Why do I bet on sports?
As I get older, knowing my motivations for why I do something becomes increasingly important. With more responsibilities to care for, less energy to spend, and more advancements in the world around me, effective and efficient use of time is needed. Knowing my motivations serve as one helpful input in justifying the use of time. On this thought, I wonder, ‘What are my motivations for sports betting’?
To answer this question, I thought of motivations for why anyone would participate in sports betting. After some brainstorming, some reading1, 2, 3 and some prompting of LLMs4, 5, I drafted the following list of potential motivations:
- Be entertained
- Be part of a community
- Gain profit
- Make back losses
- Validate expertise
- Validate ego
- Satisfy an addiction
My Core Motivations (3, 5, 6)
Reviewing the list and identifying my own motivations as objectively as possible, I believe my motivations are best summarized by points 3, 5 and 6.
Profit (3): This may achieve an effective and efficient use of time. Effective because there may be positive expected value in financial gain. Efficient because the time I spend watching sports can also be time used to think about sports betting.
Expertise (5): This may achieve an effective use of time. Effective because there are learnings in statistics, data engineering and psychology that can be gained. Through these learnings, there are other domains in which the acquired skills may be applied. For example, by learning statistics, one develops a more quantitative analytical mind, which improves decision making across different environments.
Ego (6): Neither effective nor efficient, but an inevitable component to be aware of. In the participation of sports betting, there is inevitably some motivation to validate one’s ego as this is often a component of pursuing profits and demonstrating expertise.
Successful Outcomes
As of this writing and after considering my motivations, I drafted the following list of successful outcomes:
- Achieve profitability6
- Achieve profit CAGR of X% over N years7
- Develop specialized pattern recognition in a sport8
- Build a workflow to automate winning bet ideation9
After writing the list of successful outcomes, I feel nervous, excited and determined to achieve the outcomes above such that my participation in sports betting makes for an effective and efficient use of time.