?»?Sports Betting 2021: Top Tips & Tricks This Year.
Sports betting has grown into a massive industry in the last decade and it has by no means reached the ceiling yet. Far from it. It continues to rise all over the world, and especially in the United States. Sports betting rules have become much more relaxed and many states have already legalized and embraced the activity.
It is easy to find the reasoning behind such a massive expansion of the niche. Every sports fan in the world can be easily attracted to wagering. It is fun, simple, and provides a chance of winning money. What??™s not to like about it? Well, this pastime has its negative sides as well. These are bound to losses. You are never guaranteed to place a winning bet. There is always a chance of your pick letting you down and your money going away from you. This is why it is crucial to have at least some sort of strategy instead of jumping straight into bets.
Since online wagering has become so popular, we figure there are a lot of newbies looking to test their sports knowledge and luck. This article is dedicated to them, but also to the more experienced punters who have suffered constant losses. Stay tuned and keep reading as we are about to share the top tricks and tips set to launch your sports betting career into new heights in 2021.
Learn the basics.
First of all, you need to be completely familiar with the foundation of sports betting. You need to understand the markets, the odds, and the lines. Sports wagering is not just backing a team to win. Do not get us wrong, the moneyline market is the most popular of them all, but you can??™t make money by constantly betting on which team will win the game.
If you are convinced that the Kansas City Chiefs will destroy Miami Dolphins by more than 10 points difference, you have to go with the pints spread market instead of moneyline. By betting the Chiefs to win in a -9.5 handicap, you??™ll get the competitive -110 odds. If you only back the Chiefs??™ win in this instance, you??™ll be looking at -500 or even -1000 odds. We will discuss the odds and the lines more down in the article.
Explore betting-friendly sites.
You have nailed the basics and you think you are ready to go? Not quite. You should always (we can??™t underline how important this word is) upgrade your knowledge and adjust your skills to the latest news/reports/trends.
Luckily, we have numerous betting-friendly related sites, e.g. Betting Billy, at disposal. These sites usually provide precious and useful information in regards to sports wagering. On there, you will not only find the expert picks and analyses but also the wide spectrum of different bookmakers, odds, bonuses up for grabs, etc. Now, it is very important to know the difference between reliable sources and fraudsters. Remember, there will be cheaters wherever money is involved. To stay safe, just ignore any site that promises 100% winnings because there is no such. As we mentioned above, you can access numerous useful & trustworthy betting-related websites for free.
Also, do not be afraid to look for another opinion or to check the expert picks. After all, you??™ll buy a better house for less money if you consult a real estate agent, right? Sports betting is very similar. Some people devote their lives to certain sports, watch all games, and have all the information about the teams involved. Do not be afraid to accept they have more knowledge than you. Of course, you should by no means trust everyone. For this sake, there is statistics, previous scores, winning runs. You certainly don??™t want to follow tips by someone who has had a six-month losing streak in betting.
Do the pre-game analyses and act quickly.
Of course, you can succeed and make decent profits without consulting anyone. For that, however, you need free time. You need to watch matches and do the pre-game analyses before placing the wager. The more you know about a certain game, the higher the chances of a winning pick are. Even the slightest details can make all the difference.
For example, you find out that LeBron James will not feature the Los Angeles Lakers squad in the clash against Brooklyn Nets who have just welcomed Kyrie Irving back from suspension. You should rush to log in to your betting account and place a bet on the Nets before the sportsbooks adjust the odds. In most cases, the star-packed Nets will beat James-less Lakers and your pick will be a winner.
Shop for the odds/lines.
This example can be applied to all sports and competitions. This is why it is good to have accounts with multiple sportsbooks. Even the slightest odds change in your favor will do the job in the long run.
Source: 7500 To Holte.
Mind your bankroll.
