With sports betting becoming an increasingly growing trend, we wanted to highlight the most popular bets you should know about to win big! Read on to learn about the common types and their similarities and differences.
1. Moneyline Bets
A moneyline bet is often known to be the easiest and simplest bet to learn about.
It’s as simple as this: you predict which team (or athlete in individual sports like tennis) will win a game. If you’re right, you’ll make a profit. But, if you’re wrong and bet on the wrong team or athlete, you’ll lose the bet, and money.
With odds, there is always an underdog and a favorite. You can spot the favorites on a chart as they are represented by a triple-digit number and a (-) symbol, while the underdogs are represented with a (+) plus sign.
The number next to the favorite (-) symbol tells you how much you need to wager to win $100. With underdogs, the number next to the (+) symbol tells you how much you win if you bet $100.
EXAMPLE OF ODDS
For example, before a game, the underdogs will show odds of +175 or similar to that. while the favorite to win the game will show odds with a minus sign in front of it, like -200.
In this scenario, f you placed $100 on the underdogs and they win, you would’ve made a profit of $175.
But, if you bet on the favorite in this scenario, you would’ve needed to put $200 on the favorites to make a profit of $100.
2. Point Spread
Point spread betting asks you to predict whether a team will win by or lose within a certain margin of points.
Point spread bets have American odds but also another number with a (+) or (-) symbol. With the (-), this is the number of points a team must win by for you to win your wager.
The number represented next to the (+) symbol tells you how many points a team can lose by for your bet to succeed. The underdog can also win, and your wager will still come through.
So, if you take the Golden State Warriors and they are listed at -9.5 and the Memphis Grizzlies are +9.5, if you wager or bet on the Memphis Grizzlies, you will ONLY win if the Grizzlies win the game outright or lose by 10 points or less. because they are the underdog. But, a Warrior’s bettor must see the team win by more than 10 points.
3. Parlays
Think of a parlay as a bet where you can bet on a series of games and you must win all to win. So, a parlay (also referred to as an accumulator) is a combination of many wagers into one single bet. To win, each wager, must come through for you to win a parlay.
Parlays are considered to be riskier than betting on each game individually, but you also get better odds. In addition, you can wager on more events with one stake.
For example, you could wager on the San Francisco 49ers to beat the Dallas Cowboys, the LA Rams to beat the Arizona Cardinals, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in a parlay bet.
5. Prop Bets
A prop bet is a wager that doesn’t determine the final score, but instead it predicts something may or may not contribute to the result of the game.
Example: a prop bet could be placed on individual players to score touchdowns. Touchdowns contribute to the final score, but the players that score the points do not.
5. Over/Under
With an over/under bet, the sportsbook sets a total (number set by oddsmakers) for a particular statistic. You then predict whether the result will be over or under that number.
A sportsbook could offer a total of 220 for a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks You win if you choose the over and the teams score more than 220 points combined.
It doesn’t matter which team scores the points, as long as the final amount matches your prediction. You’ll also find over/under bets for markets like passing yards or 3-pointers.