Sports betting. It is something that is becoming more and more of a cultural phenomenon in the United States.
That is because the popularity of it is growing and it is expected to continue to grow for the next decade. Last year, the sports betting market was valued at around $76 billion. By the end of the decade, the value is expected to be around $167 billion.
If you are new to sports betting, then you need to make sure that you understand everything before you start betting on games. One part of this is understanding betting odds.
What are sports betting odds? How many different types of odds in sports betting are there? What are the best betting odds to bet on?
This is your guide.
Understanding Betting Odds
So, before we can tell you all of the different scenarios where you can place bets on sports betting odds, you need to understand what these are. Basically, sports betting odds are the chances of a certain outcome happening in a sporting event.
These can change leading up to the game. Most bets on the odds are made before a game begins. However, you do have the option on betting live odds in the middle of a game at some sportsbooks.
There are several different ways that you can place bets on sports betting odds. Here are some of the most common ways that people do it.
Point Spread Odds
The first kind of odds that you need to be aware of are point spread odds. This is the likelihood of your side of the bet covering the spread.
Odds here can vary greatly depending on the sport that you want to bet a point spread on. For example, if you are betting on a point spread in a higher scoring sport such as football or basketball, the betting odds here are likely going to be irrelevant.
Most of the time, you can expect to see odds around -110 on these point spreads. That means that you have to bet $110 to win $100.
Because so many points get scored in games of these sports, you are not likely going to have the odds on these points spreads vary too much.
However, it is a different story in sports like baseball, hockey, and soccer. These sports have games with much more limited scoring, so it could be more lucrative to bet on a point spread here.
An example could be if the New York Mets are favorites by 1.5 runs over the Miami Marlins. Most baseball games are going to have run spreads with lines around this.
However, the betting odds may vary depending on who is pitching. If the Mets have a pitcher like Max Scherzer on the mound for them, the odds may be a little lower here.
Still, you could see a positive return on your bet. They may have +135 betting odds as a favorite. That means that you can win $135 on this if you bet $100.
However, underdogs are harder to get a good profit on in this situation. The Marlins may have odds of around -150 to cover. So, you would have to bet $150 to win $100.
Moneyline Odds
Next, you have the ability to bet odds based on the moneyline. This type of bet is you thinking that a team is going to win a game outright.
Moneyline odds tend to vary more than point spreads. This is because there can be lopsided games here where one team is a heavy favorite.
So, if one team is viewed as significantly better than the other, you are going to have really expensive odds on the favorite and very reasonable prices for the underdog.
Let’s use football as an example. The Buffalo Bills could be viewed as one of the best teams in the NFL and they are home for a game against the New York Jets.
Here, not many people would give the Jets a chance to win the game outright. They may give the Jets +300 odds of winning the game and give the Bills -500 odds of winning the game.
That means that you have to spend $500 on the Bills to win $100 and $100 on the Jets to win $300. In this situation, you should stay away from betting on the favorite. You may view it as easy money, but you could end up losing a lot more money in the event of an upset.
Moneyline odds favor the bold and those that can smell an upset coming. A recent example in college football was when Marshall went on the road to face Notre Dame.
They were underdogs by more than 20 points, so that was a much safer bet to win than having Marshall win the game outright. Marshall had +800 to beat Notre Dame outright in that game. They ended up winning the game.
So, if you bet on the Marshall moneyline there, you would have won $800 off of a $100 bet.
Over/Under Odds
Another type of bet with betting odds is the over/under in a game. This is the total amount of points that you think will be scored in a game.
Here, you have the option of betting over or under the amount that is proposed. Because all of these over/unders accommodate the sport that they are in, there is generally not a lot of high betting odds on an over/under bet.
For most of these, you will likely see odds around the -110 range. So, you are essentially betting slightly more money to get the money you want out of these.
An example can be the over/under of a Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos game being 35 points. To bet on either more than 35 points or fewer than 35 points being scored combined by these teams, the odds would likely be around -110.
Futures Odds
The next type of odds that you may see people bet on is futures odds. This is when someone bets on an event in a sports season that is going to happen a long time from now.
