Breaking down information like injuries and match previews, along with analysing statistics, is a common way to create betting strategies. Wagers should always be carefully selected on the back of statistical insights because that gives them weight.
From regular media outlets to official club sites, betting blogs at well-known or new independent bookmakers and dedicated statistics services, there are a lot of places to gather information from ahead of placing a bet.
But what about social media? The world is bombarded by social media apps and content, and many sports stars and teams have hopped aboard the train for self-promotion. On average, people spend more than two hours per day on social media, so there’s a big audience of sports stars to capture, and they do.
But can social media accounts from top athletes add another important source of information for bettors to tap into?
Gathering Stats
It’s relatively easy to find excellent, detailed statistics online. Regardless of the sport, the volume of information that is available to help put together betting picks is staggering and a lot of it is free as well.
The data is out there, and it’s down to the individual bettor to research it and piece everything together for their specific strategy and bets. Even though all bettors will interpret data differently, it’s always advantageous to have good, solid sources of information set up. Is it worth adding athletes’ social media accounts to the mix as well?
Insights Into Personal Life
Useful information to potentially grab from the social media account of a sports star is a look into their current mindset. You can see what an upcoming tournament, match or race means to them, or gauge their overall determination to end a poor sequence of current form or even any frustrations over their current fitness.
That could provide some great insight into how an athlete may perform in an upcoming event. One of the most common shares by athletes on social media is about their journeys in recovering from injuries, which, of course, could affect performance.
A very popular type of social media post is quick clips of them in training and post-match responses. If someone has given away a penalty kick, they may offer an apology to fans, or if a runner has underperformed, they may hop on social media to explain why.
Surface Content
But a lot of it is surface stuff like that, which is actually very hard to translate into anything useful for betting. It gets even less impactful in terms of the account being from an athlete who plays on a team.
For individual sports like tennis or athletics, it could carry a little more weight, but still, there’s not enough there from social media. An F1 driver’s thoughts about an upcoming home race don’t provide much useful information about how the race will actually pan out.
Even from the accounts of some of the world’s leading athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo, Novak Djokovic and Patrick Mahomes, there’s very little to help the betting process. Following the accounts of teams isn’t likely to turn up much either.
While teams are happy to announce new signings on social media, for example, it tells people nothing about how that player will integrate themselves into their surroundings or impact tactics.
Difficulty with Social Media
Most of what we see on social media is fabricated for clickbait or in no way reflects reality. An athlete could post a quick video of themselves training and looking perfect, but that could have been their 20th attempt at capturing their perfect running form or executing a spectacular football trick.
Much of social media is simply crafted to portray a public image as well, and real intentions or any true feelings are often masked. That can mean that the information being given could easily be a little misleading over things like fitness and mentality.
It is also worth remembering that it’s just a small snapshot of a huge array of influencing factors as well. What an athlete says in a short video clip about how confident they are of winning, doesn’t mean they are going to. Social media is designed for quick engagement, not in-depth analysis of topics.
In Conclusion
Social media can provide some behind-the-scenes insights into an athlete’s life, and even glimpses of their training. But it is something that should be taken a face value and for little more than entertainment.
For betting purposes social media accounts of athletes are in no way, going to compete with things like official team news, unbiased expert opinions and statistical analysis. Forming a betting strategy should be built from those foundations instead.
