I wanted to write an article about how much you can earn in a year with sports betting, but then, thinking about it carefully, I realized that I first had to take a step back.
If I had reeled off numbers, made arguments, provided evidence, I would most likely have been taken for crazy, misunderstood, read with little interest.
This is because there is still too much confusion, too much ignorance in the world of betting and, probably, the first person who took something for granted… was me.
Why are you wondering?
Because I consider betting as an investment.
But the truth is that most people don’t.
The mental short circuit: when we confuse events with processes
Our brain is programmed to seek shortcuts. To associate a visible event with an immediate cause, without stopping to think about everything in between.
Let me give you a concrete example.
You’re at a traffic light and a man pulls up beside you driving a Porsche 911.
The first thing you think is: “How the hell can he afford it?“
And your mind races:
- “He must be rich from family money.”
- “He must have won the lottery.”
- “He must have inherited money.”
Maybe someone a little smarter might think:
- “Maybe he’s a successful lawyer.”
- “He has a job that allows him to maintain this lifestyle, how lucky!”
99% of people don’t have the right answers because they don’t ask themselves the right questions.
In this case the correct question should be:
- What are the choices and behaviors he had to adopt throughout his life to get to drive that car?”
99% of people link one event to another event, what they don’t do is link the event to the process.
Nobody probably thinks about the choices he had to make (e.g. “what should I study”), the sacrifices (e.g. “I’ll stay home to study rather than go to the disco”), the behaviors he had to adopt (e.g. “I study 8 hours every day, even if I don’t have absolute certainty of achieving that kind of result”).
CHOICES –> BEHAVIORS –> HABITS
Three words that most people never question.
Then there’s another crucial element missing, namely time. It all started with a decision: one fine morning our hero wakes up and says “I want to become the number 1 lawyer in my city“. But that day wasn’t yesterday.
Most likely it wasn’t just a few years ago, but even a few decades ago, and in between all this there were choices, difficulties, moments of discouragement, the desire to quit, but despite everything he went on because he had his own life vision, a life vision that has now brought him to look at you from his car window and make you die of envy.
Obviously this is a somewhat extreme and also somewhat trite example, but the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is all here, in the change of mindset from event vs process.
“But what does this have to do with betting?”
You’re probably wondering what this reasoning has to do with betting, but in my opinion this is the key to everything and now I’ll show you.
The bookmakers play exactly on this mechanism of the human mind: the ease of believing that your life can change simply with a stroke of luck.
They show you the event:
“That player won €5,000 with a €5 bet slip!“
But they hide the process:
- how much money that same person lost in the previous months
- how much time that same person wasted in the previous months
- how unlikely it is to replicate that win
It’s the same principle as miracle diet advertisements or scratch cards: selling you the shortcut.
But let’s think about it for a moment with numbers.
The average player places 3 bet slips a week at €5.
“It’s only €5, what difference can it make.”
Yet €5 x 3 = €15 a week, which becomes €60 a month, that is €720 a year.
That’s not pocket change, especially for people with a normal job, but with this formula spread over time you don’t even notice that you’re losing them day after day, when you could use them for something more effective.
In this case too, let’s try to change the questions we ask ourselves and change perspective:
“I’ve saved €720 in the last year, how can I invest them best so as not to lose them and possibly also make a profit in the coming months/years?“
Do you see how the discourse changes? Does it light up any bulbs for you?
There are words in there like: savings, invest, not lose, profit and also time frames like years.
Do you realize how everything changes when you start asking yourself the right questions?
Everything comes down to three fundamental concepts: investment, time and profit!
If you don’t consider betting an investment process, you’ll never achieve consistent profit. You may even win occasionally, but in the long run you’ll lose — because you’re playing against mathematics, not against luck.
Every activity that results in earnings over time depends exclusively on:
- How much do I decide to invest initially?
- How much can I earn in a defined period of time?
If you don’t have these coordinates, you’re not doing betting: you’re just gambling.
You need to get this clear in your head: INVESTMENT –> TIME –> PROFIT.
Do you see the difference between event and process?
It’s just a matter of reprogramming your mind.
Don’t look for the win that changes your life in one day, but build a process that allows you, over time, to earn more than you invest.
The PATIENCE is the quality that 99% of bettors need to train the most.
This is the only way to win.. even and especially in betting!
Once these concepts are internalized, then we can start talking about figures (probably in the next article by TheBettorDiary).