Premium tears: City man loses Sh16,000 he won from Sh100 bet

A young man in Nairobi is nursing premium tears after losing money he had won in a bet. James* had placed multiple bets last weekend in one of the betting platforms and won a whopping Sh16,000. A jovial James thanked the gods of luck after the windfall, and went back to bet some more, this time staking Sh5,000 a few times, but ended up losing the whole amount as he kept chasing losses for two days straight.

Don’t ever chase losses. The rule of the thumb is that ‘you should never chase losses’ – like James did. Convincing yourself of impending victory is great as a fan, but potentially costly at the sportsbook. Just stay away from betting immediately after a win – or a loss. Just as important as falling in love with your own team is not falling in love with your own predictions.

There are some sports bettors who do this sort of thing on a full-time basis and they keep making a success out of it because of the fact that they’ve mastered the art of keeping emotions out of it and sticking to a winning strategy — a winning strategy which you unfortunately have to develop yourself. Nobody is going to hand a winning sports betting formula to you on a silver platter.

Responsible betting is about making sports predictions in anticipation of winning money in return – with moderation and within one’s control at all times, as a form of entertainment.
Some days you’re up and some days you’re down. As long as you stay within your betting budget, betting should still be fine. It’s important you avoid betting more in the hope of making back lost money. This is called chasing losses and can lead to much damage.