Bad Punting Behaviours

Many experts believe that the main reason most punters fail to turn a profit each year is because their desire to win is not great enough.

Or as U.S. racing’s speed ratings guru Andy Beyer once said:

"The next best thing to winning at gambling is losing at gambling".

The fact is most punters indulge in self-destructive behaviour patterns which keep them working and the bookies eating caviar and drinking champagne.

One approach to combating this problem is to learn the behaviours that cause otherwise rational people to lose at punting and then NOT DO those same exact things.

Easy enough said, but not always so easy to do, especially for those inclined to bet in every race.

If you do bet in every race, you cannot possibly win at horse race punting!

Punters have to "pick their spots" very carefully until they feel they have an edge of some kind and can turn a profit. But why do people actually lose and lose continually? Basically it gets back to the fact that most people bet emotionally. They are in a constant state of emotional reaction.

That is, they are forever reacting to the emotional roller-coaster of winning and losing, losing and winning. When they win, they become invincible and bet too much and when they lose they become reactive and start chasing losses…usually betting far too much.

Psychologists have studied the losing habits of punters (and investors) and most of these can be summarised as:

Betting too many races
Lack of preparation
Random bad luck
Having no plan before entering the racetrack or T.A.B .
Bad information
Early losses
Constantly changing their mind and choices during the day
Constantly asking horses to run past their pedigree
Not keeping track of all their wagers.

Simply eradicating, or at least minimising, these self-sabotaging behaviours has the potential to convert any punter from a loser to a winner.

The remainder of this article examines these behaviours and how to go from losing to winning.

Bad-Punting-Behaviours.pdf (189kB)