The Grind Begins

As Thursday night quickly approaches, we are reminded that with the first kickoff of the season begins The Grind. The Grind for most bettors runs from now till the end of the Final Four. It is a grueling, 7-month odyssey filled with heroic covers, bad beats, long nights and early mornings. Nevertheless, there are ways to successfully navigate this journey to your advantage and ensure that when “One Shining Moment” is playing during the credits, you have added to your bankroll.

The most important piece of this puzzle is money management. During this annual stretch, it is very feasible that you could place, on average, 450 individual wagers, if not more. Even for the most modest of players, that is a lot of money at risk over the course of the season. As a result, you need to be smart and, most importantly, disciplined. One of the values EA Sports Consultants believes in is never chasing. Don’t ever try to bail out with a huge wager on a Sunday or Monday night game and never try to go for the throat when you’re up.

Remember, it is a daily grind; the key is to build your bankroll in stages.

For disciplined, long-term wagering, a player should follow the ratings for each selection and place straight, unit bets. On average, wager about 1% to 2% of your bankroll per selection; while never going over 5%. The way to do this is to establish your betting ranges from the first day you come out and don’t deviate from them. Note to self…it is a marathon, not a sprint.

There is nothing worse than blowing your whole bankroll by Week 4 of the NFL season and then trying to save up to wager again by Bowl Season or College Baskets. The key is to enjoy the ride the whole way and keeping competitive throughout.

Another cog of the process is to develop realistic expectations. When factoring in the juice, you need to win 52.38% of the time. A winning percentage of 55% is not only reasonable, but very profitable!

To win at a rate of 70% or 80% of the time over the long haul is just not realistic and that is why discipline is very important.

Additionally, it is vital to mention that variance plays a large role in sports betting. Variance, in a simple sense, is the inevitability that there will be great short-term runs and really bad short-term runs. As the sample size increases, variance decreases. Similar to if you bought an index mutual fund versus buying 3 individual stocks.

The greater the variance, the greater the swings in profit and loss. Remember, the great runs and the bad runs will usually net each other off. It is the performance in between that matters most.

The last slice of the pie we’ll discuss in this article is emotions. It is critical to any sports bettor to check their emotions at all times. Although the excitement of a great cover is part of the draw, at the end of the day, your objective needs to be making money. It’s only fun when you’re winning! It’s easy to get wrapped up in the daily roller coaster ride that is the betting season; however, it is imperative that you learn how to take the good with the bad.

You need to expect to have bad beats. The important part is how do you react to those? The wrong way, as we discussed earlier, is to load up or bail out on the next game, because you are upset over a bad individual loss or a short-term losing streak. Keep your head focused on the big picture. It’s not called The Grind for nothing. No doubt you should enjoy the tough wins, but never let the highs get too high or the lows get too low.
Although there are many factors that go into being a long-term, successful sports handicapper; by following the above advice, you can enjoy the entire betting season and avoid the pitfalls that most players fall into.

Provided by www.easportsconsultants.com