How To Understand Sports Odds

Sports betting is becoming the new favorite past time of people after they come home from work. For this reason, many people are spending their hard earned cash either online or at the casino, in order to turn such a huge profit, that they no longer need a nine to five job. With this in mind, one of the biggest mistakes that new bettors make, is they do not understand the value of sports odds. Today, we’ll be looking at how to understand the odds and where the odds can be in your favor or avoided.

Firstly, to understand the odds, you have to understand how a moneyline is made. Essentially, a moneyline requires that the bookie software sportsbook place a minus in front of teams favored and a plus sign in front of underdogs. A minus sign means, that in order to bet on the favorite, you have to risk more to get back less. Conversely, a plus sign requires that you bet less to get back more. Here is an example.

New York Giants +140

New England Patriots – 180

In this example, the Giants are the underdog, as depicted by the plus sign, while the Patriots are the favorite represented by a minus sign. To bet on the Giants, you only have to risk $100 to get back $140. Conversely, to get back a profit on the Patriots, you need to risk $180 to get back $100.

Although it sounds simple, the moneyline can be very confusing. Basically, many sportsbooks offer the moneyline in American or International odds. American odds use the minus and plus system we mentioned earlier. At the same time, the International moneyline uses a decimal system to depict the favorite and the underdog. For all intents and purposes use the American moneyline odds, as it is more straightforward.

Sports Betting Tips: Winning Percentage vs Units Won

When online betting, fans should look towards the units they have won rather than an overall winning percentage as this is a better indicator of profit. Units won calculates the overall profit based on the total number of games they have won. For fans betting on units won you want to look at an overall victory total instead of your winning percentage each day. If you end 150 wagers with a 55 percent winning percentage you have won 83 units and lost 67. Yet if you are looking at each day’s individual winning percentage you are likely to bet higher and higher in an attempt to inflate your winning percentage.

The sports enthusiast with the mentality of winning 55 percent overall is using the units won mentality in that you should have a lot of volume in order to accumulate a smaller overall profit. In sports such as hockey and baseball, this school of betting is the best route to follow when wanting to make an overall profit. To come out with a 55 percent winning total in the sports betting world is a quite successful mentality.

Conversely, the 60 percent expectation for winning percentage, works better in a sport such as football or the NCAA March Madness tournament in which there is a select amount of games. For football it is likely to win 60 percent of the games if you bet the favorites in a 16 game season. Sportsbooks become affective in this school of gambling, as most offer highly favorable lines for smaller amounts of games.

For fans that enjoy watching baseball as we previously mentioned the units won mentality can allow you to make a profit in the long run. Here you accept that you may lose but overall know that you will come out with an above 500 win percentage. In football conversely if you lose seven games you can’t make a profit.

Sports Betting 101: The Basics

In the world of online sports betting, all of the options can be quite overwhelming for fans looking to test their trade. However today betting fans we have two concepts to get you through those scary times and become the ultimate sports bettor. These two concepts can be used in all four major sports in North America and in European football. Today we look at how understanding point spreads and totals can be the difference between success and a onetime betting experience.

1.      Point Spreads – Initially when the major sports leagues were first created at the end of the 19^th century, fans were strapped to the money line wager. As a result, many bookies at the time were unable to spread out the wagers evenly as the majority of fans would bet the favorite. Years later in the 1960s, bookies began creating point spreads for basketball and football games in which fans could bet the underdog to at least cover when they lost. By doing so, the bookies were able to balance out the wagers and pay everyone. Here is what a point spread looks like in both football and basketball.

Example:

Bills +3
Bengals – 7

In order to win your point spread bets if you bet the Bills you need them to lose by a minimum of three points or win outright. While to win for the favorite you need them to win by a minimum of seven points.

2.      O/U Totals – Totals makes the world go around in the world of sports gambling. In essence, totals cover all four major sports as well as the European sports such as soccer football and rugby. As a new bettor how totals betting works is that a bookie or sportsbook will set potential total combined points for two teams in a certain game. Your job as the bettor is to guess whether the total points will be above or below what the bookie predicted. It’s as simple as that. Here is an example in Soccer

Man City
Liverpool
O/U 5

Final Score 1: Man City 0 Liverpool 1

The total predicted was five goals between the two squads, however to win when the total went under you need the final to be four goals or less. In this case Liverpool scored the only goal which made fans betting the under a winner. Conversely if you bet the over you would have needed the score to be totaled at six or more goals.

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.

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