Keep Track of All Sports Bet
All serious or professional sports bettors practice the habit of
keeping track of each of their bets. If you intend to be one, then this
practice is something you must also consider. Keeping records of all your
sports bets allow you to monitor and check your previous moves regularly. Some
lazy or uncommitted bettors will say that they don’t need to manually keep a
record because they won’t forget their bets. These people also tend to focus
solely on their bet earnings, which is something that they don’t need to write
down because they can conveniently monitor this via their account balance.
However, to be a serious bettor, you must realize the importance of keeping
records of your bets, especially when it comes to analyzing future trends and
bet strategies.
An effective and very convenient way of tracking your bets is by
using a computer spreadsheet, with the likes of MS Excel, EditGrid and other common
versions such as Google Documents. You are already using the computer anyway as
you manage your sports bets online, so it should be more convenient to deal
with computer spreadsheets compared to keeping records the old school way,
notebook and pen that is. There’s nothing wrong if you prefer using the latter.
But we highly recommend the spreadsheet programs instead so you’ll be able to
sort and filter all your data with more ease, not to mention that it is also
easier to analyze the trends in this way.
These electronic spreadsheets are widely available today, and utilizing
the full features of a program like MS Excel will turn out more helpful in your
data gathering and analysis especially long term wise. For some of those
programs, it may take a while to learn and master but nevertheless, the
practicality and convenience it offers once you get the hang of it seems to
prove it’s worth it. The important thing is gradually getting the habit of
using spreadsheets and just experiment on which specific program works best for
you, then stick with it.
Record the Important Elements of Your Betting Data
Earlier we have already established the necessity to rigorously and consistently record each of your bets. Additionally, recording your bets will not mean anything if you don’t know how to filter the important data and decide what to record. A good betting spreadsheet must contain these fundamental elements so that your data becomes meaningful:- Date of bet
- The sport you joined
- Sportsbook
- Betting classification (i.e. Total, Halftime, Spread, Moneyline, Teaser, etc.)
- Betting line
- Actual bet amount (plus its percentage equivalent of your total bankroll)
- Outcome
- Opening Line
- Closing Line
Offhand, some may think it’s very tedious and time consuming to record this much data every time. However, once you get the hang of recording your betting data then it’s going to be a piece of cake and the habit of recording will just come out naturally each time you make a bet.
As your spreadsheet data gets updated, you will be able to start with monitoring your betting results. Be careful not to under or over-estimate your analysis if your data spreadsheet is still very small to begin with. Just like any other study or data tracking, you will need a substantial quantity of data first before it can be statistically telling and meaningful. The important thing is to continuously grow and update your betting spreadsheet so you can build a reliable portfolio after some time. Refrain from stopping just because you got around 10-30 betting results as betting assumptions will be premature at this point.
Gain Profitable Betting Opportunities from your Spreadsheet
The moment your sports bet portfolio gets on going regularly, you have formidably increased your chances of winning in your bets and beating the bookies. This is because once you have your betting history, you get to see in full scale all the sports you joined, as well as find out what betting types you are beating or losing. With your spreadsheet, you can find out if you are really winning, especially for those who might have an increasing bankroll and yet still losing big time in the long run due to halftime betting.