We will finish the article with this paragraph, the one that hides the most important advice. Paying attention to bankroll management is essential if you want to survive in the sports betting environment. You can have ten straight winning bets, but you will go into bankruptcy by going all-in on the 11th (and losing it). Never bet the money you can??™t afford to lose.
The Basics of Sports Betting.
???Give me $50 on the Rams with the points, $25 on the money line, and $20 on the over.??? Many of you can read that sentence and know exactly what all of it means. For the rest of you, it may look like a foreign language. In some sense, it is. As with many niche topics, sports betting comes with its own set of rules and terminology. I could go on for thousands of words discussing the various types of wagers that can be placed and the terms used to describe them. For the purposes of this article, let??™s focus on the basics.
There are many types of compound wagers you can make: parlays, reverses, teasers, if/then wagers. Right now, only concern yourself with straight bets. A straight bet is just a single bet placed on a single event. By far, the most common type of football wager is a straight bet placed on the point spread. As a quick refresher, the point spread is the amount of points the bookmakers set that the team favored to win must win by in order for you to win your bet. If the Patriots are (-6.5) for a game, they must win by seven for you to ???cover the spread??? and win your bet.
For today??™s explanations, let??™s use the opening game of the 2018 season: Falcons at Eagles. The Eagles are currently listed as four point favorites (-4). The money line is -200 and the total for the game is 46 (more on these in a moment). When looking at the point spread, you must decide whether you think the Eagles will win the game by at least four points. If you place a straight bet on the Eagles, that is, a single wager on just the Eagles where you are laying the four points, and the Eagles win by a field goal, you lose. If the Eagles win by a touchdown, you win. It is that simple. On the flip side, if you bet the Falcons against the point spread, you either need them to win the game outright, or lose by fewer than four points. A typical point spread wager has a vig of -110. It is rare that the vig on a point spread is more than -125, which, as a quick refresher on that as well, means you have to risk $125 to win $100. If you wanted to place a $100 wager on either the Falcons or the Eagles against the point spread right now, you would have to risk $110 to win $100.
Finally, we have the total, otherwise known as the over/under. A bet on the total is a bet on how many points you think the two teams will combine to score in the game. The vig on totals is almost always -110, but, like any vig, it can vary a bit due to exigent circumstances that we won??™t get into here. For the Eagles and Falcons, the total is 46 and it is -110 on each side. What do I mean by each side? Well, if you want to place a bet on the amount of points scored in the game, you can take the over or the under. And yes, it is as simple as it sounds. If you bet the over, you need the Eagles and Falcons to combine to score more than 46 points. If you bet the under, you need them to score fewer than 46 points. A $110 bet wins you $100.
So there you have it: the three most basic bets you can place on a football game ??“point spread, money line, and total. In future articles, you will learn about different types of bets of varying complexity and different ways you can bet things. As always, wager responsibly and never bet more than you can afford to lose. Good luck this season!
Jason Katz is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Jason, check out his archive .
Sports Betting Explained: An Introduction To The Basics And How To Wager.
Sports betting is a rapidly growing industry in the United States, particularly after a 2018 ruling by the Supreme Court that opened the door to legalized operations on a state-by-state basis. While not every state in the country has legalized sports betting just yet, the map is expanding and, with sports leagues and other outlets attempting to jump on board the money train, interest is higher than ever.
As such, many are new to the space and, in the first of several explainers, we will tackle the real basics. For experienced sports bettors, this will be far too elementary but, given the expansion of sports betting terminology used on more mainstream sports broadcasts and within games, even the non-bettors could find it useful to understand the flow of information.
Later, we??™ll dive into more nuanced approaches. Today, though, we stick to the nuts and bolts of how to get around and understand what you??™re looking at on an odds board.
Point Spreads.
In simple terms, the point spread is a wager on what the margin of victory will be in a particular game. It is, by a wide margin, the most oft-discussed wagering option, both in mainstream and more advanced circles. A point spread can also serve as a de facto ???projection??? of the difference between two teams.
