Bettors are constantly searching for cues, tips and information that will bring them to the forefront of the market, ahead of bookmakers and other punters, so as to beat the odds and generate profits. Everyone who loves sports wagering and has experimented with books found at https://allbets.tv/br/bookmakers/, is looking to gain an edge in the market and hopefully place winning bets.
And this is only natural in an industry that sees information and knowledge to acquire more and more significance. Having the right information, at the right time and possibly being able to make the right decision can get you on the winning side of a sports bet. This is magnified with the advent and growth of social media! But, let’s see how social media fits in all this.
Social media and sports
Social media consumption has been on a constant rise in the past couple of years, indicating that social networks and the new communication avenues are completely and once for all, changing the way we interact, search for information, exchange ideas or even entertain ourselves.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the younger generations – Millennials and Generation Z – are spending enormous amounts of time on social media everyday for nearly everything that has to do with their routines, habits or even their whole lives.
Social media and sports betting
Sports betting is one of these generations’ habits that has been transferred to the world of social media. That is because sports engagement is made easier and is far more feasible through social media.
According to the Business Wire, almost 80% of sports bettors up to 45 years old are “dual screeners”, meaning that while they are watching a sports game, they are simultaneously on social media speaking about the game, making comments and sharing content. Or they are searching for and collecting information that might come out to be very useful in their betting decisions.
Searching for a betting edge in social media is not something new. In fact, punters have been traditionally trying to gauge critical information and pick useful cues from newspapers, magazines and other media, in their effort to gain some sort of edge when they select their bets. Only, now this happens in social media and the truth is that it happens too big, too fast and too much of everything.
Bettors either consciously or subconsciously scan social media posts, comments and information in order to find something, which they will be able to use in their decisions.
A tweet about a player’s injury made from the official account of a basketball team, a Facebook post from a known tipster about his views on a game or even an Instagram comment of a player showing his disappointment with something right before the game starts, can all be cues for sports bettors.
What bettors try to do there, is grasp the information before it hits the market. Essentially, they try to gain a betting edge by absorbing potentially valuable -betting wise – info, before everybody else becomes exposed to this info.
The reality however is that today everybody turns to social media for being up-to-date and everybody knows that social media is a context rich of valuable knowledge and ‘garbage”, useless information at the same time.
So, thinking that you can get an edge in social media is a justified perception theoretically, but it can’t justify your reliance on social media cues to make betting decisions. Everyone is exposed to info and content in social media and content travels much more quickly than you think.
Plus, social media accounts upon which you might base any of your betting decisions may be scams or simply ‘play-good’ accounts, which have nothing to do with reality and which will only divert your attention. Of course there are trusted sources of information and tips, but you should be fully aware and really conscious when using them.
Overall, social media present very good opportunities for sports bettors to comment, share or even obtain information about certain games and events. But this is far from suggesting that searching for an edge in social media is an effective strategy to keep you on the going while betting.