You've watched Iowa play this year right? I have and I wouldn't really consider what they put on the floor 'entertainment' so to speak. So in order to stay interested in the games I decided early on to put some money on the line. I've watched probably 90% of the games live and followed another 8% on my 'berry and have not followed only one game all year.
I put money on the game so that I am almost forced to watch the game to the very end. Even the Purdue game where we scored 40 points and were blown out by 20+ I watched to the very end. I can say with 100% conviction that if I hadn't placed a wager on that game then I would have turned it off before the game was over.
Watching this team isn't fun. We aren't playing for anything. I've got other things that I could be doing so I've decided that a few hundred on the game keeps me interested enough to watch the product.
Now as to your assumption that all gambling turns in to losing, I can assure you that isn't always the case. Card games and games of chance certainly favor the house but sports betting levels the playing field and knowledge is key. Vegas insiders set the lines based on their information, history and many other variables. If you have some or all of that same information then you aren't just guessing anymore. Chance certainly plays a part but not nearly as big a part as you might think. This year my group is winning at a 9 to 4 clip. We keep it simple and will play the line and the o/u on each game with the expectation that at worst we pay the juice and move to the next one. We've only been wrong one game all year (purdue). Last year we won a little over 70% of the games.
