Across newspaper columns, pre-event build-up, magazines, blogs, and in discussions amongst friends, experts and sports fans have been sharing their thoughts and making predictions ever since sport was born into this world. Fans attempt to banish the notions of bias when trying to convey a balanced prediction of what is to come, whether that is on the tennis court, football pitch, ice rink, or basketball court. One thing is guaranteed though, everyone has an opinion.

However, while any pre-event speculation awaits vindication, there is a greater psychological significance to sports predictions. Even the most passionate of fans for a player or team will have some lingering doubts ahead of an event, even if it is simply born out of nervousness. And these doubts or confidence could be accentuated or compounded by sports predictions.

Predictions have always existed to help us form more rounded opinions of a sports event. Depending on the source, there could be certain levels of bias involved, but predictions are fundamentally meant to be thought and emotion-evoking. Predictions have enjoyed their own evolution over history, with mere opinions now substantiated with detailed and comprehensive data analysis, which is leading fans to pay more attention to predictions made and is providing sports fans with more tools to make informed decisions on sporting events.

Greater fan involvement through online sports betting

The greater reliance on improved data analysis driven by the rapid technological progression made in society coincides with the rise of another form of predictive modelling for sporting events. Fans nowadays are bombarded with podcasts, blogs, and media content providing more analysis and predictions than ever before but with odds provided by online sports betting providers, fans now have a tangible representation of those predictions they are hearing and reading about.

Odds have been around for centuries ever since Harry Ogden became the first bookmaker at Newmarket Racecourse towards the late 1700’s after Ogden began assigning odds to horses. However, their relevance has taken on new meaning with the rise of sports betting in recent years and is giving sports fans an embodiment of verbal or written predictions.

With a wide range of betting markets across the full spectrum of sports played around the world, fans are experiencing a new level of involvement in a sporting event and can perhaps even put emotion to one side to predict what is realistically about to happen. And with more online sports bookmakers creating apps to complement their desktop offerings, more sports fans are getting involved in the movement and are putting their money where their mouth is.

Avoid some odds perhaps

While odds provide a probability value for something occurring, whether it is the next goalscorer, a final result or a player to pick up a yellow card, odds, static or live, might be best avoided if they do not favour your player or team. In 2019, Manchester United hosted local rivals Manchester City with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the helm. City had won ten matches in a row leading up to that particular Manchester derby and were looking to secure a second Premier League title on the spin.

However, it was predictions made before a ball was even kicked that made for alarming reading. With United conversely trending the opposite direction to City, losing six of the eight matches ahead of the crunch tie, United were famously attributed with odds of 6/1 by Betfair to win the match, the longest for them in the history of that tie.

A sobering thought for United fans, but an accurate representation of the situation on the red side of Manchester. City would go on to win 2-0. Those odds, 7/1. But it is the greater influence of pre-match predictions on an individual’s psyche for this particular event that would have had a profound effect on some fans.

Some United fans would have stayed loyal and taken on the long odds, some might have hedged their bets and begrudgingly gone with the blue half, while the rest will have stayed clear of online sports betting pages completely. Sports predictions, like those found at MegaTipsList.com do not tend to lie, especially with the amount of research that goes into them nowadays.

Driven by the greater broadcasting and reliance on social media in the present era, sports predictions and headlines are also difficult to avoid. But for those that keenly follow these sources, prognoses are providing a level of sporting education not previously seen.

Fans more informed than ever

Sports predictions can bring out the whole rainbow of colours in a sports fan and create more debate and conversation around the world. With the greater range of formats that predictions are presented in, sports fans are more informed than ever to form their own forecasts on an event. While the only predictable aspect of sports is often the unpredictability, the element of surprise will always excite. For some sports fans though, they might have already seen that coming.