Anytime two or more sides risk money on the outcome of a sporting event, they are engaging in sports betting. It doesn’t matter if the wager is $1 or $1 million, or if the sporting event is happening today, tomorrow or months later. If money is riding on the result, it’s sports betting.
Sports betting is what it sounds like. You place a bet on a sporting event and win a set amount of money if the team or player you bet on wins. If the team or player you bet on doesn’t win, you lose your bet. You can place a wide range of different bets and find many different places to bet and ways to make the bets.
Sports betting comes in different forms. You can wager on which team wins a game or event; how many total goals, points or runs two teams will score in a game or event; or even an individual athlete’s or team’s statistical performance.
Multiple factors determine how much money sports bettors can win, including:
- How much money is wagered (risked)
- The sportsbook a bettor chooses to use
- The event’s odds, established by sportsbooks in legal sports betting states
Sports bettors and sports fans are quite similar—both are emotionally invested in the outcomes of sporting events. The only real difference: Sports bettors are also financially invested in those outcomes.
Offline Sportsbooks & Bookies
Sportsbooks will set odds on these occurrences based on their probability of happening, allowing you to bet on the side you think will win with the sportsbook essentially taking the opposite of that opinion. If something has a high probability of occurring, it has a lower risk and won’t pay out as much as something with a lower probability and greater risk. The greater the risk the bigger the reward but… the greater the risk.
Land-based sportsbooks are available in many parts of the world. But sports betting is illegal in many areas as well. In some places, the book is in a casino, and others, the book is a standalone business.
Unregulated betting methods, such as using a bookie, can be very risky. It’s better to stick to a reputable site to handle all your sports betting needs; that way, you aren’t putting more on the line than your actual wagers. Bookies are individuals who take sports bets, and, in most areas, they operate outside the law. In many areas, the authorities ignore bookies, but if you place bets with an illegal bookie, understand that you may be opening yourself up to possible problems.
Online Sportsbooks and Mobile Sports betting
Online books are available anywhere you can access the internet, but they’re also illegal in some parts of the world. Even where sports betting is illegal, most people can find an online business willing to take their bets. You should always learn about the sports betting laws where you live before placing sports bets.
The most common way to bet on sports is through an online sportsbook. Online (or mobile) wagering allows you to establish and fund betting accounts and then make wagers with a couple of clicks on a computer or mobile device. Because of its convenience, online wagering now dominates the sports betting market in the roughly 30 states that legalized the practice (several other states allow sports betting only at retail locations).
Mobile sports betting has exploded since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that gave states the right to legalize and regulate the commercial activity. Many of the best online sportsbooks operate in most states’ betting markets. This has worked to the advantage of sports enthusiasts who can open betting accounts with multiple online books and “shop around” for the best odds.
Now that you’re all set up let’s find out about the most popular bets you’ll be able to find. You might’ve wondered, “How does the spread work in sports betting” before. Let’s find out. Once you browse around a sportsbook, you’ll find a lot of plus and minus symbols. If you see a number in the 100s next to a plus or minus sign, that has to do with your return on your investment.
This is the return on your investment if you bet $100. For example, a $100 bet with +100 odds would payout $200, $100 of that in profit. If the odds are -110, then you win $90 for every $100 you bet.
How does the spread work in sports betting?
Well, both teams are generally given an amount of positive or negative points. Think of this as bonus points for the underdog or extra points the favorite has to win by. Here’s an example.
What Are 7 to 2 Odds?
Seven to two odds imply that every $2 wagered could win you $7 if the bet is successful. With fractional odds, the number on the left expresses how much you win, while the number on the right reveals how much you need to stake.
What Does +200 Mean For Odds?
When odds are expressed with a plus (+) or minus (–) symbol followed by a number. They are American money line odds; for example, +200 signifies the amount a bettor could win if wagering $100. If the bet works out, the player would receive a total payout of $300 ($200 net profit + $100 initial stake).
What Does It Mean When Odds Are Negative?
Negative numbers (in American money line odds) are reserved for the favorite on the betting line and indicate how much you need to stake to win $100—you generally need to put down more to win $100 on the favorite. Conversely, positive numbers are attached to the underdog and refer to the amount you could win if you bet $100. You stand to make more money on positive odds, but the chances of a win are lower.
What Are Vegas Odds?
Vegas odds are used in sportsbooks. American money lines are used and include a point spread and the total number of points the bookmaker thinks will be scored. This allows bettors to bet over or under the bookmaker’s score, and indicate what they believe the difference in points will be.
Moneylines
This is a very simple and straightforward type of bet where you would simply bet on who is going to win the match. You don’t need to worry about how many points the teams will make or any specific aspect other than who would win, Team A or Team B.
