Basic Introduction to Sports Betting

by Red on July 30, 2008

If you’re ready to take on the world of sports betting – congratulations. Sports betting can be extremely exciting and may often reward good research. However, if you want to have a chance of winning at sports betting you’ll need to know what you are doing. First you will need to open an account with an online gambling site, making sure to find yourself one of the best bonuses. Then you’ll need to learn the different types of bets you can make.

Types of Sports Bets
There are two main types of sports bets. The most important betting idea you need to know in betting sports is the money line. This is simply a way of expressing odds. If you want to bet on a team that is favored to win, you will have to give odds. If you want to bet on the underdog, you will get odds. A money line is expressed in a way similar to this: Team A +140/-110 Team B. What this means is that Team B is the favorite, and you will have to wager $100 on Team B to win $110. Team A is the underdog and you will win $140 for a $100 wager on Team A. You do not have to bet $100 of course, again, this is just a way of expressing the odds. What this really means is that you are being offered 1.4-to-1 odds on Team A, and will have to lay 1.1-to-1 odds on Team B. The other major type of bet is a point spread bet. This may be expressed as Team A -5 Team B. What this would mean is that Team A is a five point favorite, meaning they would have to win by more than five points for a bet on Team A to win. As the underdog, your Team B bet would win if Team B won outright or lost by less than five points.

Exotic Bets
Other bets you may consider are simply variations of the above, and include parlays, where you pick multiple teams to win and are paid off at better odds if they do, and teasers, where you again must pick multiple teams, but get to add or subtract extra points to the spreads to improve your odds.

Proposition Bets
Prop bets are bets on things outside the score or outcome of the game, such as the number of passes a particular quarterback might throw or the number of blocked shots a basketball player will have.

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