Why I avoid betting on non-pro sports

[alani123]

There's a huge reason to avoid betting on unpopular sports.
Usually the teams are not close to a fully professional level which means that their form isn't predictable or reliable. Therefore the odds are really shit.
Unless you have good knowledge of these athletes yourself for some reason, it's not worth the risk.

For instance, if you bet on handball, most athletes in most countries have to have second jobs to sustain their presence in the sport, sometimes even in the top teams on this sport the salary isn't enough. What does this mean? Very few athletes that would otherwise be peak athletes are willing to partake in the sport after a certain point. Each team's performance is therefore hindered by many issues. The same teams playing against each other in a different universe can deliver wildly different results. The small teams can beat the huge ones etc.

And yet, the NCAA, the biggest college league for several sports, makes millions from broadcasting these games, selling rights and sports betting results.
But you would notice that in NCAA, even if you bet on a parlay with 10 games of 1.05 odds, it's more likely you'll be losing because upsets are more common than in a fully professional league.

Athletes in college sports are putting all  this effort and are paid nothing. Did you know that until very recently when there was a huge lawsuit reaching judgment, there was no agreement to compensate college athletes at all in the US?
https://www.thedp.com/article/2024/10/penn-ncaa-settlement-player-payment

So this also brings us to the point where ethicality has to be discussed. If we're spending money betting on a sport, doesn't it feel a little wrong to know the athletes earn nothing or close to nothing from this activity? Maybe at least crypto bookies should take the initiative to fund more small sports associations on the local level. 

[Davidvictorson]

Impressive. I am guessing this is prompted by on of those threads today about unpopular sports to bet on. You marshalled out a lot of points and when you wrote about the little or no pay for those involved in sports, I had to connect the dots to why we see an increase in Match fixing in some unpopular sports. With regards to ethicality, I want to agree that if sports bookies sponsor or even advertise in these unpopular sports, their odds would increase and the players over time would receive better renumeration.

[OgNasty]

I wouldn’t bet on non-pro sports mostly because I wouldn’t care to watch the games. Maybe if it was something ridiculous it might be fun, but college sports to me aren’t worth watching. The only exception is when I want to check out a big up and coming player before they hit the big leagues.

[_act_]

With regards to ethicality, I want to agree that if sports bookies sponsor or even advertise in these unpopular sports, their odds would increase and the players over time would receive better renumeration.

Bookies will prefer to use what many people know to advertise. That is why you will see star players like Messi and Ronaldo and other well known players see offers than players from not well known leagues. What the bookies need is to let people know about their gambling sites. So they target traffic.

[AmoreJaz]

With regards to ethicality, I want to agree that if sports bookies sponsor or even advertise in these unpopular sports, their odds would increase and the players over time would receive better renumeration.

Bookies will prefer to use what many people know to advertise. That is why you will see star players like Messi and Ronaldo and other well known players see offers than players from not well known leagues. What the bookies need is to let people know about their gambling sites. So they target traffic.

Definitely, they want to promote their site as much as possible. That's their target so their business will continue to exist. Star players are expensive but the return may give them very good profitability.
When it comes to unpopular sports, most bookies won't list it as only few bettors will be interested on these betting lines. It may incur some operational expenses on their part, hence, some of them are not including those sports anymore.

[Russlenat]

The market is quite small, making it highly prone to manipulation. It’s like gambling with a 50-50 chance where you’re not even confident in your bet. Plus, there’s limited information available to analyze, which makes it even riskier.

For me, I’d avoid this kind of sport entirely, it seems too vulnerable to match-fixing. With so many professional and popular leagues out there to bet on, why bother with something like this, right? Better to stick with leagues where there’s more transparency and data to work with.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

There's a huge reason to avoid betting on unpopular sports.
Usually the teams are not close to a fully professional level which means that their form isn't predictable or reliable. Therefore the odds are really shit.
Unless you have good knowledge of these athletes yourself for some reason, it's not worth the risk.

