How US Sports Betting Works (Part 2)
Sports betting isn’t always about making a good guess about who will win a game. Another type of wager that you can make on sporting events is predicting the sum of the scores made by both teams. These are called “totals” or “over/unders”. The bookmaker sets the totals, often using a half-point (e.g., 55.5 for football). Another possible variation to sports betting is proposition bets, which revolve around a specific score, yardage, or any match outcome. You can guess how many goals a team will make in a soccer game, the yardage of a particular football player, or whether or not a basketball player will score a three-point shot.
Parlays, on the other hand, are when you make multiple bets. The pay out is much larger, although it’s all or nothing. If any of the four bets don’t work out, you lose the entire amount. If you are right, then you hit gold mine, usually 10 to 1, which would be far greater than what you would’ve gotten with different wagers. Parlays are very risky, and are not recommended unless you’re familiar with statistics and probabilities.
If you’re a baseball, soccer or hockey fan, and are bored with straight up or moneyline bets in soccer, consider a Run line, puck line or goal line bet. These bets involve a fixed point spread. Pay out depends on whether you’re betting on a favourite or an underdog. Where some teams are heavy favourites (with odds as much as -350 or higher), you may have to meet some conditions before you consider it as a winning bet. For example, the team may need to have a minimum lead. Underdogs, on the other hand, are loaded with high payouts if they do win, and even if they lose, you may not have to kiss your money goodbye if the scores were very close.
Future wagers are another kind of sports betting. These involve long-term performance of a team or player. For example, you can wager that a favourite football team will take the Super Bowl. For this type of bet, odds are expressed in a ratio of units paid to unit wagered. You can wager 50-1 that a team will win the Super Bowl, which computes to being paid 50 times more than your original bet amount.
All of these different kinds of sports betting can be coursed through a bookmaker, who is recognized and given authority by a country to collect bets. They are different from bookies, who do all this in secret and thus have come to be associated with shady deals and questionable gambling joints. Avoid betting through bookies as the law cannot protect you if you are cheated. There are thousands of websites that feature sports betting and accept wagers on sporting events around the world.
Online sports betting is convenient (you don’t have to leave your home) and since the site usually operates in a country where sports betting is recognized, you have a legal claim over your winnings.
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