Betting on sporting events is not exactly new to our culture. However, today’s opportunities enable people to place wagers on sporting events; now, that’s an entirely different matter.
With the continued proliferation of online sports betting sites, the chances of placing a wager on a sports event are more prevalent than ever before. The development of state-of-the-art mobile apps has increased those opportunities exponentially. Today, the sports bettor can get a play down on a game no matter where they are during the course of their day.
Creating more accessibility to sports betting has also meant that even greater numbers of people are interested in wagering on sporting events. Many of these players are neophytes at the game, anxious to learn all they can about how to bet on sports so that they can be sharper when partaking in this activity.
To that end, let’s discuss some of the terminologies in sports betting and exactly how each type of betting line works.
Explaining The Odds
There are three types of odds that are commonly employed by best sports betting sites. These are moneyline, also called American, fractional – also often referred to as British, and decimal, commonly known as European.
Moneyline odds are based on a hypothetical $100 bet. If the Detroit Tigers are listed as +200 against the Minnesota Twins, that means if you were to bet $100 on the Tigers and they won, you’d earn $200 on top of your stake. However, if the Twins are -150 in the same game, that’s telling the bettor that in order to turn a $100 profit from a winning wager on the Twins, the required stake would be $150.
With fractional odds, the line is fairly straightforward. Should the Toronto Maple Leafs be 5/1 favorites to win the Stanley Cup, it’s telling you that were you to bet the Leafs, and they won the Cup, your winnings would be five times your stake. Thus, a $100 wager would turn a profit of $500.
Finally, decimal odds are calculated based on what the bet would return for a $1 investment. To calculate the winnings from decimal odds, you would multiply the stake by the decimal odds number. If the Golden State Warriors are listed as 4.00 in an NBA game, it means that with a winning bet, you’d earn $4 for every $1 you wagered on the Warriors.
What Is the Spread?
The favorite is indicated by a minus number and the underdog via a positive number with point spread betting. If the Atlanta Falcons are playing the New Orleans and the line is New Orleans -5.5, this would mean that they’d need to win the game by at least six points for the Saints to cover a bet on them.
On the other hand, a bet on the Falcons would cover whether they won the game outright or as long as they lost by five points or less.
How Does the Total Work?
It is known as over/under; this wager can be played on the game’s final score, the total points scored by one team, or even on the team and individual player statistical categories.
If the total on an NHL game between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins is set at 6.5, bettors make a play on whether they think the final score will be over or under that total. The bookmakers assign odds to both outcomes.
What’s A Parlay?
A parlay requires that a number of outcomes all come in for this type of bet to pay off. The bettor sets the number of legs for the parlay when they make a bet.
It can be anywhere from two legs up to the maximum allowed by the sportsbook, which in some cases can number into the 20s.
What Is Live Betting?
Also known as in-play betting, these are separate wagers on outcomes that occur during an event.
These bets are made in real-time. It could be on whether the next basket in an NBA game will be a 3-pointer or which player will score the next goal in a soccer match.
