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.

Sports Betting 101: How To Bet A Parlay

If you’re betting NFL odds for the upcoming 2010 season, you’re going to want to pay attention as parlays may be the best way for you to make a major online betting score.  It’s not going to be easy, but if you play your odds right, you can use parlays to pull off a massive sports betting win at your favorite sportsbook.

With parlays, you have to bet on multiple games, but unlike teasers, you are not allowed to move the lines in any direction.  Essentially, with each game you add to your parlay, the odds will go against you as you need to win all games in your parlay to pay out for the whole thing.  For example, a three-team parlay may offer 6-1 odds, but a six-team parlay would offer 40-1 odds, and a 10-team parlay would offer 600-1 odds.  This is a true test of your sports and sports betting knowledge as it’s tough enough to win one game, much less three, or six.

But if you’re in this game for the ultimate risk/reward, parlays are the way to go.  You could play it safe, but where’s the fun in that?  You have to spend money to make money, and with parlays, you can double or triple your winnings in a heartbeat.  As we said, it’s not going to be easy and you’ll have to do your homework, but a winning parlay could make your sports betting account very happy.

The Basics Of Betting Over/Under

Football fans betting for the first time, should know that there are three main forms of betting on matchups. These three types of bets include, the point spread, money lines and the over/ under bet. Of the three NFL bets, the point spread is the most popular form of wager, followed by the money line, with only the true expert bettor using the over and under as the wager of their choice.

Fundamentally, the over under is a wager determined by a sportsbook in which the bookmaker predicts the total number of points scored in a game. Patrons then wager on the total being higher also known as over or lower also known as under, the predicted score by the sportsbook. For instance, during the 2009 Super Bowl game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, many predicted the score would total out to be 50. As it turns out the Steelers won the game 27 to 23, totaling 50, meaning that the sportsbook won rather than the patrons. However, if the score had been 27-21 or 27-30, fans betting under or over would have won the bets.

Aside from the total of games, other factors that can come into play for the over under bets, includes the point total of an individual basketball player, the total amount of rushing yards in a single game for a running back and in baseball, a player or teams total number of home runs. For example, a sportsbook could predict that Adrian Peterson will rush for 200 yards and the line would read

O/U 200 – Adrian Peterson

Leading up to the game for fans betting on Peterson to go over or under the line, for every large bet, the line will read either

O/U 200.5 – Adrian Peterson
or
O/U 199.5- Adrian Peterson

« Previous Page — Next Page »