5 Tips To Choosing An Online Sportsbook

One of the most difficult decisions online bettors can make is to choose the right sportsbook. Over the last 20 years, the betting industry has grown from a handful of books to over 1000. As a result fans new to betting online have a wide variety to choose from. Here are five reasons you should factor into your decision the next time you decide to join a new sportsbook.

1.      Financial Status – The financial status of the given sportsbook is the most significant factor you should consider before making your initial deposit. For every sportsbook that ranks among the top 10 in the industry there are 100s that have flopped because of financial trouble. One of the biggest issues in the industry, are sportsbooks promising quick payouts, then getting into financial trouble and using the deposits to pay off their debt rather than payout to the clientele. For the majority of online sportsbooks that have been around for the last 20 years, their biggest reason for success is stability as their finances is never an issue.

2.      Bonus Programs – For the new bettors this is your second biggest factor in joining a new sportsbook. Bonuses are essentially the free money the sportsbook offers you either for winning a target amount or to welcome you to the sportsbook. The majority of sportsbooks offer a 20 percent bonus for joining and 25 percent bonus for referring your friends. However sportsbooks such as betonline.com offer a 45 percent bonus for joining and up to $900 when in total bonus money. Before you join shop around for the best deposit bonuses and free plays.

3.      Wagering – Too many times have we seen sportsbooks that make wagering more difficult than it has to be. One would think, your goal as a sportsbook is to make the clients ability to wager as easy as possible. Most sportsbooks looking to keep you as a customer have started to employ simple to use software, which allows for the patrons to test out the site prior to making an actual wager.

4.      Betting Options – As a bettor you want three things, stable sports book, bonuses and a lot of betting options. In the early days having more than 10 betting line options used to be the difference between casual and experienced bettors joining the site. Now for the most part you are able to have over 100 betting options for any given sport on specific sites. So shop around for the betting options you feel the most comfortable with.

5.      Simplicity Of Making Transactions – As noted above with shady financial status, one of the biggest problems used to be that sportsbooks would let you deposit no problem, however withdrawing was harder than it should have been. Two things you should know is that in North America you are better off using a site such as PayPal or a money wire transfer rather than a credit card as online gambling is illegal in most areas. In Europe on the contrary most sportsbooks will take credit cards PayPal and so forth as gambling is legal.

Sports Betting 101: Understanding Moneylines

Those just starting to bet on NCAA football should be aware that you don’t just have to bet on spreads.  The moneyline is just as easy to bet on, although it looks scary if you’re just beginning in the online sports betting game.

In moneylines, the favorite is denoted by a minus (-), while the underdog is denoted by a plus (+).  Now that you know that, this is how a matchup would look, for example:

Miami (+130) at Florida State (-160)

If you’re looking to bet on the Hurricanes on the road, you’re going to bet on $100 to win $130 for the underdog.  On the other hand, if you’re betting on the Seminoles at home, you’re going to have to bet $160 to win $100.

Moneylines are mostly used in sports where the point spread doesn’t really matter, like baseball, boxing and tennis.  Spread betting is much more prevalent in football, but moneyline betting is making gains in the sports betting industry.  It’s really no easier or tougher for players to bet on moneylines rather than spreads.  They’re really just a chance to give sports betting players another option, or different way to bet, in their favorite sportsbook.  It’s also a way for sportsbooks to try and balance the amount of action on both sides of a match.

Get some practice with moneylines and don’t bet crazy amounts until you’re comfortable with the moneyline system.  If you get it right and make a big underdog sports bet, you could make a killing.

Sports Betting 101: Understanding Totals

NCAA football betting players will see some outlandish totals in the first week of the college football season, and that’s because you’ll usually get a lot of top-25 teams who pay D-II schools to come in and basically help them run a glorified practice.  But what are totals and what are they all about?

Totals, or over/unders as you’ll hear them referred to, is simply the amount of points both teams will score during the run of a game.  Totals are one of the toughest things to gauge, and most people think that it’s less difficult to wager on totals than the spread, but they’re wrong.  Imagine your team is up 49-3 with a minute left, and the total is 53.  Your team is likely going to run the clock out, which leaves you one point less than the over/under.  If you bet on the over, you’re going to lose.  It can all come down to a late field goal, or a last-minute interception, and it can all go downhill in garbage time, where points can be put up like mad, or both second units are too inept to score points.

Totals are a fun thing to bet on for people who really don’t care about the outcome of the game, but they want to spice it up a bit.  Chances are, if you see someone crying over a late missed field goal that had no effect on the final score, they’ve probably bet on the totals in their best online sportsbook.

Sports Betting 101: How To Bet Teasers

With NFL betting coming up very quickly, players should get used to the different types of bets they can make, and here, we’re going to talk about teasers and why you should bet them.

Teasers are sort of like parlays in that you have to bet on a number of games to make a profit, and you have to get all of them correct or else the bet is lost.  However, the major difference between a parlay and a teaser is that with a teaser, you’re allowed to move the line to suit your wager.  The catch is that with each half-point you move the line, your payout will be smaller.  Essentially, the more help you need, the less money you get.

Teasers may actually be good to start off with before you move to parlays as it gives you a little bit of wiggle room in terms of the line.  This is especially good if you’re just starting in the sports betting game, and are looking to figure out the best way to bet on NFL football.  You can also use teasers for the upcoming basketball season, and the system is the same.  Try out a couple of teasers over the first two or three weeks of the NFL season, and by Week 5, you’ll be moving on parlays in no time to maximize your winnings.  Teasers are a good teaching tool, but you’re not going to pull off any big online betting paydays with these.

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