you are going to place on each bet.

Fear Is Your Worst Enemy

Fear is definitely one of the most negative human emotions and it very rarely results in anything positive. In sports betting, fear is also a big enemy that can truly make you miss on some great opportunities or take too many bad bets.

One major way fear can screw up your betting results is if you are too worried that making a bet will result in a loss. This fear of losing often leads bettors to avoid perfectly good bets with great value, just because they don’t think the bet will be a winner. Remember, we are looking for value and it’s alright if many of our bets lose as long as our end result is positive.

Another thing that some inexperienced bettor often fear is that they are missing too many good chances, so they will start betting on just about anything to meet their “daily quota”. This is equally wrong as the previous example, as you should never bet if you don’t see true value in the bet you are making, no matter how few bets you make. It’s about finding value and with time your radar will be more accurate and you will be able to find many solid bets. Just remain patient and give yourself time.

Conclusion : Leave Your Emotions Out Of It

Just like getting too emotional can hurt you in sport, at work or in any type of human interaction, emotions can really defeat you in sports betting as well. Remaining calm and level in spite of all the adversity is one of the keys to becoming and remaining a successful sports bettor and you will need to learn to control your emotions before there is any chance of winning in the long term.

If you are a person who is generally very sensitive and emotional, you will definitely have to put some real effort and work into this. There is plenty of material on the internet that will teach you how to calm yourself down and get yourself back to a level state, but most important of all is that your bankroll must be money you are willing to lose and able to replenish if it comes to that. If you practice good bankroll management and do your best to manage your emotions, your chances of beating the bookies will raise dramatically.

Mike Lovatt

Mike has over 14 years of experience with online sports betting, having used countless online betting sites. Mike previously provided football betting tips on goals and corners in Facebook groups before starting his own betting website. A huge football fan, Mike has been writing betting guides and football betting advice for years.

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