As a very prominent example, let??™s look back to Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2, 2020, with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the San Francisco 49ers in the largest sporting event in the country. When the game began, the Chiefs were listed at -1.5, meaning that Kansas City was the favorite, with 1.5 points as the point spread itself.
In practical terms, if a bettor wagered on the Chiefs to ???cover??? (meaning they would win the bet), Kansas City would need to win the game by more than 1.5 points. If the Chiefs won by one point, or lost the game entirely, the bet would lose.
Over/Unders.
As noted previously, point spreads are the most common way to wager on a few high-profile sports like basketball and football. Another prominent option, however, is the ability to wager on how many total points will be scored.
These ???total??? bets are sometimes referred to as Over/Unders, because one side of the bet is an ???over??? and the other is an ???under.??? Using the same example from Super Bowl LIV back in Feb. 2020, the over/under total was set at 53.
As such, a bettor could wager on the ???over??? at 53 and, if the two teams combined to score 54 points or more, that wager would win. If they scored 52 points or fewer, the wager would lose.
On the other side, a bettor could wager on the ???under??? at 53 and the opposite would be true. The bettor would be hoping for 52 points or fewer, and any total more than 53 points would be a losing wager.
While the point spread in the above example was not a round number (1.5), the over/under in this case is exactly 53, rather than 52.5 or 53.5, for example. Because of that, a ???push??? is possible. Essentially, a push occurs when a wager ties. In this case, a combined score of 53 points would trigger a refund for any bet placed on either the over or the under, and no bet would win.
Money Lines.
If you don??™t want to be tasked with doing math during game action, money lines are a bit more conventional. In fact, a money line wager is based entirely on which team wins, and the margin (or even the frequency of scoring) does not matter. These wagers are offered across the sporting landscape, but they are particularly prominent in sports like baseball, soccer, and hockey, when the margin of victory is often small given the limited number of points/goals scored by both sides.
To better understand money lines, however, it is important to know what the listed odds actually mean.
American Odds.
American odds are prominent in, you guessed it, the United States. They are not as prominent, or regularly accessible, in other corners of the world but, given our audience and the reality that American odds are what you will see in any local sportsbook, an explainer is needed.
Importantly, the odds are listed in association with every single bet we??™ve discussed in this space, including point spreads, over/unders, and money lines. The short version is that American odds are focused on a $100 unit of measurement, and that is how they are displayed.
The money line referenced Kansas City at -125. In plain terms, that means that a bet on Kansas City would yield $100 for every $125 wagered. So, if a bettor placed a $125 bet and the Chiefs won, the bettor would receive their $125 back and an additional $100, for a profit of $100.
To be clear, not everyone is wagering is increments of $100, but the percentages stay the same. For every $1.25 wagered on the Chiefs, the bettor would win $1 on a victory, and for every $1 wagered on the 49ers, the bettor would win $1.05 on a victory.
The Vig.
In our final section of this introductory explainer, we get to the less ???fun??? part of sports betting, at least for the individuals placing the bets and rooting against the casino or bookmaker. The vig, or vigorish, is sometimes referred to as the juice, and it basically refers to the cost of placing a bet, all while explaining how bookmakers keep the lights on.
We??™ll harken back to the Super Bowl LIV example, and move back to the point spreads this time. As noted above, the Chiefs were -1.5 in that particular game but, while that was the point spread, a bettor wasn??™t placing a $100 wager on Kansas City with the potential to receive $100 back. The standard, or most common, vig/juice/vigorish in the United States is -110.
While that $10, or less if the wager was for a smaller amount, may not seem like much, the bookmaker is, for all intents and purposes, charging a tax. Bettors must win well over 50 percent of their bets to ???break even??? using the -110 vig and, as such, it is very difficult to win over the course of a large sample. Most are betting for entertainment but, at the very least, it is good to know what you??™re getting into and, like any casino activity involving gamblings, the house makes sure to have the mathematical edge over the vast majority of individuals.
