Sports Gambling 101: Everything You Need to Know About Betting On Sports

David Banks
Authored by David Banks
Posted Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - 5:06am

As sports pick back up again, so too does sports gambling. The two go hand-in-hand thanks to the nature of rooting for your favorite sports teams while also trying to win some money.

But getting started with sports gambling can be tricky and you don't want to just go around throwing away money.

Here are the sports gambling basics to get you started.

Understanding Favorites and Underdogs

Before you can even start betting on sports, you need to understand basic concepts. The concept of favorites and underdogs are pretty straight forward.

A favorite is a team that everyone expects to win based on their performance over the years and season.

An underdog is a team that the people expect to lose based on their performance and season.

Now, this gets tricky when you have to really great teams and two really bad teams. It can make choosing which is all that much more difficult.

For those looking to get free sports picks, be sure to click the link.

Understanding Spreads

Spreads are the more complicated way of betting but are more prominent thanks to their risk vs reward. A favorite will "give" points because they are expected to win, and thus have to win by a heftier margin to win money.

An underdog will "get" points, where they have to win by less to win the bet.

If the Rams are playing the Steelers, you may have a 10-point(-10) favorite for the Steelers against the Rams. This means the Steelers have to beat the Rams by at least 11 points for you to win money, and only 10 points to get your money back.

Understanding Moneylines

Moneylines are the traditional way of betting. It is solely based on who wins the game and is more oriented towards how much money is in the pool.

If you want to bet on a favorite, you'll have to risk more money to win money in the first place, because the favorite is already expected to win. If your team is -200, this means you have to win, you have to minimally bet $200 to hopefully win that back plus $100.

If you bet on an underdog, you typically have to risk less because the team is favored to lose. So if your team is +100, this means if you bet $100, you can expect to win $100 on top of that if your team wins.

There will never be straight even numbers like 100 or 200, they will typically be -215 or +119. This is the cut the sportsbook takes on to make a profit for themselves. Keep this number in mind when betting, because it will impact how much you have to put down.

Sports Gambling: Bringing More Fun to the Fans

As America continues to legalize sports gambling, we can look to increase the number of people interested in taking on the risk to show support for their favorite teams. Betting on sports can make a fun past time with friends and can even help you create your own little booking.

If you want to learn more about sports and the world, be sure to check out our other articles. If you have friends that you think should start betting with you, be sure to share this article with them.

 

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