Top Cricket Betting Mistakes
While there are several mistakes you can make when betting on cricket, they generally fall into three key categories:
Psychological biases: These can cause you to make poor decisions or fall into certain traps.
Disregarding important information: This can include different odds available or information regarding the teams involved, such as player form.
Poor organisation: For example, not keeping track of your accounts.
In this article, we will discuss the most important mistakes people make in each of these categories, and provide practical solutions to overcome them.
1. Not Comparing Odds From Different Bookmakers
This is arguably the most common mistake punters make. These days, there are a multitude of betting sites competing for your custom, and while the odds they offer are typically very closely matched, they are rarely identical.
While these marginal differences in odds may not seem important if you are only placing a bet every now and then, for more serious and regular punters, this can add up over a long period of time. Getting the best value odds each time you bet can be the difference between your account being in the red or green.
Many beginners may not bother checking the different odds available, thinking that it would be an arduous or time-consuming process. However, luckily there are many websites such as oddschecker.com and bettingodds.com which enable you to easily compare odds from all the major bookies in no time at all. In this way, you can get the best odds on the market each and every time you place a bet.
2. Not Taking Advantage of Special Offers When Available
Like in most industries, gambling companies regularly offer special deals. These can include sign-up offers, free bets, as well as other daily offers for specific events.
Usually these deals come with certain strings attached; for instance, you may need to place bets worth a certain amount in order to be eligible, or the offer may only apply to specific options.
Sometimes, when these factors are taken into consideration, the offers may not be as good as they may seem at first sight, and so we recommend paying attention to the small print and considering whether the deal is a good option to go for. This may depend on what other offers are available, as well as the amount of money you want to put on the table and how likely you believe the bets that have special offers attached are to pay off.
With that said, special offers can provide a unique opportunity to get favourable deals on your cricket bets, and provided that the deals on offer align with your strategy, we recommend that you always take them into account to give yourself a chance at getting some great returns.
3. Not Having a Clear Strategy
When it comes to betting on cricket, it is tempting to dive in and make bets at random based off your hunches, without taking pause to consider whether your punts make strategic sense. But if you want to be successful with your betting, it is crucial to have the best strategy possible.
While those who take their cricket betting seriously may have complex and sophisticated strategies that involve large amounts of data crunching and massive spreadsheets, for the vast majority of cricket fans, a simpler method will suffice.
When planning your cricket bets, a few key questions need to be answered:
How much are you willing to lose if things don’t go as you predicted?
Does the size of your bet match your conviction regarding the outcome?
Most importantly, how does it fit within your budget?
Answering these questions will ensure that you are able to bet consistently, maximising your gains and minimising your losses over time.
4. Not Sticking to Your Budget
As touched upon in the previous point, sticking to a reasonable budget is one of the most important aspects of learning to bet on the cricket effectively.
The reason is simple – staking more than you can reasonably afford to lose is a sure way to run into trouble when gambling on any sport.
However strong your hunches may be, and however thoroughly you have researched the game, cricket is always unpredictable. Even the strongest of batting line-ups can crumble under pressure; alternatively, a game may be changed by a stand-out performance from a lesser-known player, or the weather may change unexpectedly.
For these reasons, even the savviest of punts can make mistakes, so it is vital to be mindful of the amount of money you commit. We recommend giving yourself a fixed budget each week or month for cricket betting to avoid overcommitting in the moment.
As an added bonus, being careful about your gambling budget will also mean you always have some “dry powder”, and so are sure to be able to take advantage of the best value opportunities you find!
5. Chasing Losses
One of the most common and potentially dangerous pitfalls of gambling is loss chasing. This is a behaviour wherein punters double down and increase the size of their bets in an attempt to win back money they have already lost through failed wagers.
This poses a significant risk for two reasons; firstly, it could cause you to abandon your budget, which as we have already seen is a vital component of a successful betting strategy. Secondly, and perhaps more seriously, loss-chasing behaviour can be a sign that your betting habits are psychologically unhealthy.
While in general, betting on sports is a low-risk form of entertainment (provided sensible precautions are taken), chasing your losses is the main way that your betting habits may spiral out of control and cause financial problems.
Luckily, this problem is easily avoided if you are aware of this risk, and apply some basic principles in order to avoid falling into this trap. Solutions include educating yourself on the psychology behind loss chasing, setting and adhering to strict budgets, and setting spending caps.
6. Betting With Your Heart and Not Your Head
People may enjoy cricket for a multitude of reasons. Some punters see their cricket bets purely as a form of entertainment, for which they are happy to pay a small premium with money they can afford to lose.
However, if you are betting more frequently and want to avoid running up costly losses over time, it is essential that you learn to analyse the data and make informed and objective decisions.
While performing thorough analysis may seem like a daunting task, luckily there are plenty of websites which can help you get clued up on betting analysis without having to spend hours poring over charts and spreadsheets.
