There’s a very high probability that you’ve come into contact with some form of promotional material or discussion regarding sports betting. Depending on where you stand in the discussion of ethos and its effect on sports, you may have an interest in this type of activity.
Indeed, it is entertainment, but sports betting is also a complex matter with many interesting parts that require some study, not to mention experience. Being a savvy sports bettor means putting several pieces together and learning where opportunity meets strategy.
Given that placing casual bets on sports without knowing what’s what represents a bit of an unwarranted risk, we decided that it would be good to map out several strategic practices that should get you ready to start in a smart and savvy manner.
These pieces of advice are directions towards which we suggest you place your research before proceeding with these bets. If you are to start efficiently, you definitely need to get in tune with these aspects beforehand.
Let this list of objectives help you start your journey in sports betting as prepared as possible!
Learning the is Essential
It’s safe to say that every single environment of consequence requires a deep understanding of associated terminology. We can say that the most important ones are those where health and money are involved.
In this case, we can draw a parallel between health and the risks associated with gambling. We will talk about responsible gambling and the need to take the necessary precautions in a later part of this article.
Until then, we wanted to focus on the terminology that allows you to place your money in a deliberate way. Please consider that we will talk about fundamental terms involved in the world of betting. However, the true depth of this subject requires much more reading and research:
- Odds — This is the probability of winning associated with a sports event that you can bet on. We will provide more analytical explanations in the following section since odds have their own massive importance within the structure of online gambling.
- Bet — The exact sum of money you wager when you place them on an exact outcome that you hope will happen.
- Payout — The money you receive if your bet(s) turn out to be successful by being correct.
- Moneyline — A type of bet that you place specifically to see if a certain competitor wins an event.
- Spread — The handicap that applies to the outcome of an event. If your spread includes a bet with -6, it means that the team you bet on must win by over 6 points to turn into a successful bet.
- Over/Under — Betting on a metric that goes over or under a certain value. If the bet is on a player scoring 2 goals in a football match, you can bet on the under (they score one or no goals) or on the over (they score at least 3 goals).
- Proposition Bet — A bet that covers a specific set of stats from a team, a player, or a game/event in general. You can bet on players having certain completed passes, goals, cards, and many, many more.
- Parlay — An accumulator of multiple types of bets that can be on a single or multiple events. To win this type of bet, your parlay slip must meet all the conditions you wagered on in order to turn into a payout.
- Futures — Betting on an event that will happen in the not-so-close future, such as betting on which team will win a championship that has just started.
- Juice/Vig — Also known as the vigorish, it’s a commission that the bookmaker takes as a service fee for handling your bets.
- Push — The name of the situation in which you receive the amount you wagered back. This happens specifically when your spread bets turn into a draw, and neither you nor the house wins.
Understand How Odds Work
The odds represent the probability and payout rate that you want to have work in your favour when you decide to bet on sports.
There are 3 major types of odds that you will see, depending on where you’re from and the system of betting that a bookmaker adopts. However, you’ll see that many digital bookies allow you to switch across systems based on your preferences, allowing you to understand them better.
We’ll be brief in explaining and presenting them, but their inner workings require more study if you are to understand and make them work in your favour:
- Decimal Odds — You’re going to see them in the form of 3.50, for example. The payout is the multiplication of these odds by the value of your stake. This means that you’d get £350 if you bet £100 on an event with 3.50 bets.
- Moneyline Odds — The odds with the +/- structure. If you see positive odds with +150 odds, it means that you receive 150% of your bet. If it hits – £100, it turns into £150 received, which means that your total payout would be £250. If these odds are negative, such as -200, you will receive £100 for a £200 bet. The total payout is £300, but only £100 is the profit generated by the odds.
- Fractional Odds — The odds that you may be most accustomed to. If you see 7/2 odds, it means that you’d receive a £7 payout if you place a £2 bet. The amount of possible profit is multiplied according to the worth of your bet.
Compare and Find the Right Sportsbook(s)
You would do yourself an immense service if you decided to be very deliberate about how you choose the bookmaker. The process can depend on a whole slew of factors that are all about knowing the standard of security and convenience that you want to see.
- You’ll want to make sure that you place your eggs in the basket of security and legitimacy. There are many high-quality sports betting options licensed by UKGC. It’s a guarantee of safety and a promise for proper standards that align with the British regulator’s demands.
- Look for convenience when it comes to services like payments and customer support. They are the day-to-day aspects of betting online and require smooth operations from the bookie’s side. Most of them guarantee good-quality options, but some do better than others.
- Compare the odds and choose the bookmaker that can legitimately provide the best options from a competitive standpoint.
Consider Alternative Betting Strategies
Have you ever heard of arbitrage betting, otherwise known as Dutching?
It’s the act of placing various kinds of bets on different outcomes to make sure that you cover all scenarios for a sports event that you’re betting on.
It requires monitoring the gaps in the odds from various bookies. Some provide better odds than others, and you bet there while betting on another site for a different outcome. Both sites offer highly competitive odds for different outcomes when compared to the market.
By covering both a win and a loss from a team, you’d make sure that either one of your bets hits while also making enough of a profit to cover the losses incurred by the bet that didn’t hit.
It’s not a perfect practice by any means, and it’s not necessarily a standard part of a betting guide for beginners. However, it is an entry point into the inner workings of intelligent sports betting!
Prioritise Your Health and Finances
Responsible betting is at the core of every experience meant to be sustainable. The science of gambling tells us that continuous exposure and a sense of reliance on gambling are two of the most dangerous scenarios in which you can place yourself.
You’ll want to make sure that you’re managing your finances in such a way that betting on sports is not overbearing on your daily activities and vital expenses.
Moreover, you’ll want to ensure that you don’t spend too much time agonising about where to play and what to bet on and destabilise your mental state in the process.
What’s most important is that you set yourself a budget within the bookmaker’s responsible gaming system and bet with money that is part of your disposable income. Please bet responsibly, beyond everything else!
