The role of statistics
In sports betting, statistics are seen as one of the most important pieces of the puzzle, and understandably so. After all, they tend to tell bettors what they are dealing with better than most sources of information. If a basketball player is a statistically great three point shooter, for example, they have a better chance at making those shots than someone who is not. But there are some things to consider when relying on statistics to make betting choices.
On one hand, an opponent has access to those statistics as well, and they can use them to form a game plan to neutralize a team’s strengths. In our basketball example above, this could mean a team going out of its way to put extra defenders on that three point shooter so as not to let him get going from the outside.
There is also the possibility of teams simply playing above or below their statistical outputs in a small sample size. Stats tend to cover entire seasons, which give you a full picture of how a player or team have performed over the course of a year. But in a one game situation, a team could have a game that exceeds those expectations or fails to live up to them.
The role of emotion
Emotion is less predictable than statistics to sports bettors, although there are some exceptions to be found there. Home court advantage is one of those exceptions, where a home crowd can get behind a team and get them excited to where their level of play improves. The same can be said for must-win situations both in the regular season and postseason.
And there are other scenarios where emotions may run high and lead to teams playing harder than they normally would. Rivalry games against an opponent where a team has a history or games where a team recently lost a teammate are examples of situations where emotions might be more important than anything that the stats can tell you.
There is no one way to bet on sports, and bettors have to remember that they need to balance emotion and stats to come up with the best situation for every game that they face. If they can do that, there is no reason they can’t have success. If you want to try that, why don`t you take a look at the following sites?