Generally, this will be the championship or a conference championship in any given season. Other things that people can bet on here is which player is going to win a major golf tournament, what player will win the Most Valuable Player in any given sport, what player will win Rookie of the Year, and more.
Here, these futures odds are showing you how much of a chance that a team or player is being given to win an award. So, the favorite will have the least profit from betting on them and the projected worst team would have the biggest reward.
Because there is a large group of teams or players vying for these titles, all of them are very likely to have positive odds. This means that you are likely going to win more money in profit than you placed for the bet.
Let’s take a look at some of the 2023 Super Bowl odds as an example. At the time of writing, the Buffalo Bills have +500 odds to win the Super Bowl and are the favorites to do so. That means even by picking the favorite, you can win $500 off of a $100 bet.
Then, you have a team like the New York Jets. They are one of the least likely teams to win the Super Bowl and have +25000 odds to do so. This means that you can win $25,000 off of a $100 bet!
Some people may choose to go for high reward here, while others are willing to take less profit for a more probable outcome.
Parlay Odds
If you want to make things really interesting, you can bet on parlays to get your sports betting odds fix. This is when you are combining multiple bets on to one ticket.
The catch here is that when you do this, every bet on the ticket has to win or you do not win anything.
However, when it comes to betting odds, that aspect makes the reward for winning much higher. For $100, you win about $260 on a 2-team parlay.
The amount increases as you add legs to a parlay. A 3-team parlay can get you $600 off of a $100 bet. A 4-team parlay can get you $1,100 on the same bet.
If you really want to get crazy, you can do a 10-team parlay and win $72,000 by placing a $100 bet on that!
Sometimes, parlay odds can be greater than this if you are combining highly improbable outcomes together. An example is this fan who won $579,000 off of a $20 bet.
The fan guessed the exact score of two football games and combined them into a 2-leg parlay. The odds of that happening were +2895000.
Shopping for Odds
Now that you know what the main types of bets you can make on odds are, it is time for a tip that can help you get better odds. Shop around and look at multiple sportsbooks.
This can help you maximize your profit potential and get friendlier wagers because of it. This can be especially crucial when it comes to betting on point spreads.
That is because in higher scoring sports like football and basketball, it has an impact on whether or not you cover a spread.
In football, let’s say that the Green Bay Packers are favorite by 9.5 points against the Chicago Bears in the first sportsbook that you look at. However, they are favorite by 10.5 points in the second sportsbook that you see.
If you want to bet on the Bears, you should use the second sportsbook. That gives you a better chance of covering the spread. So, if the Packers win by 10 points, you would cover.
Shopping for odds can also help you get more profit on larger odds such as futures bets. For the Super Bowl, there is one sportsbook that offers the Buffalo Bills at +450 while the majority are at +500. So, it would be wise to avoid that first sportsbook.
Do your research and keep up with multiple sportsbooks. See BMR’s best offshore sportsbooks for more details there.
What Are the Best Odds?
So, you know several different types of odds in sports betting now, plus you are aware that you need to shop around for better odds. So, the question is, what odds should you be betting?
While it is tempting to throw $5 on the New York Jets with their current future odds, if you do this for too many teams that are longshots, you are likely going to lose money in the long run.
Good odds to bet on would be the favorite in a point spread in a lower scoring sport such as baseball. Here, you would get positive odds, likely getting about $150 back for every $100 that you bet.
It may be a good idea to bet on the moneyline for an underdog that you think is going to pull off an upset against a favorite. Then, you can get around $800 for betting on teams like Marshall to go to Notre Dame and beat them.
Start Betting on Sports
This is the information that you need when it comes to understanding betting odds. You need to know what types of bets that you can make and what the best ideas are for taking advantage of these odds.
So, look for an underdog in a moneyline. Do not be afraid to stick your neck out for a future bet. Or, maybe you want to bet on the Yankees winning by two runs?
Now, you have the information that you need to place those bets. For more relevant content, see our Sports section.
Be First to Comment