Apps that connect to your sportsbook, and what each one is for

A handful of apps can read your betting history automatically. Most of them are built to help you bet better. Lessen is built to help you bet less.

The tracker apps

Pikkit, Juice Reel, Vault, Action Network, and OddsJam all do this. They show your profit and loss, your win rate by sport, and how your bets compare to the closing line.

They do that job well. But the job itself is to make you a better bettor, and a better bettor is one who keeps betting. Every number in them is pointed at the next bet, which is the wrong direction if you're trying to bet less.

Built the other way

Lessen uses the same kind of connection for the opposite reason.

Instead of showing you where you're profitable, it shows you when you're at risk, what a month of betting actually costs you, and what to do in the windows where you usually lose control.

Why this came late

Betting data has mostly been sold to people who want to bet better. That's where the money was. Pointing the same data at people who want to bet less came later.

The research field made this turn first. In 2010, a Harvard Medical School group argued that gambling research had to move from self-report to actual player-account records [1], and account-data studies since have shown why: the more someone spends, the worse they are at estimating what they spent [2].

If gambling is affecting your money, work, or relationships, call 1-800-522-4700 or 1-800-MY-RESET, or find a meeting at ga.org.