This write-up examines the place of intuition in sports betting; the advantages and limitations.
Does intuition has a place in sports betting?
According to the English dictionary, intuition means, ‘immediate cognition without the use of conscious rational processes’. Most times, minds are made up based on feelings not premeditated which could be true or false. Sports betting are a game of probability as nothing is actually guaranteed. Therefore, letting your intuition overwhelm you instead of a calculated decision before placing a stake could swing both ways (You could win massively or the other way round).
On multiple occasions, people have placed a bet on a particular team/individual simply because they share a sentiment and not necessarily because statistics support the team. This is a regular style of a bet among the fans of a particular team.
Intuition vs. Data
Data is information in a computational context usually with the implication that it is organized. Most times, it is a representation of facts or ideas in a formalized manner capable of being communicated or manipulated by some processes.
In South african sports betting, intuition doesn’t take the objective data into much consideration. Punters rely mainly on the history of games played in the past between two opposing teams or players to establish their intuition for upcoming games. For new and casual punters, it is very essential to get familiarized with sporting data as it is a useful tool to put your intuition to the right use in sports betting.
Intuition in Sports betting
Let us assume you see an odds distribution like the one given below:
Arsenal FC odds = 8.850
Tottenham FC odds = 2.358
Draw odds = 0
As an experienced football punter who is familiar with the premier league, you could easily detect that something does not add up in this odds distribution. This is because regardless of Arsenal’s current form, the chance of winning allocated to Arsenal is too low to be considered realistic. As a result, the punter could easily decipher that this odd is a false representation.
The limitations of Intuition in sports betting
Of course, there are several limitations to intuition just like there are many other limitations to fact-based betting supported by statistical data alone.
For some bets, your ability to correctly bet based on intuition can be very low. For instance, in a situation where two average teams with inconsistent winning records and no previous match history are to play against each other, your best chance in that instance is to consider using the quantitative data supplied by sports prediction software.
However, not having intuitive knowledge should not hinder your winnings as you can always review our expert analyses of bets: upsure.co.za.
Conclusion
Though there are recent upsurge and over-emphasis in the use of prediction bots for sports betting due to the vast amount of useful data they are able to produce for sports bettors. They will almost always lead you to loss of money if not combined with an intuitive knowledge of the game.