Of course, it doesn’t always have to be a black-and-white choice between trusting your gut and basing your decisions purely on data analysis. For many punters, the best long-term strategy involves a balanced approach, in which they may take their hunches into account, but also make sure they have solid objective reasoning to back up their betting choices.
7. Not Checking Pitch and Weather Reports
External factors such as the weather or the condition of the playing surface are of vital importance in cricket, and can swing the game in either direction. Therefore, when placing a bet on the outcome, it always pays (literally!) to take these into account.
When assessing the pitch report, a few key points need to be taken into consideration, one being the nature of the pitch – does it favour medium-pace swing bowlers or fast “bang it in the middle” bowlers? Is there usually much turn? What are the respective records of the two teams at this venue? How have the key players performed here in the past?
In addition, it is essential to take the weather into account. Fluctuations in the weather can have a huge impact on many aspects of the game, as in Test cricket, rain can reduce the number of days’ play, increasing the likelihood of a draw. In T20 and 50-over (ODI) cricket, it can mean the game gets shortened to a smaller number of overs.
The weather can also have a profound impact on the game in more subtle ways. If the sun is out, the pitch may become more favourable for batting, and in Test matches, this may also lead to the wicket drying out and becoming favourable to spin bowling on days 4 and 5. On the other hand, muggy, cloudy weather can lead to greater swing, which may favour certain bowling attacks
8. Falling for the Gambler’s Fallacy
The gambler’s fallacy is the erroneous belief that random events are made more or less likely based on previous outcomes.
For instance, if a fair coin comes up heads 3 times in a row, it is easy to assume that a tails is due. However, in reality, each toss of the coin is a statistically- independent event, entirely unconnected to any previous tosses.
Of course, the gambler’s fallacy only applies to events that are statistically independent, and while in some cases, like coin tosses, this is easy to identify, in other cases it can be trickier to assess. For example, say a batsman made a century in the last match – it could reasonably be said that he is more likely make another in the next match.
There are some valid reasons to believe this is so, as players’ innings are not statistically-independent events like a coin toss is. Form is a real thing, and so it is reasonable to draw some inferences from a player’s recent performances. However, even in cases like this there is an element of randomness which must be taken into account.
9. Falling for Scams
When learning the ropes of cricket betting, it is easy to stumble across online so-called “betting gurus” promising guaranteed returns if you sign up to their course or buy a subscription to their exclusive tips.
These often feature compelling marketing and convincing-sounding explanations that make it seem like their results are legitimate and reliable.
In order to avoid falling for this kind of scam, look out for the following red flags:
They promise guaranteed returns – in the world of betting nothing is certain, so any time positive results are guaranteed, it’s a major red flag.
They offer access to secret or exclusive knowledge.
Their marketing implies that you will become richer using their strategies.
There is little to no information available online concerning the person or organisation outside of their own website or promotional materials.
Their prices are much higher than conventional and legitimate betting tips websites.
If any of these apply, then we recommend giving the product a wide berth, or at least proceeding with extreme caution. In general, you are much more likely to lose money over time when gambling, so it’s always worth taking any strategy that promises to make money over time with a sizeable pinch of salt.
10. Not Keeping Track of Your Winnings/Losses
It is common for beginners to simply launch into betting on cricket without thinking about keeping some form of record of how much they have won or lost over time. While some bookies will provide a convenient breakdown of your results on their site, if you are betting regularly, you will most likely have multiple accounts with different sites.
For this reason, it is recommended that you keep a personal record of the overall results from each bookie. While there are many ways to do this, perhaps the most straightforward solution is a simple spreadsheet.
Ultimately, the most important thing when tracking your betting results is your overall gains or losses, so it is okay for your data to be aggregated to make it easier to read and fill in. However, more detailed records can also prove useful, as they allow you to analyse your bets and see which strategies have been most successful.
11. Betting for the Wrong Reasons
Betting on cricket online can be a highly rewarding recreational activity, however, as with anything, it is important to approach it with a healthy mindset and reasonable expectations.
It can be easy to use gambling on cricket as a pick-me-up when you are stressed or have a low mood. Although this is not necessarily a mistake in itself, it pays to at least be conscious of your choices, and make sure that you don’t allow the habit to become overly expensive than you can afford, or to get in the way of more important things.
Many also start betting on cricket as a means of making money. This is a risky game to play, as in sports betting, like casino betting, “the house always wins”. It is true that some do make money from their gambling over long time periods through strategies like arbitrage, value betting and matched betting, but these are the exception, not the rule; and people pursuing these strategies typically dedicate significant amounts of time working on their strategy, and potentially take on considerable risk in the process.
12. Not Keeping on Top of Team News
As the result of a match depends on the performance of both teams players, not keeping up-to-date with team news is one of the simplest mistakes that beginners need to avoid.
Injury news in particular is of key importance. It is common for players to pick up injuries in training that are only reported shortly before a match, and news about recovery may not be made public until last minute, so it is crucial you stay on top of the most recent events.
In order to get instant updates, it can be a good idea to set up team news alerts on your phone.
