In the world of online sports betting it is an undoubted truth that most people will lose most of the time. Just as it would be when purchasing a lottery ticket, there is an element of luck involved with the outcome. Just as somebody somewhere will choose the same set of lottery numbers that emerge from the machine, so someone will correctly deduce that the man with the blue stars on his pretty yellow racing cap is destined to triumph in the Grand National because his horse has a name that vaguely resembles that of a passed relative or of a dearly loved pet.
But in order for most to lose, someone out there has to win. No matter how many horses are participating in a race, no matter how high are the jumps, what is always certain is that one horse will cross the line before the others and that there will be someone who will have bet on it to do so.
So is sports betting, like the lottery, just a matter of chance?
Well clearly it is not. Whilst some can and sometimes do manage to select the winner of a horse race by pinning the tail on the proverbial donkey, there are many more who enjoy the regular success that comes with applied knowledge. Understanding why a particular horse is more likely to win a race than the odds would appear to suggest is the key to achieving the sustained, long-term success of the professional punter.
It does after all stand to reason that if the bookie wins overall but pays out to some he will pay out more frequently to those who study their subject scientifically than to those whose selections are informed only by guesswork. And from that it then follows that those whose methodology and research is good enough will be successful in the long run.
None of this of course is to say that the professional gambler will win every time. Sports betting is by nature open to chance and even the best and most tactical punter can only make an inspired guess based on experience, knowledge and rational analysis. The success of the expert is ultimately measured by his performance over a period of time.
It follows that when those who are regularly successful pass on their advice to us it is to our benefit to accept it and to act upon it. The horse racing tipster saves us the effort and inconvenience of having to research the information ourselves, and that is assuming that we have the capacity to do so in the first place. A tipster service from a source with a track record of success will enable us to confidently enjoy the fruits of the knowledge.
