Psychology behind football predictions
Football fans are not only watching the football matches that are being played today. They are also discussing these matches and even turning into analysts to determine what happens in these games.
As all of that is happening, we have also noticed that there are now online communities and platforms where data is used in providing predictions. Freeforebet is one of those platforms that gets mentioned when these discussions are taking place.
The very core of football prediction relies on being able to recognize patterns. It is even a good thing because humans like to look for order when there is chaos.
This is validated when you think about how humans look at the league tables, check for recent form, look through the h2h records, check home and away performances and more.
Doing this helps us to see some form of consistency.
It is safer to bet on a team that has won four of their last 5 matches. A striker who has scored in back-to-back-to-back games will look prime to score in the next game.
These conclusions are supported by data and they are also influenced by emotions too.
One of the manifestation of this is the confirmation bias. This is something that happens when we find information that support something we already believe and it causes us to ignore other evidence.
For instance, when someone believes that a team is stronger when they play at home, they are going to ignore that they may have injury concerns or may be weak defensively.
Our brains just focus on what we expect and ignore what could go wrong.
Another thing we ought to consider is called risk perception. There are some betting markets that are more uncertain than others. Correct score betting is harder to get than choosing who wins a match.
If a prediction is too specific, you can be sure that the possibility of an error or the possibility of the game going wrong is very high.
That is why when people begin to talk about the two sure correct score predictions, it is always a debate that never seems to end.
People want to be in control and that is why they are always talking about the uncertainty of some games.
Football is not a sport where you can make progress by just guarantees. Anything can happen at anytime which can change completely the outcome of the game.
Social influence is another thing to discuss because there are so many platforms where people go to share their thoughts on social media and in forums. These platforms have become places where people visit to get some idea about what to bet on.
People will generally feel safe when everyone seems to be adopting the same views. This is what we call herd mentality. It increases confidence without validating accuracy.
It ends up creating some form of echo chamber where the predictions repeated suddenly become what everyone goes for simply because they are shared more.
Emotions also play an important role.
Fans have a problem and it is that they are unable to separate loyalty from logic.
Supporting a team is going to make one estimate the club more than needed. It is called optimism bias which makes supporters to overrate what their club is capable of doing.
In the same vein, when one is supporting a club that is not doing well, they can automatically assume the worse going into the next matches.
You would be surprised and it is actually very interesting to note that football is unpredictable and the fact that it is that way is the reason why people continue to engage in it.
Thanks to technology, we are seeing so many changes.
Making forecasts is now better and more advanced as we now have things like expected goals, pressing, player heat map and more to determine predictions.
These things are helping us with more insight than in the past.
But it is not always numbers that do the trick. There are other things that affect football such as:
- The morale of the team
- The friction in the dressing room
- Decisions from the manager
- Weather conditions
These are all outcomes (that aren’t numbers) but affect the betting scene.
Being able to bet responsibly is better than any hack for winning bets.
Bettors should see forecasts as just informed opinions and not guaranteed outcomes.
They should also have realistic expectations so that they do not experience emotional highs and lows which can be damaging to their mental health. After all, football is supposed to be entertaining first.