Despite this, the moneyline bet still has a plus/minus number, although they signify how much you need to bet or how much you will win for your bet. In this scenario, the team that is the favorite is listed with a minus number, while the underdog is listed with a plus number. This might be a bit confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it fairly quickly.
If the number is negative, that means that this is the amount you have to bet in order to win $100. If the number is positive, that is the amount you will win if you bet $100. This is done in order to encourage betting on the underdog, which will bring a greater payout, even though the likelihood of the underdog winning is lower. So, the riskier the bet, the greater the payout, and the safer the bet, the more you have to pay.
Over/Under betting
Another popular type of bet is the Over/Under bet, also known as the Totals bet. With this bet, all that you care about is how many points were scored during the game. It doesn’t matter who scored them, or which team has scored more, or even which team has won the game — all that you care about here is the total number of scores.
So, the way this works is that the sportsbook will do its research on the teams, the players, the historical matches of both teams, even the weather, and countless other aspects. It will then use all of that data to come up with a prediction of how many total scores are likely to happen during the match. Then, it will decide on what number it will feature for the total number of points, and bettors will then bet on whether the real total number of scores will be Over or Under the number that the sportsbook has predicted.
So, if there is a soccer game and the sportsbook predicts the total number of goals will be 3 (it might post a number such as 3.5 to avoid a situation where the game ended with exactly 3 goals), but you believe that there will be more, you would make an Over bet. If you believe that there will be fewer, you can make an Under bet. With an Over bet, you would bet that there will be 4 or more goals. For an Under bet, you can bet that there will be 3 goals in total or less. You do not have to specify how many, other than more or less than the number predicted by the sportsbook.
Generally, this is a very easy way to get into sports betting, but keep in mind — sportsbooks know what they are doing, and picking the winner is harder than it might seem.
Parlay – What is a Parlay Bet?
A parlay is a single bet that links two or more wagers; to win the bet, the player must win all the wagers in the parlay. If the player loses one wager, he loses the entire bet. However, if the player wins all the wagers in the parlay, the player wins a higher payoff than if the player had placed the bets separately.
What is a Straight Bet
A straight bet is an individual wager on a game or event that will be determined by a pointspread or money line.
Futures Betting
A futures bet is a wager placed on an event typically far in the future, such as which team will win next year’s pro football championship game or pro hockey championship series.
Propositions – Prop Bets
Proposition bets, or “prop” bets, focus on the outcome of events within a given game. Props are often offered on marquee games of great interest. These include Sunday and Monday night pro football games, various high-profile college football games, major college bowl games and playoff and championship games. An example of a prop bet is “Which team will score the first touchdown?”
Teaser Bet
A teaser is a type of football or basketball wager in which the pointspread is adjusted by additional points in the player’s favor on more than one game. In football, a player may move the posted pointspread 6, 6.5, 7, 10 or 14 points (10 and 14 point teasers ties lose). In basketball, 4, 5 and 6-point sports betting teasers are offered.
Round Robin Bet
A round robin is a series of parlays. For example, a 3-team round robin consists of three 2-team parlays (A + B, A + C and B + C).
How Much to Bet?
In the end, you have the final say on how much to risk on a game, but a good rule is risk only what you can afford to lose. Sports betting is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be good days and bad days. As a result, we recommend a flat-betting approach.
This means betting the same amount on every game and risking only 1% to 5% of your bankroll per play (the bankroll is the starting amount you have at your disposal to bet with). For example, if you are starting with a bankroll of $100, you should risk no more than $5 per game.
By employing a flat-betting approach, bettors guard themselves against losing their entire bankroll during a bad stretch, but also set themselves up for a positive return on investment (ROI) when they’re doing well.
How Do Payouts Work in Sports Betting?
Sports betting payouts are determined by the odds attached to your bet and the amount of your wager. This potential payout is always listed on your betting slip, whether you wager online or in person.
Sometimes the payout shown includes the money you wagered—for instance, if you bet $10 to win $50, the payout would show $60. If it doesn’t, just add the amount you bet to the potential winnings to determine the total payout.
You can also calculate potential odds and payouts before making a bet. This can be done by learning various odds and payout formulas, or by using an online betting/odds calculator.
Some online sportsbooks offer payout bonuses, which can boost your winnings. If and when these bonuses are available, you’ll receive an alert when you log into your online betting account.
Bettors can withdraw funds from their betting accounts at any time. How long it takes for the money to hit your bank account varies by sportsbook—which is another thing to look into when researching the best sportsbook for you.
The Bottom Line
If you are planning to enter the betting world, it is important to be able to understand and interpret all types of odds well. You need to be familiar with the conversions between the different formats of odds, the conversion of odds into implied probabilities, and the differences between the true chances of an outcome, as well as the odds on display. Only then can you place a well-educated bet.