This post was written by Ralph Starks, a blogger and traveler who enjoys exploring the world in the best ways possible.
Put simply, sport betting is the act of predicting different aspects of a sporting event and putting money on those forecasts being accurate. There are a big variety of sports bets available to people though.
It is possible to bet on the outcomes of individual games, of tournaments or on the performances of particular players, as well as other things. There are also lots of different sports to bet on.
The best ones are those that offer the full range of bet types, such as college and pro football, basketball or soccer.
It can sometimes be confusing to people who have never done it before though, so this article will explain some of the basics of betting on sports.
Finding the Best Sportsbook
The first step is to find a good sportsbook to place your bets with. You want somewhere that will honor any winning bets you place and not pressure you over losing ones.
Although traditional brick-and-mortar shops are still part of everyday life, more people choose online sites nowadays. That is a lot more convenient and there are plenty of them on the internet, but there are things to be cautious about.
You need to take a look at the regulations in your country about betting on sports, so you don’t break any laws. If it is legal, the site you use must have good encryption-based payment software, because you will be providing sensitive data.
The best advice is to stick with well-established online sports betting options. Some quick research using comparison websites will let you find out how good a site’s reputation is.
It might sound like a chore, but you will be transacting hard cash over the internet so taking the time to find a reliable site to bet with will be worth it in the long run.
The Different Types of Sports Bets
Money Line Bet
This is the easiest kind of sports bet to understand. Wagering on the money line of a chosen team simply means putting a bet on them to win a game.
If they win, so do you. If they lose, you will lose the money you wagered – it is that straightforward, which is why it is the most popular sort of sports bet.
Point Spread Bet
Another type of bet that people often place on sports is a point spread bet. With this, the wager is on how much the chosen team will win by instead of whether they will win.
Sports betting sites will usually indicate favorites and outsiders using minus and plus markers. So if a team is given odds of -7.5 they will have to win the match by at least a 7.5-point margin for the bet to be successful.
Totals (Over/Under) Bet
This is a bet that involves putting money on what the total score will be of both sides competing in a game when added together. The over/under name comes from the fact you are betting on whether that combined score will be over a certain amount or under it.
To provide an example: an NFL over/under bet for a game between the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins might be 45.5 at a betting site. You will then bet either above that score or below it, depending on how many points you think the teams will manage.
Prop Bet
This kind of bet on sports has nothing to do with either the result or scoring. There are game prop and player prop bets.
The first of these is about gambling on an event within a game, e.g. the first team to score points or the first to reach 10 points. The second involves betting on the display of a particular player, e.g. whether a soccer striker will get a hat-trick.
What are Betting Odds?
Odds mark out the difference between the amount wagered by a bettor and what they stand to win. So a +400 money line bet would mean that if you successfully bet $100 on a team to win you would get $400.
Beyond that though, odds give you an idea of how likely an outcome is. Short odds bets are ones that a sports betting site or shop considers more liable to happen than long odds ones.
The odds let you know how much of a risk you are taking with your bet. Winning long odds bets will almost always result in a better financial return from your bet, because the gamble was riskier to start with.
A solid grasp of what odds mean is something you will need to have to be able to bet on sports with any real confidence.
Betting on sports can be fun and adds an extra layer of excitement to a match, so why not try it.
