If you engage in any sort of gambling, including sports betting, then you’ve had to experience a losing streak or two. What differentiates an amateur from a professional bettor is often the ability to deal with adversity. When a majority of your sports picks go south, when you find yourself losing that three-unit bet by a half point or when you can’t quite find the rhythm that made you a winner for three weeks straight, what will you do?

There are a few things you should not do.  First, do not panic. Don’t start heaping big unit bets on a long shot without thinking things through and don’t begin wildly wagering on eight, 10 and 15-game parlays. Stick with your financial game plan and try to get your bearings. If you find yourself caught on a losing spiral, there are some things you can do as a sports bettor to stabilize your losses and start making money again.

If you’re leaking cash and want to stop, the point is not to stop betting. But you do need to get your focus and that means circling the wagons and getting down to brass tacks. In other words, you’re going to be conservative about how many games you bet on and how many units you bet. It’s time to get highly analytical.

When you’re on a losing streak it becomes about starting to make a profit again. You want to stop losing and simply be on the plus side by the end of the week. You may end up one, two or three units in the black. You just don’t want to be in the red. Or if you are in the red, it’s by a unit or two and no more. You’re trying to reverse your negative flow.

First, use your sports handicapping skills to find the best lines that you can and simply go with them. If you need to lower the price of a betting unit, then do so. If you’ve been spending $100 per unit, perhaps you want to lower it to $50 per unit. If you’ve been wagering on eight to 10 games, then look for four to five value-based contests on which to bet.

You may not right the ship immediately. The main thing you want to do is to start making some progress with your sports wagers and to figure out why you’re on the downward streak. Whether you win or lose, you need to continue to analyze your outcomes and make adjustments to your handicapping. Stay focused on your objective. The main thing is to stay in the game.

You may also want to engage in some mock bets. As in, handicapping games but not betting on them. What’s the point? Sometimes it helps to go through the process and do everything except lay the money on the line. If you’re right, you’ll get some confidence and if you’re wrong, you have lost nothing and can try to figure out what happened and why.

The “what happened and why” are both important. You want to figure out if you lost due to a bad break, poor sports handicapping or simply a surprise performance by the winning or losing team. Could you have done something better or different?  You really need to determine what you can control.

The primary thing you want to do is to take control of your situation. Doing so is the first step towards going from being on a losing streak to getting back on the winning side of the ledger. Once you do that, you’ll be able to start making cash again.

By the way, if you simply cannot get your bearings, then the solution may be taking a break from sports betting. How long should you go without wagering? That depends on how you feel. You may need to take a two- to three-day break or you may need a week or more. It’s fine to take a vacation from the actual wagering. It will give you a fresh perspective, which can be very helpful.

When you’re on break, you should still stay involved in the sport. That way when you come back you’ll instantly be up to speed and ready to wager. Once you come back, you don’t want to dive headlong into the fray, making 10 bets in one day. Try three of four wagers total and see how you do.

Once you’ve got some wins under your belt, you can go back to wagering with your original sized units and your regular number of games. When you’re winning again be careful to not overextend yourself. Once again, you need to stick to your plan and stay true to your financial situation. You’ll get on the right track by doing just that. And remember that the guy making expert picks, the professional sports handicappers, run into bad streaks too