Buying Your Way Out of a Bet

You do your research, you study the teams and you make your picks. Then you bet your picks at your favorite sportsbook. You have three or four bets for the day and they feel solid. But the early two bets lose and you find yourself in a shitty mood. If the last game or two lose it may just be enough to ruin your weekend. What can you do?

Option A is let the bets remain and hope that the first two were the only bad ones. But if you find yourself in a mood regardless of what is happening, it may be a good idea to pursue Option B: cancel your bet. How do you do that?

If you have a local bookie who is friendly with you, he may just let you cancel them outright. It never hurts to ask. Especially if you do it well before game time so he has a chance to balance his book. With an online sportsbook your only option is to bet the other way. Yes, it feels insane to bet the other way on a game you already bet, but if it means relief of stress then it is worth it. Pay the vig and get out of the bet and have no shame doing it. What will it cost, 20 or 30 bucks? Its worth it.

Yeah you may regret cancelling your bet later if it wins but to get rid of that annoyance and getting a clean slate is definitely worth it. Lick your wounds, cut your losses and live to wager another day. I can tell you that being in this business for 25 years, it happens all the time.

Everyone has their limits, whether that be psychological or physical. Admitting you have them and backing out of a stressful situation is a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

Remember, betting on sports is done for two reasons: to have fun or to make money. Sometimes it can be both. But it should never ruin your weekend and it should never cause you to have serious financial hardships. If you find yourself spinning out of control with sports betting (an estimated 7% of sports bettors are “problem gamblers” ie., a bettor that cannot stop themselves despite serious consequence), contact Gamblers Anonymous at 1-800-522-4700