Viewing sports betting as an investment
I’m a huge sports fan, and I write and think about betting on sports because I love it. I strongly believe that there is more to the pursuit than just a hobby, though. At my own site, Sports Investment Journal, I look at sports betting as an investment. Here are fifteen reasons why I believe that you can view sports investing favorably as an investment if you approach it responsibly in a disciplined and considered fashion:
1. Time frame – When you make a play, you know exactly when the game will start. You don’t have to guess how long your money will be tied up before you reach your return goal on the investment.
2. Perfectly defined risk – As soon as you make your wager you know exactly what your upside and downside are, and what events are required to realize them. You aren’t subject to unexpected market conditions.
3. Access to information – You can get way more relevant information about any pro or college team than you can about a publicly traded company, and you can get it in real time as well. You don’t have to wait for reporting periods, and there is no lag time as information is processed and released. If information is money, then investing in sports gives you a clear edge. That transparency provides confidence for responsible sports investors.
4. Liquidity – Up until the moment the game starts you can instantly close or reverse a position for little or no cost. Hedging opportunities often exist within a game to lessen your risk as well.
5. Less capital tie-up – When you make a sports wager, your capital is tied up for a short time frame. That means that, with a properly managed bankroll, you can use your capital more often. You can experience leverage on your money without the borrowing exposure required to leverage stock investments.
6. Not a victim to general trends – In the stock market you can find your bet, even if it is fundamentally sound, deemed unsuccessful because of broader general market impacts – war, changes in government policy, natural disaster – over which you have no control. In sports there is always a winner and a loser regardless of what happens in the game. It won’t always be the outcome you want, but at least you can be certain of an outcome.
7. Diversity – You are not limited to a few choices when it comes to sports investing. In the current internet reality there is an amazing range of sports that you can bet on. That choice allows you to seek the most favorable situations. Think of it in the same way as different sectors you can invest in in the stock market.
8. Immediate settlement – As soon as a game is completed your bet is settled and the money is available for another wager.
9. Mobility – Thanks to the plethora of online information sources, and the ease and security of online wagering, investing in sports is available no matter where you are or what time it is.
10. Year round opportunities – No matter what the time of year there is some sports action that you can handicap and responsibly invest in.
11. Regulated markets – The scrutiny placed on the leagues, and the attention that can be paid thanks to audio and video technology, means that games are very well policed. Sports investors can be reasonably confident that games are being played without cheating. There is no concern about things like insider trading or stock manipulation which could greatly impact your stock investment.
12. Low barriers to entry – A wagering account can be established with as much or as little money as you desire. Incredible information is available at no or low cost. You can reasonably participate in sports investing without ample financial resources.
13. Wide option of financial vehicles – Just as in the financial markets, sports betting offers a wide range of different instruments which can be tailored to your needs and the risk you are willing to assume. Straight bets, totals, parlays, teasers, halves, quarters, futures – there is an instrument available to capitalize on every situation worthy of attention.
14. Performance monitoring is simple – There are literally dozens of ways to get real-time information about the games that you have wagered on, and there are even more ways to get information about the game after it ends. Tracking your investments accurately is easy.
15. It’s fun – What’s more entertaining – watching a stock ticker or a football game to track your investment.
7 Comments
#1 reason not to: unlike a real investment, nothing is produced, and it is a zero-sum game.
If you’re really talking about using sports betting as an investment, you should look at PickLogic.com. Those guys are doing it right — but it’s not really entertainment to them, it’s truly about making money.
I’m familiar with PickLogic.com, and find them interesting. I would personally be very nervous with an approach like that in which they chase their losses by increasing their bet sizes until they win. That’s a road to ruin if you hit a long losing streak, and everyone will sooner or later. Look at their betting record for the last 11 days of December. They started at a bet of $80, which is very reasonable, but after five losses in a row their sixth bet was $2,720. They won that, but they could just as easily have lost that and needed a much bigger bet the next time. Sooner or later in that kind of an approach you will run into the limits of your bankroll or the limits imposed by your sportsbook. That’s certainly not an approach that would make me comfortable.
Well, I generally agree with you: everyone has to hit a long losing streak at some point. That said, PickLogic hasn’t had anything more than 5 games since they started (at least, that’s what their results page says)…what if they go another 3 years without a long streak? You’d have made quite a bit of money by then.
I’ve been doing it for almost 6 months now, and there have been some bumps in the road, but I’m still up a little over 17% since then. (And really, I’m up more than that, since I’ve never really had the full amount that I started with at risk.)
I wasn’t there for that $2720 bet (and I’m doing a $25K account, so for me, that would have been a $6800 bet), so I don’t know if I could have followed it all the way through…but for the people who did, they’ve had a huge year.
Again, I’m skeptical too, but it sure seems to work, and it’s certainly more of an “investment” than gambling, if you ask me.
Number 15 says it all. But contact stockbrokering WOULD make the margins slimmer . . .
I totally agree that it can be considered an ‘investment’. However, the bottom line to me is sound discipline and the use of common sense. To me it’s about realizing you are not going to win all the time and viewing any wager as a loss before you begin. If you win then you are ahead and all the better, but if you lose then the outcome has already been taken into account.
Above all have fun doing it.
Hey I have a sport investment site as well, everyone should check it out!
http://sportinvestments.com