The Many Benefits Of Recording Your Bets

A surprising number of people who try their hand at sports betting have no record of their bets to show for their efforts.

There are several possible reasons for this, including simply being too lazy or serious enough about their sports betting journey, being unaware of the benefits to be had from good record-keeping, and even a lack of knowledge about record-keeping and the effective analysis of data. Aside from these, there’s also the issue of time.

But the truth is that time spent keeping records and performing constant analysis is an investment in successful sports betting in its own right. Time spent on keeping records should therefore not be divorced from the https://onlinebetting.net.nz/mma/ betting process, but instead, be considered a useful tool.

Data Is Reliable – Memory Not

The problem with relying solely on memory is that memory tends to be bias. Without delving too deep into why this is so from a psychological preservation point of view, the bias nature of memory can be illustrated by way of a simple example.

Although very few people would be able to remember what it was that they had for lunch six weeks ago on a specific day of the week, many more will accurately recall what they had to eat the last time they enjoyed a really tasty meal. This is because the human mind is wired in such a way that especially pleasant events tend to stick around for a lot longer than routine or even unpleasant experiences.

When translated to sports betting logic, this means we’re more likely to remember good bets than unsuccessful ones, thereby warping our understanding of reality. Data, on the other hand, doesn’t suffer from this particular shortcoming. When recorded regularly and honestly, data always tells the truth, which makes of data and record-keeping the sports bettor’s greatest ally.

Data Measures More Than Money

Data not only helps us measure our success in terms of monetary results or yield, but also the “how” behind the money. Perhaps the most important bit of information provided and measured by record-keeping is our actual level of performance.

Monitoring our performance in more ways than only from a profitability point of view is perhaps the most effective way of improving that performance. And best of all is that performance and the level of success we ultimately achieve are all things completely within our control if only we’re willing to spend time and energy on the regular keeping of records.

Data Helps Us Take Action

It would be impossible to bring about improvement by taking action without first knowing where it is we need to improve.

Data and record-keeping help us answer some of the following questions:

• What exactly happened, and why?
• If the same situation that led to a poor result were to happen again, what would the correct (different) response be so as to ensure a more favourable outcome?
• What sense can be made of this particular situation? Or in other words, what are the key takeaways?
• What alternative route could have been taken?