Winning Streaks In Sports Betting: Luck Or Skill? | Altenar

Potentially the age-old question in betting, casino and any other gambling vertical, is whether or not there is any direct relationship between luck wagers and skill wagers, and if the percentage of luck to skill changes dependent on the event, game or vertical you’re betting on.

Altenar, a sportsbook software provider, wanted to take a deeper look into the psychology and chance effects of the luck versus skill debate, to see whether it’s truly as black and white as two complete opposites. Or, whether the result of betting can be a product of moments of luck and skill. 

Much like winning or losing in sports events like boxing, scores achieved in a season by a football player and many other sporting instances, betting on these moments offer similar chance happenings in terms of how many wins and losses have been witnessed and how this informs our opinion on what will come next. Potentially making future betting heavily reliant on pattern building, though this pattern is subject to change. 

According to an article titled Betting on Winning Streaks by Pinnacle, winning streaks and losses are often a product of chance, where the level of skill added to the mixture will heighten how often winning streaks can occur or will occur. For instance, how many knock-outs a boxer will have in a season, or throughout their career. 

So, with the potential for a series of wins ‘W’ and a series of loses ‘L’ it’s possible that a player might assume the missing letters in the sequence below to be W’s even though chance would dictate there’s an even likelihood for the missing letter to be L’s. 

A Guarantee In Luck | Sports Betting

The premise of sports betting is to bet on chance; the potential for a win, and the possibility that a player will make a hoop from the three-point line… In part, the essence of luck and chance underpins the thrill and tradition of sports betting from offline to online. 

Though there can be some level of skill in sports betting, it is hard for players to predict chance outcomes and ‘rig the system’ in their favour. It might be possible to assume a sports team who often wins will win again, or one that often loses will lose once more, but this is a process of pattern building as opposed to skill enhancement. 

Many online forums, seasoned bettors, operators and software providers understand that chance is the largest player in the luck or skill debate, and often the only true way to cheat this entrenched debate would be organised match-fixing for instance. 

After all, for bettors, the thrill of betting comes from the opportunity of chance, not the direct win (though of course this often helps). 

If you’d like to discover more player-psychology articles, case studies, market reports, and anything-and-everything Altenar, then you can visit altenar.com today or contact the team behind the award-winning sportsbook software provider.