Three Unpopular Opinions About Sports Betting

Welcome to the wonderful world of online sports gambling! It's like a wild rollercoaster ride filled with colorful characters, crazy opinions, as well as clever (and not so clever) strategies to beat the 'books. In amongst all of it are mysterious intricacies and unspoken rules pertaining to etiquette that makes it feel like you're part of a secret society where trying to keep up can be a real challenge.

However, fear not! Because we've got some ideas to make this community even more awesome before it becomes too massive. You see, with new states jumping on the legalized gambling bandwagon every month in the good ol' USA, and the number of bettors skyrocketing, there's a chance to shape this world into something truly special.

But we need to rattle some cages to do so.

Here are three unpopular (for now) opinions about the world of sports betting that we can use to mould for the betterment of our community.

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Unpopular Opinions About Sports Betting

Decimal Odds Should Be the Default

I really have no idea how we got to this point. Yes, American Odds has roots back to the OG days of gambling back in Las Vegas casinos, but in this author's opinion, when PASPA was repealed in 2018 - opening the door for online sports betting in America - we should have completely done away with the confusing odds system in favor of something that is used internationally and is much better: decimal odds.

With decimal odds it's all about simplicity and clarity. The number you see is the full deal, including your original bet, if you win. It's like ordering a burger with fries, all in one neat package. Easy as pie.

For example, with decimal odds, it's extremely easy to calculate a payout, regardless of whether the bet is plus money or if there is some juice. With decimal odds I merely multiply my intended stake by the odds to figure out what I will get paid.

Let me show you.

Let's do this with a bet that comes to odds of 2.20 (+120 in American odds terms)

My stake: $25 x the odds: 2.20 = $55 payout.

Okay, what about something that is juiced? Easy. Let's try odds of 1.30 (-333)

My stake $25 x the odds: 1.30 = $32.50 payout.

American odds base everything around a $100 unit. Plus money odds is what you'd get back if you bet $100, while juiced odds represent what you'd need to outlay in order to get $100 in return. For recreational bettors (most of us), having everything revolve $100 when not everyone is betting that large stake is pointless, confusing and just plain dumb.

Life doesn't need to be as hard as we make it, people! There is a much better way of doing things.

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Watermarking Tickets Is Kinda Lame

I've been wanting to get this one off my chest for a hot minute now, and it's definitely controversial because I completely get why people do this. The inner workings of the sports gambling community goes so far beyond just winning a bet. If you win enough bets, you cultivate a following that you can then monetize via paid Discords and other channels. If you're a member of Gambling Twitter, you would have witnessed handicappers go from working day jobs to being able to quit and gamble full-time because of the money they generate through selling subscriptions. So it makes sense why people are so protective of their betslips when they win and put a watermark - often of their logo or signature - when they win big.

But it's still lame.

Big time handicappers (I'm talking guys that already have 20,000+ followers) get so angry when they see an account try and "steal" their tickets for clout.

Firstly, most of these accounts have less than 100 followers and don't get any traction whatsoever from posting these stolen winning slips. And second, the capper literally won the money. Who cares if they tried to scam a ticket and claim it as their own? You have thousands of dollars in the bank and a whole set of followers who know that it's your bet. Sometimes people just get too worked up over these things.

Celebrating Being Bad at Betting Is Bad Content

Okay, this is primarily aimed at a couple of different accounts (especially an account that rhymes with er_wetting), but there are just so many things wrong with trying to chase clout by celebrating how bad you are at gambling.

Yes, we get it; there's an everyman-type of relatability to being bad at gambling; everyone's been on cold streaks and everyone has been screwed over in the worst types of ways on bets. But celebrating losing day in, day out feels kinda tacky, as well as irresponsible - especially because the people that are creating this content for the most part are being paid handsomely to do it. The everyday people that are being conditioned to think that losing bets every day is normal could potentially be doing harm to those that don't have the kind of bankroll to fund day after day failures. 

As a community, we can create better content, and send better messages to new bettors.

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Remember to please gamble responsibly. If you sense that you're taking your luck too far, know when to call it quits and don't be afraid to seek assistance. Keep in mind that gambling is all about having a fantastic experience! If you or someone you know is grappling with gambling issues, reach out to 1-800-GAMBLER for crisis counseling and support.