Since the Supreme court left it up to each state to make its own rules on sports gambling back in 2018, it has exploded. The American Gaming Association has estimated so far that sports betting has brought in over $53 billion in 2021, nearly a 22% increase since 2019. Many fans jumped in on the chance to do legal sports immediately, while some interested in it need help knowing where to start to enjoy this.
Everything below is for the beginner sports wagerer. It will take you through the basics and inform you of what you need to know to start out.
Where can I place a wager legally in the United States?
First, we’ll start with the most important question. So far, it’s at 32 operational states and counting as well as Washington D.C. There are an additional four states, Nebraska, Maine, Ohio, and Florida, where they are setting up operations still.
What are the key differences between sports betting online versus offline?
Since many operators handle both online and offline sports betting, it comes down to the convenience factor. You can either place a bet in the comfort of your own home, on the couch, or head down to the local betting operator, wait in line, and place your bet with a human or the automated machine.
You may have more complex betting options or even the chance for live betting (in some jurisdictions) to be done online, which is much simpler than trying to rush to place a bet at a sports betting location.
Key phrases and terms to know
Before we go into the terms themselves, keep in mind that your payout includes the original amount you bet with as well. So, for example, if you bet on a wager where the bet amount is $10, and the odds equate to $10 if you win, you will receive a total of $20 (original stake + odds).
Money Line Bet: Your standard simple wager. All you’re doing here is picking the winner of the sports event. It doesn’t matter what the score or anything else; if you select the winning team, you win!
Point-Spread bet: This is where you’re betting on which team will win the sports game and by how many points. This is where a lot of statistics come into play. Let’s say we look at the Dallas Cowboys’ recent match against the Indianapolis Colts. The Dallas Cowboys are x point favorites to win against the Colts. The only way to win your bet is to have the Cowboys win but also by X+1 points.
Parlay: Here’s where you can expand your betting sophistication. This is one whole bet with multiple wagers built in, also called legs. Every chance within this parlay needs to win for you to get your money. So, for example, you can have one bet that is the Moneyline (i.e., one team wins), with a point spread involved (i.e., one team wins with a certain number of points), and both have to have successful outcomes. These can have a compound effect on your winnings.
Teaser: Similar to a parlay in that it’s a combination of bets that all have to win. Here you’re able to hedge a bit more with the ability of ‘buying points’ for the spread. They can vary per sport, but typical teaser amounts you can buy are about 6 points for football matches and four points for basketball games. Regardless it’s a way for you to essentially make the spread more achievable when necessary to help hedge your bet.
Juice: This term covers how much a sports betting operator takes as its own cut. Specifically money line bets, point spread bets and even the over/under total bets. Before we get into deeper details, let’s quickly understand American odds. In American odds, it’s based on $100 and a pointsbet system. That means if you have a +200 on a wager and you bet $100, then you will win $200 if you win the bet. Simple right? Let’s look at different types of bets and how this works with juice.
Moneyline bets. There’s always a favorite option and an underdog option in every single bet composition. The favorite is actually given a negative juice number, and the underdog is attributed a positive number (no juice). So, for example, if the Cowboys were the favored team, they may have a spread of -110 which means it costs $110 to win $100 in the bet. However, if the sports wager was on the underdog, the Colts, it may look like +145, which means a $100 bet wins you $145.
Keep in mind that you can place whatever the minimum bet is. The examples above are simply for simple clarity and calculation. For example, you can simply bet $1.1 with the cowboys to win $1.
Point-spread bets. Both sides of the wager – whether the favorite or the underdog will have some juice attached to them. Each side will be negative then, as there is a small cut that the operation needs to take. On the other hand, it may be higher for one side over the other, depending on what the odds are and the number of players placing bets. Either way, don’t consider the negative number a bad thing.
Total bets: These bets will have a similar juice breakdown as point-spread bets. Yet the way they work is you’re betting on whether a team will score less or more points than what the total score is assumed to be by the sportsbook operator. It is denoted with an O or a U depending on how you’re going to bet, as it’s also called an over/under bet.
For example, when the Cowboys played the Colts and the total score combined between the two teams was 30 points, yet you think it will be a high-scoring game, you can bet that it would be 50+ points. That means if it’s 50 or above, you’ll win the bet. The same goes if you think it will be under a certain amount.
This bet can be broken down by how much the total score combined will be in a half or quarter or simply bet for the specific point totals of each team. There’s a bigger juice on these than point spread bets, and that is around -120 on average.
Prop bet: This type of bet is focused on one player and how they do. For example, in basketball, it can be the number of points that an individual would score, or in football, it could be how many yards they gained. It can vary per sport and odds.
Futures bet: This is a longer-term bet. Instead of betting on each individual outcome of a game, you bet on the team to win a specific league or division or even a conference. You can bet on anything future-wise, such as which players win awards at season end or if these players hit certain statistics for the season. This type of betting may be restricted depending on what each state regulates, as they may be considered subjective trophy awards and not fair sports betting options.
Where can I learn more?
If you want to make sure you’re as informed as possible about sports betting, you’ll want to better understand sports statistics. Although past performance is never an indicator of future performance, the figures could at the least help paint a picture of how a team performs in certain conditions.
- For Football: Take a look at Football Outsiders or Pro Football Focus, as well as Bill Connelly’s overview of college football and some key statistics.
- For College Basketball: consider Erik Haslam, B HYPERLINK “https://barttorvik.com/”a HYPERLINK “https://barttorvik.com/”rt HYPERLINK “https://barttorvik.com/”Torvik, or Ken Pomeroy and the sites that they run with good data points.
- For Baseball: This is the go-to reference point for anyone who is considering baseball wagering.
- For Hockey: Natural Stat Trick and MoneyPuck are perfect entry points into the world of hockey.
Some final notes for Novice Bettors
First, understand that every bet could be one you lose your money on, so gamble responsibly. Also, don’t pay anyone else to decide your picks for you; that’s the fastest way to get scammed and lose your money without even placing a sports bet.
When you first start out – look for the sign-up offerings from sports book operators online, and see which ones tend to give more favorable odds. Shopping around doesn’t hurt.
