3 Best Ways to Bet On Sports
There are around 118 million Americans who bet on sports each year through websites like Toals Bookmakers. Almost all kind of sports attract players, with events such as Super Bowl, March madness and Kentucky Derby setting betting records every year..
According to stats, Americans bet $149 million on sporting events illegally. Around 4 billion were generated solely from Super Bowl 50 event last year on illegal basis, while the legal bets were only 3%. However, people are now turning towards legal betting sites due to the ease and safety that they offer.
Sport betting has become all the more easy with the advent of mobile phone technology. You can simply sit in a bar or a cafe with friends and bet with your handheld devices. It’s that easy.
While there are many ways betting can be placed, we will discuss the top 3 common ways to bet.
- Moneyline
- Spread
- Total
Let’s learn about what they are:
Moneyline
This is the most simplest way of betting. It involves picking a team or an individual player that you think has better chances of winning or performing. After picking one, you simple put a bet on the team/player.
Then comes the moneyline odds. It’ll help you know how much money you can win if your bet wins.
You’ll see negative and positive signs with team names. A negative sign goes with the team which is the top choice among bettors and the odds indicate how much money will you have to be to win $100. On the other hand, positive sign indicates an underdog team. Here’s how it works.
Let’s assume a match between Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians. The odds say that Cleveland Indians are -220 and Texas Rangers are +180.
This means that if you are willing to bet on Cleveland Indians (the team with better winning odds), you need to wage $220 in order to win $100. It’s a risk. On the other hand, if you want to bet on Texas Rangers then you’ll earn $180 for every $100 you bet on them.
So, betting on a team which has lower chances at winning can earn you more money if you bet on them and somehow they win.
Spread
It’s quite similar to moneyline. The only difference is that the team you pick should win with a certain margin. The terms used for spread betting are runline (for MLB) and puck line (for NHL).
Here’s an example: Suppose team A is a favorite and is on the runline by -1.5. So apart from winning, they’ve to win by at least 2 points to make your bet pay out. If they fail to score 2 points, team B wins the bet and you get nothing.
Total
This type of betting involves predicting a combined total for both teams, and if it will exceed the oddsmakers’ prediction or not. This bet is placed before the event starts and you win only if your prediction is right.
Verdict
These 3 are the most common betting types you’ll come across when it comes to sports betting. However, they apply to specific sports like NHL and MLB only.
