Sports Betting

 

Sports Betting

Sports betting is a phenomenon that has been around nearly as long as sporting events themselves. Today, sports betting is a multi-billion dollar industry that ranges from casual, friend-to-friend bets on major events like the Superbowl to highly organized, high stakes bets at live and online sportsbooks. Organized sports betting is popular in markets around the world, and especially in the gambling mecca of Las Vegas. Sports bettors are typically experts in the sport in which they're betting, and a number of betting strategies have been developed to help prospective sports bettors gain an edge.

History of Sports Betting

Although forms of disorganized sports betting have been around for centuries, the first organized sports betting dates back to the 18th century, when individuals began to bet on horse racing. Initially, horse race betting was exclusive to the upper class. Within a brief time, people from all walks of life began to partake in sports betting. In 1921, sports betting began to include football as well, particularly in England. Sports betting on football was later popularized in Sweden in 1934, and in post-World War II Germany as a means of bolstering the economy.

Today, sports betting is a 63 billion dollar per year industry that has largely moved online, although there are still plenty of brick-and-mortar sports betting rooms in Las Vegas and around the world. Websites like Bwin, Betfair, Bodog, and Sportsbook are bringing comprehensive sports betting technologies to people around the world. Despite the fact that sports betting is illegal in most American states, it's estimated that one in four Americans will place a bet on a sporting event each year.

Sports Betting Appeal

As with any form of gambling, the primary appeal of sports betting is the proposition of making money (and potentially a lot of it) by wagering on something in which you don't have direct control of the outcome. Of course, sports bettors have created an array of strategies to try and increase their odds, and teams and players have been bought off by sports bettors in the past. However, a sports bettor is still essentially seeking to make money off of something that they aren't participating in directly.

Part of the joy of sports betting comes from making yourself an expert within the sport and betting market you'd like to wager in and knowing that your odds of winning can be better than 50/50, unlike most casino games where the house can have a significant edge. Of course, with greater power comes greater responsibility, and the sports bettor who enters the game without any knowledge of its participants will often leave empty handed. Being successful at sports betting requires hard work, dedication, and expert knowledge of betting strategies and the sports themselves.

Sports Betting Wager Types

If you're unfamiliar with sports betting, you'll probably be quickly overwhelmed by jargon and terminology if you immediately jump into a serious online sports betting site such as Betfair. Fortunately, by memorizing a few different types of bets, you can quickly become an expert (or at least stop feeling like you've walked into an upper level calculus classroom).

The two most basic types of bets in sports betting are the back bet and the lay bet. If you place a back bet on a certain competitor or team, you're betting that that entity will win the game or match. If you place a lay bet on a competitor, you're betting that that competitor will lose. Lay bets are obviously more common in games with multiple competitors than they are in a game with only two, such as a football or tennis match.

Proposition bets are wagers on a more specific outcome. For example, you could bet on how many touchdowns a quarterback will throw in an American football game, or how many goals a hockey player will score in hockey game. Proposition bets can be very specific. For example, you could bet that a running back for one football team will gain more yards than the other team's running back.

A parlay is a combination of multiple wagers combined with a bet that all of the original wagers will win. For example, you might bet that Syracuse, Kentucky, Michigan, and UCLA will win their games in the first round of the NCAA tournament. If any of these teams lose, you'll lose the entire parlay bet. However, if all four teams win, you'll receive a substantially larger payout (commonly ten times larger in a four team bet). A progressive parlay is similar, except that it allows you to lose some of your orignal bets and still win the overall progressive parlay. The tradeoff is that the payout ratio isn't as lucrative.

Future wagers are long term bets that could extend for weeks or even months. You might bet that a baseball team will have a winning record in an upcoming season, or bet that a certain football team will win the Superbowl before the season even starts. Because these bets are often more difficult to predict correctly and win, they usually have a higher payout ratio.

Head-to-head bets are a special type of proposition bet in which you wager on the results of individual competitors within a larger event. For example, in a horse race, you might bet that one horse will finish faster than two of the other horses without actually betting that a certain horse will win the race.

Examples of Sports Betting Markets

In the sports betting world, a "market" refers to a certain type of event that you can bet on. Examples of these markets include:

American Football
Basketball
Baseball
Boxing
Cycling
Cricket
Darts
Football
Floorball
Fishing
Golf
Greyhound Racing
Hockey
Horse Racing
Handball
Ice Hockey
Motor Sports and Racing
Martial Arts
Rugby
Rowing
Tennis
Winter Sports
Volleyball

Many online sports betting sites allow you to bet on other events as well, such as poker, backgammon, stock markets, and more.

Sports Betting Strategy

Although the intricacies of sports betting and the "best" strategies can be incredibly complicated, basic sports betting strategies are actually quite simple. In general, you'll want to bet on competitors that have better odds of winning. Odds are not secret; rather, sportsbooks and betting websites are happy to indicate the odds of any given outcome to bettors before any wagers are made. Some sites use decimal odds, while others use fractions. If you see a decimal of 2.00 or a fraction of 1/1, this is an indication of even odds.

Of course, upsets occur all of the time in sports, and plenty of bets are placed on teams that have relatively even chances of winning in the first place. As a sports bettor, your best basic strategy is to become an expert in a given sport and gain the ability to place back bets for underdogs wisely. Obviously, you'll receive a larger payout if you correctly pick an upset as opposed to correctly picking a heavily favored team.

A slightly more complex sports betting strategy is known as trading. With this strategy, you'll make two opposing bets on a single outcome. However, in order to be profitable, you'll need to make a back bet when the outcome's odds are high, and a lay bet when the outcome's odds are lower. Sports betting websites offer charts and graphs that allow you to looks for trends in odds. If you see an outcome on a steady decline, place a back bet early and wait for the odds to drop before placing the lay bet.


As with any form of gambling, sports betting is not something that should be taken lightly. While it's possible to make an enormous amount of money through sports betting, it's also possible to lose the same amount. This holds true even for expert sports bettors. If you're interested in trying out sports betting, it's advisable to make some small wagers as you develop your own strategy and get a feel for whichever sports betting website you choose.

 

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