A year ago, if you told me that I’d check game odds, I’d have laughed at you. But here I am, checking football odds and bet markets during every single game. I went to my friends’ to watch the Arsenal vs City game last season, and they placed live bets on their phones between the goalposts.
I was totally baffled by the situation.
I was a sports fanatic thanks to my dad, and really the extent of my father and my neighbour’s interaction regarding betting was just a friendly wager. After showing the results of his bet placing frenzy, my friend Jake bet and explained to me that he placed 3 bets, 47 seconds prior.
Why I Finally Downloaded One
I didn’t download the app because I thought I’d lose money or have to stare at it nonstop for updates. I was really surprised that having betting apps on my phone actually began to organise my betting instead of the other way around.
I finally gave up on the idea of having to go to a betting shop to place my bet for the upcoming game, because I had to work until 6:38 pm and the game started at 7:00 pm, I knew that by the time I’d finished everything I needed to do in order to get there, stand in line, and find a spot to watch the game, I would have already missed the first 20 minutes of the game.
My colleague noticed my frustration and said: “Why can’t you use your phone?” He walked me through how to use this app to place this bet right there in the company parking space. I placed my bet at 6:51 PM, and I was able to watch the match from the comfort of my home.
What Actually Surprised Me
I would think the largest advantage of mobile betting is the speed of the bet. I think that is a large part of the reason, but I noticed something else very quickly that no one told me about.
I started to track and budget my spending.
When you physically pay cash for something, that money leaves your finances mentally. Mobile apps show you your past spending, your wins, your losses, your text history from the past 3 months, and as you open the app you have the ability to review it all any time you want.
When I saw I spent $340 in March, it made me more careful in April, and I Budgeted around $115. I’m not positive I would have noticed with cash.
The Features Nobody Talks About
Convenience is talked about most with mobile betting, and understandably so. What about the other things that truly make a difference?
The apps I have send notifications about matches that most people tend to forget about. Last week I forgot to look at the fixtures that Tuesday night had 2 teams of mid-table La Liga, and at 2:13pm I got a notification about that match. I was able to watch an entertaining match that I would have missed, and I made a small profit on this too.
Comparing prices is a whole lot quicker through apps than walking between stores or phoning around. What used to take me almost 35 minutes to do now only takes 4 minutes.
Some apps allow early cashout if you’re getting edgy and your bet is winning. I’ve used this feature once during a game where our team was leading 2-1 but were looking really shaky defensively around the 78th minute. Cashed out early and I was glad I did because we conceded an equaliser at 84 minutes.
