After 26 years of being banned across the US, sports betting was finally legalized by the Supreme Court on May 14, 2018. Since then, sports betting has not only had a resurgence in most states but is becoming more popular than ever, in large part thanks to online sportsbooks.
Nowadays, sports betting is legal in over 30 states, with more expected to join them soon. Granted, different states have different rules, with some allowing for online sports betting but not in-person betting and others doing the opposite. So, if you’re looking to get into sports betting, your first step should be to figure out your local laws and what your options are.
The second step, of course, is to get familiar with the basics of sports betting so that you know what you’re doing. Otherwise, throwing random bets would be no different from wagering real money on games of chance, like slots or roulette — you can find plenty of real money slot games available right now if that’s more your style. So, here’s a quick beginner’s guide to sports betting.
What Are the Main Terms in Sports Betting?
Sports betting can be daunting at first, as it includes many different terms, such as moneylines, spreads, juice, parleys, and props. These can seem confusing at first, but once you figure out which is which, the rest becomes quite clear.
1. Favorites, Underdogs, Moneylines, Spreads, and Odds
The first thing oddsmakers do is determine which team or player in a specific game is the favorite and which is the underdog. The favorite is marked with a minus sign next to its odds, and the underdog with a plus. This choice informs all the numbers you see when you open a sportsbook. Spreads and moneylines are the next two terms to figure out. These are the two basic types of bets you can place on a game.
A moneyline bet is straightforward, as it merely requires you to pick a winner between the two teams or players. This type of bet uses American odds, which are centered around winning or betting $100. Here’s how this works:
- If you bet on the favorite (with a minus next to the odds), the number you see is the sum you need to bet to win $100.
- If you bet on the underdog (with a plus next to the odds), the number you see is the sum you can win if you bet $100.
So, if the odds for a particular game are -250 for the favorite and +200 for the underdog, you’d need to bet $250 on the favorite to win $100, or you can win $200 if you bet $100 on the underdog.
Spread bets work on a similar principle. However, with these you’re not betting on who will win the game but what the point spread will be. For example, if the favorite has odds of -6.5 and the underdog has odds of +6.5, this means that you will either:
- Win if you’ve bet on the favorite, and they have won by seven or more goals/points.
- Win if you’ve bet on the underdog, and they either win or lose by six or fewer goals/points.
Spread bets are more common in high-scoring sports, such as basketball. Their goal is to make the betting more interesting in games with obvious favorites and underdogs, as it’s rarely surprising who the winner is.
2. Juice
Simply put, the juice is the margin the sportsbook builds into the odds to ensure it always makes a profit. In the above examples, the juice is the difference between giving -250 odds for the favorite and +200 odds for the underdog. If the sportsbook gives -250/+250 odds instead, that’d be “more fair” for the bettors, but the sportsbook won’t make a profit.
3. Totals or Over/Unders
Totals, also known as over/unders, are a different type of bet that has nothing to do with predicting who the winner of a certain game will be. Instead, over/unders aim to predict how many goals or points the two teams or players are going to score. For example, you might see over/under bets of 44+ in an NFL game or 190+ in a basketball game.
These bets are great if you know the sport well and want to make a profit. Is the game a must-win for both teams? A bet on over seems likely in that case. If the game is less significant and is about to be played in bad weather, however, a bet on under might be wiser.
4. Parleys and Props
Parleys and props are other types of bets that have become increasingly popular recently. With parleys, you’re linking several bets together to increase the winnings you’d make from each one. In doing so, however, you also tie the risks of each bet, meaning that if even one of the several bets in the parley loses, they are all counted as a loss.
Props, on the other hand, are any bet that isn’t tied to the moneyline, total, or spread of a particular game. These include bets such as how many (as in over/under) assists a player is going to make, how many strikeouts or touchdowns there will be, and so on. The term “props” comes from “proposition bets.”
Do You Need to Read Books or Do Your Own Research to Play and Win?
Once you understand the basics above, you’ll be ready to start having fun and potentially even making money. For many, that’s more than enough, as that’s what sports betting is supposed to be – a fun hobby. If you want to take it to the next level and make sure you can turn a consistent profit out of sports betting, you’d do well to prepare a bit more extensively. This typically includes stuff such as:
- Reading a few in-depth books on sports betting.
- Researching the most minute specifics, team news, player stats, and even weather forecasts for the sports you plan to bet on.
- Looking for different lines across different sportsbooks to find the most lucrative odds.
- Focusing on smaller games and more niche prop and parley bets, for which the sportsbook hasn’t skewed the odds as much as for larger games (usually because those get the most bets).
Putting some effort into it can significantly increase the long-term profitability of your sports betting hobby. That way, even though you’ll still lose occasionally, you’ll win more often than not, which is rarely true for other types of gambling. Keep in mind that such “advanced” methods also take a lot of time, which can turn your hobby into a side work gig. So, many people prefer to just stick to the basics and bet low sums for fun every weekend without investing hours of research every week.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, despite all its complicated terminology, sports betting is quite simple in principle. Once you figure out and remember the basic terms, the rest comes down to knowing the sport you’ll be betting on and doing proper research before you start putting money down. If you are new to this, our final and main advice would be to start small until you get the hang of things.
It can be tempting to drop a large sum of money on a game you feel confident about, and it can definitely feel great if you win. However, the smart way to go about this is to start small and see how well you’re doing, which types of bets are stronger for you, and where you can improve. Once you’re sure you’re consistently making a profit, it could be a good idea to up your bets.