Gambling in some conditions may comes in a different dimension which we never expect to see happened, lets take for instance the way you can just discover that a small team or club is beating a big one just like that, while you have already placed your bet and you're seeing all this happening as unusual occurrence, same as well, we can be having a good chance or opportunity in gambling on some of these unpopular gambling sports games or events, some of them could carry big odds as well as some being predictable and the game played could comes as expected, even more sure than the popular ones.

[Sandra_hakeem]

I wouldn’t bet on non-pro sports mostly because I wouldn’t care to watch the games. Maybe if it was something ridiculous it might be fun, but college sports to me aren’t worth watching.

honestly...! I don't even feel the thrill of wagering like I should normally... If it's ridiculous, I'll just keep laughing for as long it stays funny at every sight.
The powerslap fits this description better than some other lame sports. I wouldn't try on such games, not even for free.
Away from all of this, it could just be another attempt to lure y'all into getting scammed; they could create some scripts behind closed doors, just to make it more realistic and entertaining. But then, can anyone predict according to the scripts?(I mean, I'm just guessing) Bottom line is, the fun derived from any gambling-related game is flawed for me if 22 players ain't running around the pitch and chasing on an inflicted rubber-glue. I love soccer and that stays for as long as I live.

[batang_bitcoin]

There's a huge reason to avoid betting on unpopular sports.
Usually the teams are not close to a fully professional level which means that their form isn't predictable or reliable. Therefore the odds are really shit.
Unless you have good knowledge of these athletes yourself for some reason, it's not worth the risk.

Whilst esports betting is quite popular nowadays, what's unpopular are the participating teams. There is tier 1 and tier 2 and the lower tier teams and players. Mostly, 1 and 2 are pro levels already. But you can't be sure with the small tournaments that even these pro level players can be sold, yes they can sell the game and that's because if it's not them but the people that they know are also betting to their matches. There are some mechanics that they just need to meet and will bet not specifically the match winner but like total scores, length of game, etc.

[o48o]

-cut-
So this also brings us to the point where ethicality has to be discussed. If we're spending money betting on a sport, doesn't it feel a little wrong to know the athletes earn nothing or close to nothing from this activity? Maybe at least crypto bookies should take the initiative to fund more small sports associations on the local level. 

Spending money to gambling has nothing to do with the situations where athletes don't get paid.

And not everyone is doing everything only because they get paid for it. People also play because they have love for the sport. It's their hobby that keeps their health up, and it's just plus if they get something out of it rather then just paying for their hobbies like rest of us.

And it's not like most gamblers are making big bucks of betting. It's a zero sum game, on which sports book take their cut. You have to have lot of losers in gambling in order to have winners. So how it would be unethical towards athletes, when gamblers are the ones risking their money?

[uneng]

So this also brings us to the point where ethicality has to be discussed. If we're spending money betting on a sport, doesn't it feel a little wrong to know the athletes earn nothing or close to nothing from this activity? Maybe at least crypto bookies should take the initiative to fund more small sports associations on the local level.  

Gambling companies do sponsor teams on different sports, but realistically speaking, they aren't going to sponsor teams which don't have much relevance in the sports scene, because it's not interesting for the brand. They wish their companies to be seen by a large audience, so they focus their sponsorships on the main leagues, especially in soccer industry. That is how business works, and there is nothing we can do about it.

It's not possible to boost the audience artificially, neither sponsorships. If the gambling platforms were ours, and we had to choose where to invest the propaganda budget, I guess we would adopt the same stance they do on this matter. After all, it's not charity. It's an investment aiming returns later.

[shasan]

Those teams I do not know or I have no idea about their performance I do not place any bet on that betting. Because there a lot of gambling bet while they are not popular and the result can be alternative of the thinking. FOr example on the cricket local team may not cover 100 runs but the betting may insist to bet on 300 runs.

[Sanitough]

And yet, the NCAA, the biggest college league for several sports, makes millions from broadcasting these games, selling rights and sports betting results.
But you would notice that in NCAA, even if you bet on a parlay with 10 games of 1.05 odds, it's more likely you'll be losing because upsets are more common than in a fully professional league.

