For some people it will never be achievable to approach betting or trading as investing, but for others willing to adopt a longer-term view and create new habits it’s definitely possible.
Turning betting into investing
There is a lot more skill and planning involved if you’re looking to make a long term income from
sports, if you don’t plan to fail you will definitely not succeed.
Betting or trading will never 100% be like investing in something like property, as you’ve no
physical asset that you can call your own.
The comparable with the two is that you only really lose if you sell your investment for a lower
price than you purchased it for. As an example, with a property the market dips and you sell for a
loss, or a share price drops and you sell your stocks.
If you’d held on for longer, the market in virtually every instance will recover over time, and you
could then sell for a profit. It’s proven to be the case with property time and time again if home
owners hold on for long enough, they profit.
How this applies to betting
Applying this to betting with an investing mindset, you only lose when you stop betting during
the losing spells, and then miss out on the upward balance growth periods. It’s termed within
investing circles having weak hands.
The investing mindset is required to be successful over the long term in whatever you put your
time and money into.
You’ve probably read or heard this quoted before, but to be successful at betting or trading how
you react to situations is the single most important requirement. Your mindset is quite literally
your biggest asset.
Placing a bet with a bookmaker is easy and can of course be addictive, especially if you win a
few bets to begin with as this can get you hooked.
Bookmakers make millions in revenue because people either don’t know when to stop, or do
not place the right bets at value prices, and for the right amount of time.
What I mean by this is, if you get value on your bets over a long enough period you will of
course return a consistent annual profit.
I can guarantee your bookmaker account would either be closed or limited to a useless level of
staking should you achieve this.
Sometimes unfortunately we need to realise the hard way that simply ‘punting’ using
bookmakers will never make us a long-term profit.
By adjusting your expectations from I must win today at any cost, to I have a bank of money to
invest over a year and will stick to my percentage stake per bet or trade regardless, can make all the difference.
I had to learn myself by making a lot of money, and then losing it chasing losses with a
bookmaker.
I’ve also learned that when I do win more often than not using bookmakers, my accounts will as
mentioned be closed or limited.
I’ve access to just two remaining online bookmakers should I choose to use them, banned or
limited with the rest. This is just a result of winning more than I lost, and in some instances not
a great deal more. It’s just how a bookmaker traditionally operates.
The tools we use to place the bets themselves will also massively help us achieve our goals.
Betfair betting exchange
Now as a professional trader, and someone who bets with an investing mindset, I use the Betfair exchange to make my money. Also API software, but that’s a lot of detail for another blog post.
Using the Betfair exchange means I pay commission only when I win, and I will never be
banned or limited for winning too much.
I can deploy betting and trading strategies on a daily basis, and build a portfolio of sports
investments.
Instead of worrying my account will be limited or closed by a high street bookie for being good at
what I do, I can focus on running my strategies to a profit.
With the right mental attitude and a long term view, your sports investments can yield a healthy
profit.
Its Win Win for Betfair, as they only profit only when you do well with your betting or trading.
If you start making hundreds of thousands of pounds profit each month a premium charge
commission will be applied by Betfair, but again that’s an entirely different blog post on its own.
The thing is, Betfair are without a doubt the best option given they are the most popular, so most
of the money from punters, traders, betting bots, and even bookmakers levelling their books will
populate the exchange.
This gives you the best chance of getting your bets or trades matched, for the obvious reason
the money is available within the market.
To summarise this post, if you have the patience, motivation, and the desire to succeed long
term with your sports betting and trading, you can without a doubt invest and yield a positive
annual ROI.
If you’re impulsive, overly emotional, and cannot detach yourself from the money you’re
investing over a longer period, it’s highly likely this type of sports investing is not for you.
If you’d like more advice on approaching betting and trading with an investing mindset, visit my
website www.exponentialbet.co.uk and take a look at how I run my own strategies, then drop
me an email to [email protected] and I’ll get back to you asap.