The Pros And Cons Of Betting With Your Mobile Device
There was an original post with this title written a while ago.
Now, we find ourselves at the very beginning of 2023, and let’s face it, the post needs an update. Information and statistics change. It’s quite possible that your own thoughts on technology have changed since then! Even the most tech-wary people out there are more than likely walking around with a computer in their pocket at all times now.
Man, these people are really going to lose their minds once one of them figures out that the phones “turn on” and do stuff!
A growing trend over the years has been Sportsbooks that have really promoted their books as being “mobile friendly”. Now we’re at a point where you would be really hard-pressed to find one that does not accept mobile players. When you’re looking around for a sportsbook to join, you’ll see that most of them will actually promote their sites as mobile as more and more customers are just switching over to their phones or tablets as their primary device.
- Even So, If You’re Not Already Using Your Phone To Place Bets, It May Not Make Sense To Jump On Now
Here’s the home screen from BetOnline. Maybe it’s the old man in me, but that’s getting kind of hard to see!
Why is that? There’s actually a number of reasons, which we will get into in this article, but first we’re going to look at some statistics.
According to some numbers widely available online, as of 2020, 26% of the general population was gambling and of these people, 70% of these bets are being placed on mobile devices. Obviously, this is an insane amount of people placing their bets from their phones and of all of these players, 92% of them are still doing so from home.
According to these numbers, that just means that more and more people are getting on board with the idea of mobile betting, and that in itself kind of makes sense. This is the world we live in now!
Now we know that the following things are true:
- Considerably more people are doing their gambling on their mobile devices
- The number of gamblers on their phones is just going up every year and there are no signs of this trend slowing down
- Mobile gambling is certainly growing, but this may not have much to do with “gambling on the move”
So this means that despite the growing number of people using their mobile devices, these same people still know that you are going to get more out of doing it in the comfort of their own home than by being “out and about”.
This is mainly in part because a mobile device is still going to be a much better auxiliary tool when you’re doing your gambling than it is a main interface. But there’s another reason as well, and that’s because it actually also has quite a few drawbacks!
The Pros And Cons Of Betting On Your Mobile Device
Despite everything that has been said, of course there are some benefits to gambling on your phone, I’m not going to try and pretend that there aren’t any!
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using your phone to make your wagers.
Pros
- The Convenience and Portability
This is probably the number one pro here.
The number one reason people are going to be tempted to use their mobile devices to bet is the same reason said devices are so popular anyway. People love the convenient size and portability of their tablets and phones. It’s also undeniably cool to be able to gamble anywhere you are, in any room, or maybe even out on the road.
- Flexibility
Because these devices have that portability, they’re also going to offer up more flexibility when it comes to making your own schedule and betting activities. If there’s an event that comes up unexpectedly, or you just managed to genuinely forget about something, you can whip out your phone and place your bets before it’s too late.
Laying in bed and just thinking to yourself, “man, I really should throw $20 on that game in the morning”? You don’t have to get up and move to a PC in another room or anything like that. You can just roll over, grab your phone, and you’re done and ready for some action within a matter of a couple of minutes!
- Not Everyone Has A Computer These Days
Believe it or not, I know a few people that do not own a PC or a laptop, or anything of the sort. And these are younger people too, that grew up with the technology in their hands! It’s just a matter of it being 2023 now and as an example, if you do not need a PC for working, there’s not a ton of things a PC can do that your phone cannot.
Maybe you’re one of the people that just don’t have a full-sized PC. If all you have is a phone or a tablet, obviously it’s going to benefit you to be able to place bets with it. Otherwise, you’re just going out to buy something else.
Cons
- Restricting Screen Size
This is the main sports betting page from Bovada if you were to look with your phone.
No matter what you’re wanting to bet on, you’re really only going to be able to view one thing at a time. This tiny screen means that you’ll be doing a lot of switching back and forth. For an example, let’s say that you were placing some Live Bets and the action is getting good. You’ll be switching screens and trying to place your bets at the same time. This may open yourself up for fumbling on your own and possibly making some mistakes!
Besides, using the above example with Live Bets, watching a stream of a game on your phone isn’t the best way to pick up on any fast action or the smallest details. Sometimes the facial expression of a player can tell you something about any viral action that’s unfolding. On that little, 5 inch display? You’ll probably miss it completely!
And then we can also look at this image on the right here. That’s the screen you would be looking at if you visited Bovada. Considering that they’ll have hundreds of possible bets for you to place, but you can only see a couple of them at a time, you may end up spending half of the afternoon just scrolling!
- Third-Party API’s Are Limited
Are third-party API’s useful for some sports betting? They can be, sure, but you are going to discover that the selection is much wider for the desktop and laptop platforms that it is for any mobile device.
- The Functionality May Be Limited On The Site
While the mobile apps made for betting and the mobile versions of sports betting sites can be useful in theory, they’re usually not as richly featured as full versions of the same sites.
- If Out Of The Home, You May Be On An Unsecured Network Or Susceptible To Others
This is just something that happens. I don’t want to be the paranoid guy that thinks that savvy hackers are behind every corner, but it does happen.
You’ve got your sportsbook account. This is where your bankroll is. Do you want to risk your dough having no idea who’s around you at all times?
- You May Be Distracted
Time for some honesty here. Some people get distracted, this is a fact of life, and I admit that I’m personally one of them so this is actually a big point for me.
Is it awesome to bring out your phone and place a couple of bets? It sure is!
If you’re like me and can get distracted, but you want to take your sports betting career seriously, placing your bets while you’re paying attention to something else entirely different may not really be the best idea!
Also, make sure that you take a look at the article “How To Focus More Effectively When Betting On Sports“
What Mobile Betting Is Best For
You can now see that the drawbacks of mobile betting seem like they outweigh the benefits in most respects, but this doesn’t mean that placing your bets on the go is entirely useless!
As I have mentioned, it’s really just more of a utility as a supplementary method. This is how I would recommend using mobile betting as an advantage to you while mitigating the disadvantages.
- Use It As A Backup Device
Let’s say your PC or your laptop crashes or otherwise goes down while you are betting, or maybe something as simple as the internet going down at home. You’ll still have your phone to place or monitor your bets. You can even stream the bigger events that you’ve already bet on, albeit with the smaller size which I have already discussed.
- A Backup Connection
I had mentioned the possibility of the internet going down at home. With most phones now you can more than likely use it as a wi-fi hotspot. Your connection is going to be slower, but slow internet is going to be so, so much better than no connection!
- Don’t Miss An Opportunity If You Do Need To Step Out Of The House
While I may be advising that you do not do a lot of gambling “on-the-go”, there are probably going to be situations where you do have to leave the house.
Or let’s go ahead and say that you are in the middle of betting on an event and you just get called away unexpectedly. The possibilities here are endless! But with your phone you could still continue to monitor your bets and place some new ones as needed.
Conclusion
Betting Entirely On Your Phone Is Not The Best Idea, But It Could Be Helpful
If you really want to bet on your mobile device, the best piece of advice I could give you is to at least stay home to do so. Yes, your phone is in your hand and you can take it anywhere, but you really do not want to start placing your bets in environments where you are not able to control and alleviate any distractions.
Your best bet (see that?) is this. If you’re absolutely adamant that you want to use your phone to place your bets, stay home, or at the very least, another place that you control. The drawbacks of mobile betting mean that it still isn’t the best way to conduct the majority of your betting activities. Stick with your PC or your laptop and just use the mobile device when you absolutely need it.
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