This is why the speculation of rigging games came up. It’s just an observation, but we can always draw our own conclusions since we’re the ones betting on it. However,  when it comes to the odds, I think they don’t always make sense. You know,  odds can be overvalued to attract bettors into thinking that something like 1.05 is almost a sure win. what I’m saying is that it’s not always about the odds, it’s about how the game is being played. That means we need to watch the games closely to spot any signs of rigging.

[Churchillvv]

It's now clearer to me why I should avoid non-pro sports, I haven't ever thought of it the way I just did now. I just usually don't get to take sports that I know nothing about in my bets but when it comes to fixed a matches I usually don't know why such things happen but with article about I have seen a good reason why it's likely to keep happening. when athletes are not well payed people can manipulate them easily with price offering and this mostly happens on unpopular leagues. I think it's better to keep my distance from non-pro sports.

[BitMaxz]

Betting on non-pro sports is likely more luck-based because you don't know their skills, plus it is boring to watch.
I am more confident to bet on professional players because you already know their skills.
Unless the odds are good, but if they are the same as on popular games with bad odds, then I prefer to bet on popular games over non-pro sports.

[Wexnident]

~

Hmm idk, I don't really give a crap personally about how casinos would help these small-scale sports. I guess at its core the sport is just, well, as you've noted "unpopular" so it's no surprise why there's less money there.

Personally, I don't bet on unpopular sports because they're not enjoyable. That's my number 1 reason. Number 2 would just be the sample size. I heavily rely on matches prior to judging player skill, so as you've said, unpopular sports often have changes to players so it's more susceptible to having anyone literally win, which leads to less sample size for me to judge.

[bitbollo]

There are also entire league or sports (or "e-sports") that are really hard to be trusted with gambling.
In my country I have seen this scenario of rigged matches also in major league (Aka Football Serie A).
If this happens on that level, its something "normal" this happens everywhere if there is a chance for gambling or any other economic advantage.
My suggestion on this topic? Always avoid to bet games with "strange odds". Try to bet live watching a game. 

[EluguHcman]

So this also brings us to the point where ethicality has to be discussed. If we're spending money betting on a sport, doesn't it feel a little wrong to know the athletes earn nothing or close to nothing from this activity? Maybe at least crypto bookies should take the initiative to fund more small sports associations on the local level. 

That is really good idea. Atleast to encourage the teams and also contributes to the promotion of the athletes which are not widely known.
But on a controversy, don't we think the casinos are basically on existence for business which interactive as an activity is regarded between the bookmakers and the players (gamblers)? Or otherwise an event of give and take which is either the gambling house profits or the players in the house takes the profits.

We can see even the handball amongst the sport games are not too interesting for players to ride on as much as the football and boxing is events is being so attractive and enjoyable to watch even in a reality.

Okay, my overview of this is that players would love to play were they have potential possiblities to make the right predictions to secure winning which could probably be one of a popular local and international sport events like the football.
The bookmakers may not want to invest on what would not yield them profits in returns but I think think your thoughts of elevating the unpopular events like the athletes especially on the local levels as said could have potential offers to bring to the crypto house a return of profitability.  Just gonna be in a matter of time because the World is eventually is evolving in discovery on potential events in both sports, entrepreneur and technologies closer and useful to the universe.

[Julien_Olynpic]

Unpopular sports are indeed those matches in which many non-professionals play. Yes, these may be people who have achieved a certain mastery in their game, but, as the author rightly put it, they must have a second job in order to have a sufficient source of income. Unfortunately, this is reality. But if we turn to the idea that bookmakers should sponsor these matches, then we will come to interesting phenomena. In fact, bookmakers will implicitly determine the outcome of many matches. There is already a conspiracy theory that the bookmaker pushes competing teams to one result or another.

[Oshosondy]

My suggestion on this topic? Always avoid to bet games with "strange odds". Try to bet live watching a game. 

I prefer just football. I have seen strange odds before but not common. Sometimes I lose the bet while sometimes I will the bet. Strange odd do common if a good team is not playing good at the moment. That is where I did took note of something like that. Also if a club that is not good before is the champion and playing against a very good team. The one I remember about this later case was Leicester City odds against very good clubs like Manchester City when Leicester won EPL. There was one like that but in another league that I won 2 odds before. But the result sometimes can be unexpected. But I just for for common top leagues.