What Type Of Bettor Are You?

MrJoeSoap

I realise you can't pigeon-hole everyone into one or two categories, but in my experience you can put most gamblers into a few different sets which I have tried to list below. So, which are you? Feel free to pick more than one, if you're betting habits have changed in the past or do so regularly (I personally fit into about half the categories, depending on the weather). Or if you have a different category throw it out there.

Be as truthful as your pride will allow

• The Occasional: You will only punt a few times a year, at major sporting events and/or the big horse races, purely for the occasion and the buzz of the odd bet. Grand Nationals, Cheltenham, Champions League Final, US Masters etc...
• The Lucky Punter: You don't base your bets on much other than instinct, but seem to win more than you lose and you withdraw more than you deposit.
• The Unlucky Punter: You don't base your bets on much other than instinct, but seem to win lose than you win and you deposit more than you win.
• The Banker: You only bet on short-odds "sure things" and your winnings resemble your banks interest rates, 3 to 4%.
• The Insider: You know things that the traders don't, and they don't like you for it.
• The Scientist: You spend your time in Excel spredsheets and on statistics websites, doing your research and basing your bets on your findings. You win more than you lose.
• The Trier: Much like the above, you spend your time doing research into your bets, but you still can't seem to crack the system.
• The Valuer: Not mutually exclusive to the above two, you will only place a bet when you believe the bookmakers have underpriced a selection, and therefore your bets aren't regular but are calculated and give you the edge.
• The Casual: You bet from time-to-time to give yourself more interest in the event you are watching or following. You don't mind losing and often expect to do so, but don't consider it punting as you do it to improve your enjoyment of an event.
• The Problem Gambler: Your kids go hungry and your family don't see you for weeks on end.

Personally, I started gambling small amounts when in college on US Sports late at night, and was up overall a small for quite a while until I moved to Australia and stopped betting for a year or so. Since I've come back I've become more of a punter, depositing the odd 20 quid here and there but with much less frequency than before. My wins are bigger than they were initially but as a result they are less common. Recently I've stopped betting altogether as I try to build up a database on the NHL, to see if I can make some money off it next season.

shangri la

So far all 4 voters have said they look for value bets.

I would say at least 2 have no idea how to price up an event.

That should be a sticky in every gambling forum even if it is just a basic poission distribution.

Looking at a league table where the odds on the top team to beat the bottom team is 2/5 does not automatically mean its value but folk think just looking at a league table is researching a bet.

So how do you price up your main sport?

im invisible

I'm better than you

Xavi6

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Personally, I started gambling small amounts when in college on US Sports late at night,

Ah those were the days (or nights). Up til all hours throwing a few quid on who would score the next free throw. We had some good times!

I'm a regular gambler now (I'd do two or three a week on the football) but my stakes are never more than a fiver so I'm not fussed if I lose, it's more to add a bit of spice to a game I'm not overly interested in.

I've yet to deposit any money into my Betfair account since opening it with a free bet and it's over 150 euro at the mo so I'm happy enough with that.

I'd consider myself what you'd call the Scientist there. All of my income comes from gambling and my lifestyle does too, I'd probably spend a large amount of time daily researching bets and looking for errors in pricing, looking at dropping odds, value and reading fan forums amongst many things, you can never research enough especially when you're actually using the money as a source of income and you're not a mug punter who does accumulators. I'm up 90+ units since the 7th of February and am making other sources of income too from gambling.

shangri la

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd consider myself what you'd call the Scientist there. All of my income comes from gambling and my lifestyle does too, I'd probably spend a large amount of time daily researching bets and looking for errors in pricing, looking at dropping odds, value and reading fan forums amongst many things, you can never research enough especially when you're actually using the money as a source of income and you're not a mug punter who does accumulators. I'm up 90+ units since the 7th of February and am making other sources of income too from gambling.

I remember those days 19/20 years old, living expenses entailed pints and quarter pounders.

eh i dunno

Definately in the trier bracket. Not big money though. Never deposit more than 20 a week so will never end up hungry cus of my betting.