man wearing headphones while sitting on chair in front of MacBook

Online betting can be a great way to make money, especially if you have the right tools to help you make smart decisions. However, it’s not enough to pick winners; you also need to avoid bad mistakes that can ruin your bankroll and even cost you your entire account balance. 

By following these tips about how to prevent online betting mistakes, you will be well on your way to making money from this simple yet profitable activity.

Not doing your research

All too often, bettors look at a site’s name and decide whether or not to go with it. While you want to be cautious, there are also a ton of legitimate sites out there. This doesn’t mean you should pick one randomly—you still want to do your research. 

Look into how long they’ve been in business, their reputation, how quickly they process withdrawals and deposits, etc. Make sure everything checks out before you start betting. 

If you can’t find any information about a specific site online, try asking around on forums and communities where people who have used them congregate. 

Don’t rely on personal referrals unless you know someone has used them; as above, plenty of scammers will provide references to make themselves seem more trustworthy. 

Having Unrealistic Expectations

If you’re not familiar with betting, it’s easy to get swept up in a fantasy of winning big—and being able to quit your day job. Online wagering can be a quick way to make money, but losing that same money is also easy. 

For example, if you bet $100 on a single sporting event and your team loses by two points, you lose $100. That may seem simple enough, but online wagering involves more than one bet at a time, which is why realistic expectations are essential. 

The most successful bettors aren’t those who go into their first experience expecting to win millions; they know how much they want to win (and how much they want to risk) before placing any bets.

Financial Irresponsibility

The most significant mistake people make when online betting is that they are financially irresponsible. You should never bet money you cannot afford to lose. It’s a surefire way to end up with nothing to show for your efforts, making you susceptible to other mistakes. 

For example, if you’re worried about losing your cash, it can influence your bets and even potentially cause you not to place any. If financial irresponsibility is an issue, set a small daily budget and stick with it. 

By limiting yourself in this manner, you won’t feel tempted to go over your budget or risk losing more than what you’ve planned on spending. And remember: every dollar that you spend on gambling is one less dollar that could be used for savings or paying off debt. 

If you don’t have self-control around gambling money, don’t use it to help keep things in check.

Overconfidence

Getting confident about your betting prowess is easy when you start winning, but overconfidence can lead to risky bets. For example, if you win a few rounds at roulette, it might be tempting to bet your life savings on red (or black) with nothing more than a good feeling. 

Don’t do it! Having some discipline as an online gambler is essential as keeping most of your money in play. Remember: Even if you are skilled enough to know that something is likely to happen, other factors, such as luck, could still affect whether or not that outcome comes true. 

Keep your losses small, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Also, never risk what you need to survive. That should go without saying, but we say it anyway.

Gambler’s Fallacy

The Gambler’s Fallacy is one of many cognitive biases that could affect how we make decisions about our betting. This fallacy assumes that if something happens more often than usual in a short period, it will happen less often in the future. 

For example, if you roll a dice and it shows a six immediately after two 4s, you might think that means there is going to be an unusual number of 1s rolled over the next few turns. However, each dice has an equal chance of landing on any side during a roll. 

So while it may seem like luck is working against you when bad things happen in succession, they are just as likely to continue as they are to stop. 

Not Taking Advantage of Bonus Offers

Because many online betting sites are new, they’re always looking for ways to attract customers. One way is by offering special bonuses to new players who sign up and deposit a certain amount of money. 

Don’t ignore these offers because they often give you free money that you can use to bet with and build your bankroll on. If a site gives you $25 in free bets, that $25 could turn into real cash after only a few successful wagers. 

Like most things in life, what seems like a sure thing might not be as good as it looks. That holds when making wagers online because many people fail to consider all the possible outcomes before placing their bets.

Conclusion

If you want to get into betting online for extra income or a little fun, Bitcoin sports betting sites like BetFury sports offer a wide range of different options and opportunities to bet on. 

When betting online, there are specific errors you need to try your best to avoid because they can cost you more money than if you hadn’t made them in the first place. Just make sure that you don’t make these common mistakes.