People typically feel all that it takes to be a successful bettor is to stake more money in more games so that you can increase your chances of winning.
While that may be true in some cases, it is far from the whole truth. To become successful, bettors need to work hard, stay disciplined, and learn as fast as possible.
Patience is also required, even though it is an underrated part of betting. This article explains why it is important for bettors to be patient.
Why patience is a virtue for bettors
Patience which is the capacity to tolerate delays is one of the most overlooked parts of becoming successful in betting.
However, in an activity like betting that is prone to random outcomes and luck, being patient can only be overlooked to the detriment of a bettor.
The Law of Large Numbers is the best way to explain how vital patience is to betting, because of its principle of the probability distribution.
In betting, this is merely the probability that a coin would land on its head or tail. At some point in time with continual tossing, the coin toss would even out.
It is the same situation with betting because at some point the random nature of betting and luck would even out if the bettor has a more significant edge than the margin of the bookmaker.
The key now is to be patient enough not to restrict the sample size.
The role of cognitive bias
Even if bettors are well versed in the common traps other unsuccessful bettors fall into, and know that they can make money if they wait long enough, cognitive bias can still interfere with their reasoning and ruin their chances of winning.
However, with patience, bettors can refrain from making rational and impulsive betting decisions, and make more calculated and informed betting decisions.
Long-term success vs. Short term gain
Hyperbolic discounting is one of the significant cognitive biases that patience can help bettors control. This cognitive bias is the tendency of a bettor to choose quick payoff over a bigger gain that could take a more extended period to achieve.
The best expression of this notion is looking at a bettor’s staking method.
Most bettors would usually favor betting with all their money at once to get a huge instant win, even if there are obvious risks to them losing all their bankroll.
These bettors would use staking methods that would see them continually lose money betting, with the hopes of recouping all their previous stakes.
However, the patient bettor would use any of the fixed or proportional staking methods that reduce risk, and could even eliminate it entirely, despite having to wait for long to win.
Technology and its impact on our patience
Technology has many good sides, but its ability to make us acquire our needs and goods quickly may not be all positive.
With the touch of a button, we can now order a pizza or a taxi, we no longer have to leave our houses to shop, and so we can spend more time in our comfort zone while still getting things done.
These advancements in technology have created a desire for instant gratification that has also found its way into the world of betting.
Bettors are now provided with endless ways of placing a bet without breaking a sweat, and more importantly, for bookmakers, they can now take advantage of the minimal thoughts most bettors put into their betting decisions and offer curated bets in the form of “best bets,” and “most popular bets” etc.
Wait for what you know
In conclusion, bettors who want to be successful cannot afford not to be patient and see the bigger picture.
If you bet with a positive expected value, but find out you are suffering some losses, just know that this is just a progression of losses in a larger sample that would ultimately be profitable.
Betting is all about detecting favourable expected values, having an understanding of margins, and having an edge over your bookmaker so that you can tell how much your bet is costing you.
But you have to combine your winning strategy with patience if you want to get your desired result.
Unlike the lottery, in betting, you don’t become rich overnight.
