The crowd noise builds. The clock is ticking down. Millions of people are watching. The tension is palpable. This is the crucible. A professional athlete is about to exhibit the product of countless hours of practice in a single, high-stakes performance. But professional gamblers, who spend their time watching the spinning dials of a slot machine, might beg to differ.
At face value, the two pursuits can seem as different as night and day – but they’re really not. Try as you might to ignore it, winning depends less on the body, less on skill or technique and more, both for athletes and gamblers, on brain-based factors – the ability to keep things in perspective, to manage attention in demanding, time-pressured ways, and to make snap judgments in highly charged situations.
The Role of Online Gaming and Sports
Moreover, the rise of esports, with professional gamers competing head-to-head in highly pressured video game tournaments, adds another layer to that debate around mental games and gambling. Clearly, here too, esports betting is flourishing alongside traditional sports betting, but the link to the world of online casinos is less easily identifiable.
Casino slots often use very creative themes and imagery to make the games more engaging, so it’s not a far-off idea to think of sports also being a popular theme in these games. These interesting themes are being used to bring online gambling games to life in so many ways. It’s interesting to see how the worlds of online gaming and physical sports are starting to come together, which is why so many people are starting to look at the similarities of professionals in each field.
The Pressure Cauldron: A Shared Experience
Top Olympic athletes often describe the experience of playing under high pressure as being ‘in the zone’: a state of high focus and controlled relaxation by which athletes respond instinctively, focus on the game, and execute their skills with ease. Professional online gamers talk of a similar ‘zen’ state of mind wherein emotions are muted and the mind is uncluttered, making it possible to think clearly about incoming information and decide commitments accordingly.
This common experience of stress isn’t just anecdotal: there are studies showing that the bodies of athletes and high-rollers react in similar ways, with heart rate increasing, cortisol spiking, and the involuntary fight-or-flight response coming online. It’s what the players do with that fire inside of them that counts.
Mental Tools for the Arena and Online Gaming
But what techniques do these high-stakes performers use – the athlete, the online gamer with real money on the line – to banish inner anxieties and bring their A-game? This is where we see an interesting convergence between the mental skills of the athlete and the gambler.
1. Visualization
Athletes and gamers use visualization to their own advantage. Athletes practice the same tactics they use during the game through imagery. They picture the perfect repeat of a routine including shooting or playing out the winning moves. The same might be true in the second table. The individuals who play online games might visualize all the possibilities that can arise during the game. They may think about how other players may react in a certain situation, or what would be the best move when a particular thing is happening. They visualize shadowing the other opponent’s moves, and at the same time, they practice their own strategy in their minds. They make themselves familiar with those unexpected situations, so they would be more comfortable with them when they arise.
2. Mindfulness and Meditation
The ability to quiet the mind and be in the moment, to be detached from the past and the future and to live in the now, are vital to both the athlete and the gamer. The techniques of mindfulness are increasingly embraced in many different disciplines. Meditation is part of many routines so that the acute and more intense experiences of living in the moment don’t become overwhelming when the stakes are high.
3. Ritual and Routine
There are game-day rituals that are typical for athletes before they play. This might include having the same pre-game meal or drinks, listening to the same music, or performing the same stretches. All of these things help them to get into the zone. This phenomenon is common among gamers, too. There are all sorts of pre-game routines that are followed in order to make the bizarre, high-octane experience of entering a high-stakes game feel like a normal, regular routine that they can control.
The Future: A Marriage of Minds and Millions?
Eventually, as the worlds of sport and gambling continue to bleed into one another, peak mental training is likely to become more emphasized. Sports psychologists might find themselves helping out both esports athletes and professional gamblers. And peak mental training programmes may come to be standardized in both spaces further erasing, in some sense, the line between them.
This is just the beginning of the conversation we will have around this complex, ever-evolving topic, and it is likely to continue as these worlds become even more interconnected.
