Sports betting is enjoyed by millions worldwide. The act of predicting the outcome of a professional sports fixture and staking cash on a forecast allows bettors to become financially involved in the result. Watching live football, soccer, or horse racing from the venue or live on television is great fun. But it can’t beat the excitement and drama of using your knowledge to call the winner, often before the start of play.
Picture the scene; you’re sitting at home watching the Super Bowl with friends and fancy one team strongly. They aren’t the betting favorites, and a competitive game is expected, but you’re confident in your selection. You join an online sportsbook, predict the result, and add your stake. If your team wins, you bank the profits that appear in your balance shortly after the result, but if your team loses, the bookie keeps your stake.
Anyone can gamble on major sports events, like the Super Bowl, English Premier League, and the Kentucky Derby, but it takes expert knowledge, research, and a keen eye for sports to bank a winner. But how do you gamble successfully on sports? Understanding how the betting odds work will help you beat the bookies and boost your balance.
Understanding Gambling Odds: We’ve Got You Covered
If you’re interested in betting on sports, it's crucial that you understand how gambling odds work. Even if you’re a dedicated bettor with experience gambling on professional sports competitions, reviewing and improving your understanding of betting odds could help you land more winners.
This article can help both as we cater to all bettors and experiences. We made every effort to ensure this page was accessible and easy to understand, allowing gamblers to research, learn about betting odds, and improve their predictions.
However, understanding the betting odds is just one cog of a sportsbook betting machine, and to be the best, you must understand them all. You must know how to study the stats and trends, know which bookies offer the best odds, and how promotions can increase your chances of winning while reducing the risk to your stake. Still, while betting has many elements, understanding the odds will put you on the fast track to success. We’re here to help get you moving in the right direction.
What can you expect from this article? We explain how to join a sportsbook and land a free bet. Then, we cover basics of betting odds, before moving to the different types of odds, sports, markets, and more. By the end of the page, you’ll be a smarter, better informed, and more successful online gambler, ready to empty your bookmaker’s profits.
Create a Betting Account
Before diving into betting odds and helping readers understand the differences, we’ll quickly remind readers how to create an account. You can visit any respected online bookmaker and browse their platform, but you must have an active online account to gamble, collect promotions, and target profits. Opening a betting account takes just a few minutes, and you do it only once.
- Visit the gambling app you wish to join and click the register button at the top of the homepage before completing the registration form. Provide your name, age, address, and other required information to proceed. Take your time to ensure you provide all the necessary information and it’s accurate. Any errors could delay your account, cause you to miss the welcome bonus, or cause your application to be rejected.
- After completing the registration form, add a username and password, input the bonus code, and decide which payment method works best for you: debit card, e-wallet, or Bitcoin. Make your first deposit of $10 or more, bet on a qualifying sportsbook market, and confirm.
- When your first wager results, you’ll receive a welcome bonus free bet to use on the next game that catches your eye. The free bet tokens equal your first deposit and wager, meaning the more you gamble, the higher your free bet.
Betting Odds Basics
Let’s start with the basics. Betting on a sports fixture is risking cash on your prediction. Call the result and land the profits - it’s as simple as that, but more challenging than it sounds. As any experienced gambler knows, success comes in peaks and troughs, and even professional gamblers enjoy winning streaks and endure periods without a winner. In horse racing, you’re gambling on a horse and jockey to cross the finish line before their rivals, and if betting on a game from the NFL, you’re staking on one team to beat the other.
We’ll use a Premier League fixture involving Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City to keep things simple. It’s one fixture, but you’ll often see similar from the EPL, where the underdogs play at home against a high-flying visitor. Your bookie’s traders must decide how important home advantage is in a game and if that will help the locals gain three points. In this example, Wolves trade at +900, with Man City at -300 and the draw at +450. Those odds show the bookies expect Man City to win and have written off Wolves' chances. Even the draw is deemed a long shot by traders.
When betting on the result, you have an option. Do you follow traders' thinking and back Man City to win at cramped odds? You must increase your stake to get anything worthwhile from an away win at -300, and that’s a risky approach. Do you take a shot at the hosts, hoping home advantage helps carry them past the champions? It's another risky approach, given Wolves’ poor form and their opponent’s winning streak.
Keep your stakes small when betting on the underdogs. Your final choice in the match-betting market is the draw, and although sportsbook gamblers hate betting on a level finish, especially in the United States, the odds make a share worth considering.
Types of Odds 🔢
There are different types of odds, but the three most popular gambling odds are sportsbook, exchange, and the tote. Let's look at all three in more detail, proving their advantages and why some bettors prefer one over the others.
Sportsbook Betting
Consider the examples used in the previous section. A bookmaker’s trading team will preview a game, race, or fight and give each contestant's likelihood and probability of winning. If it’s an NFL game, you’ll have two options: the home win and the away win. If it’s a horse race, you could have multiple selections, and if it’s something like a golf event, there are usually dozens of contenders.
Each runner’s probability translates into odds, and that’s the price offered. The odds are subject to change and often move as they attract attention. The more popular a bet is, the smaller its odds. The bookie will keep a small percentage to themselves, ensuring they earn a profit regardless of the result. Regardless of which team wins, the house takes its cut, but the result determines the size of that profit.
A coin toss in cricket is a good example of how sportsbook betting odds work. You only have two options: heads or tails, and a 50/50 chance means the odds should be evens on heads and evens for tails. But the odds you often see are 10/11, the two because the bookie keeps the difference.
