Maximizing Results
The Pareto Principle states that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. For example, 80% of supermarket revenue may come from 20% of the product lines. The idea is attributed to Italian Vilfredo Pareto, who in 1906 observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.
The ubiquitous nature of 80/20 “Power Laws” (as they are known) even spreads to our personal lives. Try looking at likes on your Facebook posts (if you have an account). You should notice that close to 80% of your likes come from around 20% of your friends, or 80% of your mobile SMS messages come from 20% of your phone contacts.
There is nothing intrinsically special about these relative proportions; it just happens that they describe the relationships across many dimensions, including accurately predicting bets.
The issue for bettors is that to be better than the 80%, you need to put in considerably more effort. Figure 1 simplifies the process of trying to become a more successful bettor as the relationship between accuracy of selections and the effort invested in making them.
Click here to read full article
Todd’s Take: Work smarter, not harder. It’s a mantra all of us should live by no matter our career or hobby pursuits. By allocating your time correctly while handicapping you can achieve better results than 80% of bettors out there with 20% of the workd. One of the biggest ways to do so is thinking like a bettor AND a bookmaker. Understand the markets that give you an edge, know which are competitive for the player whereas others are built to benefit the house. Give yourself multiple betting outlets to shop your numbers, never leaving yourself forced to take the worst of the market price when making a bet. If you’re in this gig to get results, do the work it takes because it just so happens the harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.
