Toxicity of sports betting: myths and truth

Certainly! Like coffee, social networks, shopping, the Internet, sex. Almost any action that leads to the release of pleasure hormones (serotonin, endorphin, dopamine) into the bloodstream is addictive if not controlled. But we don’t give up a cup of coffee in the morning or watching the news on the Internet because of this, right? We simply set the time and budget that we are willing to spend on these pleasant weaknesses. Some forms of addictiveness are even welcomed in society (workaholism).

Sports betting is the same pleasant weakness, a way to have fun, relax, “reboot” your head. Someone likes morning jogging, while someone enjoys “digging” in the statistics, analyzing the match and placing a bet.

If a person has become addicted to betting (gambling) – this is just a symptom of deeper personal problems. Do not confuse cause and effect.

Truth: Sports betting is not addictive in and of itself. Excessive enthusiasm of a person is predetermined by psychological instability. You might as well get addicted to coffee or social media.

Now imagine that someone tells you a heartbreaking story about how he “leaked the house while buying things in the store.” Is the store to blame?

There are a lot of fixed matches in the world of sports – I don’t want to go there

Contractual games exist – this is true. The International Fair Betting Association (IBIA) issues match fixing reports on an annual basis.

So, there were as many as … 268 fixed games in all world sports for the whole of 2022.

What is most interesting is that bookmakers are the main data providers for IBIA. They record anomalous betting volumes on a match, enter it into the database of potentially negotiable matches, and conduct investigations.

At the same time, the risk of running into a real match-fixing if you bet only on top markets (major tournaments) is minimal. No one is interested in this – neither teams, nor athletes, nor bookmakers.

True: there are fixed matches, but they are negligible. When betting on major tournaments, the risk of running into a dishonest game is close to zero.

I hope that now, when you hear the phrase “the agreement is being rolled”, your share of skepticism regarding the speaker will increase.

It’s impossible to win on bets, they won’t let me

100% myth. You can win on bets, no one will put obstacles in your way for winnings and subsequent withdrawals of money. Of course, if you play by the rules, without violating the requirements of bookmakers (you agree with the rules when registering).

Let’s make a distinction on the shore: it is POSSIBLE to win on bets, to earn money on bets is almost UNREAL. Earnings are a constant source of income, and there are too many unknowns in sports betting to count on regularity.

Nobody is stopping you from winning. On the contrary, all the information is in the public domain, there is a lot of literature (although there is little quality), a lot of forecasts, tips, strategies. If you want, just bet for fun. There is a desire, go deeper, dig, study, improve your skills.

The truth: you can win on bets – this is a fact. The bookmaker will pay out the winnings without any problems if the player has not violated any rules.

The main thing is to win, not try to earn.

All bookmakers cheat

The most difficult point of discussion about the toxicity of the Russian bookmaker market. I would like to say that it makes no sense for bookmakers to deceive clients (players), that their profit is built on a different foundation, that their main asset, their image, is suffering. This is a real black spot on the body of bookmakers.

Truth: Problems do happen between the bettor and the bookmaker. Approximately every tenth difficulty can not be solved peacefully. In other cases, there are always points of contact.

Not all bookmakers have a bad reputation. In order not to have troubles, when choosing a bookmaker, be guided by the reliability rating of our site.

The problem of misunderstandings between the player and the bookmaker is complicated by another factor: the weak protection of the player at the legislative level. However, this is a topic for a separate article.

Results 

To switch sports betting toxicity from “highly toxic” to “moderately toxic” requires a lot of painstaking work to reform the image of betting in the mind of an ordinary person, far from sports and betting.

But sometimes on the Internet you can find outright nonsense and untruth, and I personally find it unpleasant to read such things. Perhaps the market is not crystal clear, there are problems, shortcomings, roughness, but where are they not?

Sports betting deserves to be on a par with the usual ways of entertaining people.

Why do we go to the cinema, the theater, a nightclub, go in for sports? Take a break from your problems, unwind, have fun, switch thoughts from routine to something new, to get some kind of information, to upgrade some skills. All this is great for determining sports betting.