The finer points of sports betting can??™t be learned overnight and there is plenty more to dissect. However, learning the basics is absolutely critical and, if one can sift through the math of these three ???standard??? wagering opportunities, the rest becomes much easier to unpack.
How to Bet on Sports for Beginners: 12 Tips to Know.
Suchat Pederson/The News Journal via USA TODAY NETWORK.
Over the past few years, the emergence of daily fantasy sports has led to a renaissance for conventional sports betting. The anti-gambling stigma that existed for decades is fading in American popular culture, opening the door for a massive, multibillion-dollar legal sports betting industry to emerge.
With sports betting now legal in many states, millions of sports fans will be looking to enter the betting market for the first time. But where do you begin if you??™re unfamiliar with the terminology?
Here??™s an introduction into how to bet on sports. We??™ll be adding to this series in the coming weeks.
How to Bet on Sports for Beginners: 12 Tips.
Use the links below to jump to each section.
1. Favorites vs. Underdogs.
When the oddsmakers release a betting line on a game, the first thing they do is decide which team should be the favorite and which should be the underdog.
The favorite is the team that is expected to win the game and will get a minus sign next to its odds, while the underdog is expected to lose and gets a plus sign. If the game is a toss-up, books will open it as a ???pick??? or ???pick??™em.??? Click to return to table of contents .
2. Spreads.
There are two main ways to bet on a favorite or an underdog. The first is the point spread, which is a bet on the margin of victory. A favorite ???gives??? points, while an underdog ???gets??? points.
For example, say the Patriots are 7-point favorites (-7) against the Jets.
If you bet on the Patriots, they need to win the game by 8 points or more for you to win your bet. If the Patriots win by 8 points or more, you ???cover.??? If the Patriots win by exactly 7 points, that is called a ???push,??? which means you get back the money you originally bet.
If the Patriots win by 6 points or fewer (or lose the game straight-up), you lose your bet.
Spreads are available for all sports, but they are predominantly used when betting on higher-scoring sports like football and basketball.
3. Moneylines.
The second way to bet on a favorite or an underdog is on the moneyline. This is based solely on which team will win the game.
Favorites are given a ???minus??? designation, such as -150, -200 or -500. If a favorite is -200, that means you have to risk $200 to win $100. If the favorite wins, you get $100, but if the favorite loses, you??™re out $200.
Because favorites are expected to win, you assume more risk when betting on them.
Moneylines are available for all sports, but they are predominantly used when betting on lower-scoring sports like baseball, hockey and soccer.
4. Over/Unders (Totals)
In addition to setting a line for the favorite and the underdog, oddsmakers will also set a total number of points scored in a game by both teams combined. This is called the total or over/under.
Bettors can then wager on whether or not the game will go Over or Under the total.
For example, an NBA game between the Celtics and Bulls might have a total of 215. You could either bet the Over 215 or the Under 215. If you bet the Over 215 and the total points scored end up being 216 or higher, you win your bet. If the total points scored are 214 or fewer, you lose.
5. What Is the -110 Number Listed Next to My Bet?
The oddsmakers put a ???tax??? on every bet, which is typically called the ???juice??? or ???vig??? (short for ???vigorish???). The juice is the commission you have to pay to the sportsbook for them to accept your wager.
Say the Duke Blue Devils are -5 (-110) ??¦ that means if you want to bet on Duke as a 5-point favorite, you need to risk $110 to win $100.
You always have to risk more on a favorite than you??™d win on an underdog??¦otherwise, sportsbooks would be out of business.
6. How to Place a Bet.
With legalized sports betting spreading across America, sports bettors have never had more options to take advantage of. To see if sports betting is legal where you live, check out our state-by-state tracker.
Some of the biggest states that have legalized mobile wagering include Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and West Virginia. The sportsbooks highlighted below are all trustworthy legal shops that take bets online.
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