How to Bet on Sports: The Definitive Beginners Guide
Legal sports betting has come a long way from the taboo avoided decades ago. It's now a billion-dollar legal industry that offers millions of sports fans a chance to make good money.
However, if you're new to sports betting, or perhaps even your initial time to wager on sports you might need to take a step back for a second and get the fundamentals down pat before you join the fray.
This sports betting guide for beginners will teach you the different types of sports bets as well as :
- Learn how to read sport betting odds
- Learn how to read sport betting lines
- Learn about sports betting jargon
- Learn about bankroll management principles.
- Which sportsbooks to bet with when you bet on sports.
- What is a sportsbook and do I need one in order to bet sports?
Sportsbooks are companies that take sports book wagers.
Sportsbooks are where bets can be placed on sports such as football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, boxing, motorsports, horse racing and countless others. Legal sportsbooks also have websites and smartphone applications so that individuals can wager money on other items such as fantasy leagues, daily games, and even casino games.
They also typically provide information regarding your favorite teams' performance and possibility of winning based on a variety of different parameters.
Some of these are: location, weather, performance of the players, and others which will help you in placing a smart bet that's right for you.
What are the most common types of sports bets?
There are various types of of sports bets from parlays, teasers, and prop bets. In this beginner's guide to sports betting, we will present a cursory explanation of the most common types.
Straight Bets
Straight bets are straight wagers on straight games. They are as basic as wagers get and include;
Moneylines
This is the simplest of all the straight bets, i.e., a bet on which team will win the game. There are no point spread or conditions. For instance, in a game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, a money line bet will involve deciding which of the two teams you think will win the game.
Point spreads
A point spread is a margin of victory. In this case, oddsmakers establish a point spread which the favorite should win by more than. The underdog can even lose by less than that or win the game.
Over/Under
A bet on the total combined points from both sides of a game is an over/under in sports betting. It is also called "the total."
Here, you can bet over or under.
Over wins when the combined score is greater than the points total and loses when the combined score is less than the points total. Under wins when the combined score is less than the points total and loses when the combined score is greater than.
For instance, in the game Raptors-Bulls, you have a total of 215. Over would be a wager that there will be greater points than the sum, whereas under wagers that there will be fewer than the sum of points. If the sum of points is 215, there is a push. There is no win or loss here, and your money will be refunded.
Futures Bets
These are risky wagers that bet on a season's outcome. You can bet on who is going to win the Championship, award winners, how many games an NFL club will win this season, and so on. For instance, a bet on who will be the MLS top scorer is a future bet. Similarly, a bet on LA FC winning the league is also a future bet.
Parlay Bets
These are a group of bets which have to happen where all of the single bets have to win in order for the parlay to win. A wager that the Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat, and Milwaukee Bucks all will be winners in their weekend games is a parlay wager. The teams have to win all of them for the wager to work. In event, for example, the Nets and Miami have won but the Bucks lost, the wager loses.
Prop Bets
A prop bet is a wager on something to occur (or not occur) during the course of a game, and unlike some of the other wagers we have discussed, the final score isn't generally what determines whether you win or lose. There are just too numerous to enumerate but you can bet on how many rebounds a single basketball player will have during a game, who will score the first touchdown in a football game, or even if there will be a hole in one in a golf tournament.
What is a bankroll and why is it so important in sports betting?
Before you start betting on sports, you need to decide how much you are willing to lose before sending that into your betting account. That is your bankroll.
Handling your Bankroll
After you have your bankroll, you need to determine how large your individual bets will be. This is due to the fact that you ought not to put the entire money on a single bet. Instead, you like to divide your bankroll and allocate each bet some portion of it.
There are three approaches in bet sizing :
- Risk-averse: They usually bet 1-2% of their bankroll per bet
- Risk-neutral: They bet 3% of their bankroll per bet
- Risk loving: A confident wager of 4% to 5% of their bankroll
Your bankroll will fluctuate as the season unfolds, losing or winning wagers. This variance will necessitate a revision of your wagering strategy.
Let's say, for instance, you initially had a bankroll of $1,000 and currently have $1500 after having been betting $50 for a month or so. You would typically have some options in front of you. You can just keep betting $50 because things are seeming to go quite well, or adjust your sizing strategy to correspond to the size of your present bankroll.