Sports betting was once exclusively restricted to Las Vegas and shady offshore companies, but that’s no longer the case. Despite several measures to regulate the industry, many more states continue to allow sports betting.
The popularity of sports betting is also beginning to grow. Previously whispered conversations are now freely discussed. Even extensive sports networks have programs that often discuss betting. Sports bettors are enjoying a golden era, and even those who are new to the sport have a level playing field.
In jurisdictions where gambling is legal, retail sportsbooks and betting applications keep coming out. As a result, legal sportsbooks are widely available both online and on mobile devices.
Sports betting initially appears a little complicated, but it becomes much less alien as you have more practice.
This guide intends to shorten your learning curve significantly. Let’s start with the fundamentals.
What is sports betting?
The main focus of sports betting is placing bets on a game’s or event’s outcome. Bettors try to predict the outcomes and offer their best opinion on what will happen. Most often, gamblers use a sportsbook. The oddsmakers establish the lines or odds for the wagers that are offered at the various bookmakers.
In essence, the odds represent the probability that a specific occurrence will happen. Additionally, they highlight the possible payout for winners. Sportsbooks provide a variety of marketplaces. You can place bets on a wide range of sports, from popular ones like NBA and NFL to more specialized ones like cricket and rugby. The same approach applies even to other sorts of betting.
The basic wager is selecting the winning team. There are, however, a lot of different wagering options and variables to take into account.
Different terminologies you’ll need to know
If you are into college football betting, there are so many helpful tips and strategies to learn from thesportsgeek.com and other top sites, but there are the basic terminologies you’ll also need to get acquainted with. These are terms you are likely to come face to face with everyday.
- Juice (or vig) is the fee you pay to place a wager, and it’s how sports bookmakers pay their bills. Most sportsbooks set the juice at -110 when placing a single wager on a football game. Accordingly, you must wager $110 to win $100 (hence, earn $210). To win $10 (collect $21), you must wager $11 to do so.
- Push – There was a tie in your wager. You receive your initial wager returned if the team you backed wins by seven points while a seven-point favorite. If you placed a wager on the game scoring more than 40 points and it ended 23-17, you will receive a refund of your initial bet.
- Future wager – Betting on a future occurrence is known as a future wager. Future bets may involve a team’s performance, such as their ability to win a division, conference, or league title. Or they may be for a certain person to take home the league’s MVP, lead the league in passing, etc.
- Parlay – A parlay is a multiple-gamble wager in which each leg must win for you to get your winnings. You can possibly win more money by including more teams.
- Teaser – A teaser is a unique type of parlay in which the bettor receives help with the point spread in exchange for a smaller payoff. A 6-point, two-team teaser is the most typical in football. A total of six points are added to or deducted from each point spread for the bettor’s two teams. A 6-point teaser would suddenly award a 3-point underdog nine points in the game if they were currently a 3-point underdog. If a team is an 8-point favorite, a 6-point teaser would require them to win by more than two points rather than by 8, to be profitable. To cash the ticket, each leg of the teaser must be successful.
- The Hook – Winning or losing by a half-point in your wager. Football games typically have a final margin of 3 or 7 points. You won your wager “by the hook” if you placed a bet on the underdog at +3.5 and they lose by three points. In contrast, you would lose “by the hook” if you wagered on a favorite at -7.5 and they win by seven points.
Calculating football odds
The point spread, rotation number, the total, and the moneyline are the four main statistics you should pay attention to when placing a football wager.
Rotation number: You will notice a 3-digit number in front of the club name; that is the rotation number. Instead of using team names, ticket sellers use numbers. They rely on that rotation number to clear any confusion with the bettor. Learn the game’s rotation number if you plan to wager on it.
Point Spread: The favorite will be indicated with a negative sign in front of the point spread while viewing the odds board. The margin of victory needed by that team to cover the spread is that many points. The other team, the underdog, will not have a number shown because it is assumed that they will receive the same number of points. It is still possible if the underdog loses by fewer points than they are awarded.
The total: You can place a bet on either how many points will be scored in total by both sides throughout the game, “over” or “under.”
A negative sign is shown in front of the favorite’s number on a $100 scale, while a plus sign is put in front of the underdog’s number. When you wager on the moneyline, all your team needs to do is win. There are no point differentials.
Football spreads and betting
The main leveler is the point differential. Who would want to wager on a football match between the league’s best and worst teams? Give the underdogs a 20-point lead, and the result becomes much more intriguing. A team must win the game by a specific number of points in order to cover the point spread when betting on the favorite. As long as the margin of defeat is not more than the posted figure, betting for the underdog with the point spread allows that team to lose the game.
Over/Under in Football
You are placing a bet on the total number of points each team will score throughout the game. The range of college football totals is from the upper 30s to the low 80s. The totals in pro football are far more consistent. The average pro football total is in the mid- to upper 40s. You bet on whether the total number of points scored by both sides throughout the game will fall “over” or “under” that figure.
