Betting Sports: Ways to Wager

Betting Sports: Ways to Wager
By Noah Mann

The most popular of sports to place bets on are NFL and college football games, along with NBA and NCAA basketball games. Within these sports, there are multiple betting opportunities that begin with the basic wager on a games outcome (also terming betting the side). Point spreads are used in both football and basketball to even the attractiveness of each team in a match up.

Alternatively, you can simply bet on the money line or straight-up winner of the game. Oddmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on that of the underdog to balance the action on both sides. Money line gambling can be an attractive option for basketball and football bettors who only care about picking a winner. It is the main option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball or sports like boxing, NASCAR and tennis.

Points (or Runs) Scored:
An Over/Under total is another bet across all major team sports such as basketball, baseball and football which involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game.
Example: If the Over/Under total on a Game was 48 - this means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined during that game. If the final score of the game was 24-21, the scoring of both teams add up to 45 which means the game went Under. So the bettors who bet “under” won, and the bettors who bet “over” lost the bet.

Future Bets:
Sports’ gambling doesn’t just start and end here. Betting sides and totals are the most common of wagers but many sportsbooks offer future bets on big upcoming games like who will win the Super Bowl the next year and who will win a Grammy this year.

The main advantage of future betting is you can get better odds by betting in advance. Example: with NFL futures you can often get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even begins. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl might be 20/1 preseason but by midseason their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be championship contenders.

Proposition Betts (or Prop Bets):
Proposition bets, focus on the more exotic aspects of a game that are widely televised. Proposition bets are popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. For example: which team will win the coin toss or what player will score the first touchdown of the game.


Betting Sports: Ways to Wager