How to Use AI to Plan Your Gambling Strategy
Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
Sports victories are exhilarating in themselves, but add in the stakes of a wager, and you turn them into an entirely new level of intensity. It’s almost like the euphoria of attending a concert by your favorite band or feeling the unexpected twists and turns on a new rollercoaster ride. With major anticipated events like the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup Playoffs especially, gambling brings a new depth to the excitement. The other outcome, though, is losing, and having your favorite team lose a game while losing a bet too can be deflating. That’s why many turn to strategies, such as AI, as a way to make more calculated decisions when gambling.
And it’s not just sports betting that can take advantage of a strategy – casino games like blackjack and poker, or even the lottery, could benefit from a more careful approach that takes patterns and historical data into consideration.
Setting a Budget
With responsible gambling comes the natural factor of finances. No matter how good you think you might be at pai gow or how well you think you’ve crafted a parlay, there’s always an element of risk involved, which is why you don’t want to bet an astronomical amount and bank on a win. AI can help you set a reasonable budget, especially if you’re a frequent casino goer or sports bettor.
These algorithms can take into account numerous factors, such as your financial situation, betting habits, wins and losses, and pinpoint where you could reel back or perhaps take more of a risk. The fact that you can head online and simply choose from 1000s of free slots can entice even the most risk-averse to throw their inhibitions out the window, so it’s a smart idea to take those initial precautions right away.
Using AI to Analyze Data
The most powerful component of AI is its ability to analyze massive data sets. In the sports world, this could be used to your advantage to help make smarter and more informed bets. Rather than relying on gut feeling, becoming convinced by a fellow sports fan, or letting biases get in the way, crunching historical data like team performance, player statistics, game outcomes, injury reports, coaching decision trends, and head-to-head matchup records is often a better strategy.
For instance, if you were thinking of betting on a proposition bet on Cristiano Ronaldo, AI could look at the over two decades of historical data across his career to pick out patterns and assess metrics. Maybe you want to figure out whether he’s likely to score a goal in a certain game – AI can rummage through his goal-scoring rates in a variety of game scenarios, taking stock of whether it’s a home or away game, whether he’s historically scored many goals against the opposing team or not, and consider other contributing factors that would make the bet of choice a poor one or an excellent one.
Now, imagine doing this manually. You’d end up with many gaps and inconsistencies because of the sheer volume of data. No single human being would be capable of analyzing the extent of Ronaldo’s career, let alone loop in all the external factors like team dynamics and weather conditions. Unfortunately, you can’t simply head over to ChatGPT and ask it to perform such a taxing search. Instead, you’d need to use a specialty tool or perhaps make do with recommendations instead.
Suppose I were to tell ChatGPT that I’m trying to make a bet on Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a goal in an England vs. Portugal game in the UEFA European Championship. In that case, it’ll recommend looking at his recent form, track record at the Euro, and overall goal-scoring frequency, as well as seeing whether the opposing team has similar rankings or playing styles. Ask it to give you some key statistics about his goal-scoring record in international matches for Portugal, and it can even give you an overview. According to the tool’s last update, Ronaldo has scored over 120 goals for the Portugal national team (since increased to 130) and is “particularly prolific in major tournaments,” which could indicate you’re making a good bet.
But ChatGPT isn’t advanced enough to consider the fact that Ronaldo is reaching the end of his career at 39 years of age and that most of his goal-scoring happened in the prime of his career. In fact, he didn’t score any non-penalty-shot goals this Euro. That being said, there are bound to be sport-specific or more advanced AI tools out there to help.
Managing Risk and Simulating Scenarios
Basic AI tools aren’t all bad, however, as we see their budding potential in risk management. While predictive analytics are a part of managing risk, AI can also process real-time data, which can help if you’re betting on the fly. That’s also how odds change on sportsbooks based on how a game progresses.
It also has the ability to simulate scenarios based on provided information, which is where ChatGPT seems to get better as a platform. Ask what the odds are that Patrick Mahomes throws for over 250 yards against Joe Burrow, and AI will scour a few websites before spitting out an answer. According to ChatGPT, there’s a “strong chance” that he’ll surpass 250 passing yards based on head-to-head performance, game context, and prior passing yard averages. Although the Bengals’ defense has challenged him in the past, you’d likely feel more confident with the concrete data to back you up, right?
Gambling is a gamble – outcomes won’t always result in your favor, and just because a player is an international superstar doesn’t mean they’ll dominate every game. AI isn’t a fortune teller, but it can give you a head start or at least a foundation on which you can build your gambling strategy.
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