Exchange Betting
Exchange betting sites work differently from sportsbook gambling apps. When using an exchange, no traders and no cut are going to the house, making the odds a fair reflection of the contest. Instead of gambling against the house, you are betting against other gamblers when using an exchange. Exchanges allow members to make bets or place bets. Gambling is all about opinions; if one member fancies something strongly enough, they’ll offer odds and accept bets. If you can spot the value or think their confidence in a team is misplaced, you can back the alternative.
You now have one member offering odds on a game and another placing a bet at those odds. The exchange stays out of the picture at this point other than giving the platform for all bets and holding the cash. But how do exchanges make a profit? They take a percentage from the winner and leave the loser to lick their wounds and plan a comeback for their next gamble. The percentages are small and only taken from the winner, which means you have nothing to fear if your prediction doesn’t go according to plan. You’ll lose your stake, but it won’t get any worse.
Remember, with exchange betting, gamblers make the odds and accept bets rather than traders, meaning the odds are a fair reflection of the game.
Tote Betting
The third and final type of gambling odds is Tote betting, and it’s much older than exchange betting. With the Tote, there are no odds available. Instead, all bets are put in a pot and divided among the winners. It began with horse racing, and although you’ll find Tote betting on many sports, it works best on the sport of Kings. Tote is ideal for events with multiple runners, including horse racing handicaps and festivals. A race with eight runners attracts all bets and adds the funds to a pool. The winners are paid their dividends, with the rest shared between each way backers and other bets.
The more stakes added to a pool, the higher the winnings paid when you predict the outcome. The Tote also offers specials and markets you won’t find at exchanges and sportsbooks. The most popular is the Tote Placepot, which challenges racing fans to pick a horse to place in six races. It doesn’t matter if you pick six winners or six placed horses; everyone making it through a Placepot receives a dividend from the pool. The fewer claimants, the better the returns, meaning it makes sense not to follow the favorites in every race as they will be the most popular selections.
Sports and Markets 🐎
The types of odds mentioned on this page apply to all professional sports. The three most popular sports in online gambling are horse racing, soccer, and greyhound racing. Those three stand head and shoulders above the others. We then find competitions like the NFL, NBA, and NHL popular, attracting millions of bets across the United States and further afield. Sportsbook gambling odds are perfectly suited to all sports, from horse racing to curling.
Exchange betting opens even more options; if you can imagine it, you can offer odds and accept bets. Exchanges allow you to play the role of the bookie. Then we have Tote betting, and although that’s available on all sports, it works best on horse racing and other events with multiple possible outcomes. You’ll find only a few gambling apps offering all three betting odds as most stick to sportsbooks as it’s the simplest, most popular, and easiest to manage. Look for sites that offer a sportsbook tab and exchange option and also give access to Tote betting on horse racing, including the Placepot mentioned earlier.
You can bet on any professional sport, including those mentioned above, and modern bookies like to offer dozens of markets on every fixture. Visit a betting app and click on an upcoming game from the English Premier League to discover over 100 pre-game and in-play markets. You can stick to your favorite or branch out and try something different. More ways to bet means more ways to win, but it’s worth trying to match the right market to the right odds. Some markets are best suited to sportsbook odds, while others are ideal for exchange betting. If wagering on win or place betting on horse racing, you’ll often get a better deal on the Tote betting odds apps.
Here are some of the markets available to those betting on all sports.
- Match-winner
- Both teams to score
- Handicap
- Total goals
- Half-time/full-time
- First scorer
- Time of the first goal
- Number of three darters
- Correct score
- Draw no bet
Advanced Betting Strategies 📈
For those looking to take their sports betting game to the next level, understanding and implementing advanced betting strategies can be the key to long-term success. Now that you've got the basics down, we'll delve into some of the advanced betting strategies that can help you maximize your chances of winning.
Value Betting
Value betting is a strategy that involves identifying bets where the odds offered by a bookmaker are higher than the actual probability of an event occurring. However, this requires a keen understanding of the sport and the ability to spot opportunities where bookmakers may have undervalued certain outcomes. Value betting is all about finding bets with positive expected value (+EV) over the long run.
Bankroll Management Strategies
Proper bankroll management is essential for any serious bettor. Advanced bankroll management strategies involve setting strict guidelines for how much of your betting capital to wager on each bet, depending on factors like your confidence level and perceived edge.
👉 Check out: The essential guide to bankroll management
Arbitrage Betting
Arbitrage betting, also known as "arbing," involves placing bets on all possible outcomes of an event to guarantee a profit, regardless of the outcome. While arbing requires precision and quick execution, it can be a profitable strategy when price discrepancies exist among different bookmakers.
👉 Check out: All you need to know about arbitrage betting
In-Play Betting Strategies
Live or in-play betting allows you to place bets while a sporting event is in progress. Advanced in-play betting strategies involve analyzing real-time data, understanding momentum shifts, and making quick decisions based on evolving game situations. This is especially valuable for sports with dynamic and fast-changing conditions, such as soccer or tennis.
Data Analysis and Models
Advanced bettors often use statistical models and data analysis techniques to gain an edge. This can involve studying historical data, creating predictive models, and using statistical software to identify trends and patterns that may not be apparent to casual observers. Whop's sports betting communities are a great place to learn how to identify trends and patterns.
Remember, that while advanced betting strategies can increase your chances of success, they also come with higher levels of risk and complexity. Continuous learning and adaptation to changing market conditions are key to staying ahead with sports betting.
Sports Betting for Newbies - Learn From the Pros 🤓
As you can see, sports betting can be confusing and even intimidating to some. That's why it is a great idea to join a sports betting community and learn from the pros.
👉 From tutorials to predictions, you’ll find our sports betting communities full of valuable knowledge and insights to increase your chances of landing a winning bet!
