Sports Betting Explained: How to Bet on Sports
Sports betting might sound simple but it’s often quite complicated, especially for new bettors. The best sports books offer a range of markets, leagues, bet types, in-play options, futures, and more. Our expert team has compiled this handy guide to give you all the information you need to bet safely and confidently.
How to Bet on Sports Online
Whatever your favorite sport may be, there are so many different ways you can bet on them. How to bet on them, though, can be the question which fans stumble on, as certain terms may need explaining, especially if you are a newcomer to the online betting world. Ultimately, a how to guide requires a breakdown of many different options, but at its most basic, how to bet online can be visualised and demonstrated quite easily.
For this purpose, we will use one of the best offshore sportsbooks, BetOnline, to show the simplest way to bet online. Once you have an account, simply go to the sports page on the top left hand corner of the homepage. From there, you will be presented with the most up to date live betting options for sports which are being played right now. To place a bet, look in the money line column in the middle of each match-up, and select a team you believe will win out of the wide selection of matches.
Fill in your stake once your selection pops up in the betslip to the right and you will be ready to go with your first bet. Condensing it down to this type of bet shows you how to bet online in the most straightforward way.
Sports Betting Explained – How does Sports Betting Work?
Sports betting is one of the most popular pastimes in the US, but with a lot of figures and maths involved in the process, it can be difficult to work out what is going on. At its most obvious, betting on sports sees you choose an team in a match, player in a tournament, or horse in a race, who you believe will win, and place money on it to win more back. In return, the bookmakers offer odds relating to the chance your selection has.
Regarding those odds, these can be be broken down as such. A +100 bet will be on an event which has a roughly 50% chance of happening according to the bookmaker. This is because you get 100% of your stake back, as well as the stake itself, doubling your funds if it wins. You can therefore calculate how much money you will win given the odds on show (e.g. +200 equalling a 200% increase on your stake, plus your stake).
The best online sportsbooks will help you out in this respect. When you choose your selection and fill in your stake, they will show you how much you will be subject to win if your bet succeeds. However, it pays to have a good working knowledge of the basics, so that you know when you pick a +1000 bet over a +300 one, you will win more money if your bet comes in. These odds, of course, are based on the betting sites’ very educated knowledge of the chances of sporting events happening.
Longer odds may seem tempting, but bets on such odds are less likely to come in. Having a strategy, whether that is backing a number of favorites for a majority of small wins, or backing longer odds more rarely and hoping for those occasional big wins, is often worthwhile pursuing.
Quick Steps for Placing a Sports Bet
Placing a sports bet really can be done in a few very short steps regardless of the online sportsbook you are playing with. These can be condensed into the following:
- Choose a sport from the sportsbook section
- Find an event to bet on
- Hover over your selection and click on the odds
- Fill in your stake in the betslip and click “place bet”
How to Understand Sports Betting Terminology
The next thing for new bettors to understand is the terminology that comes with various sports bets. Learning these is vital to be able to bet confidently and with all the facts to hand. Below, we run through a number of the key types of bets, so you can start placing them immediately.
Money Line
This is the most common style of bet on matches involving two teams or players. It will often appear as the central market in a group of three. Ultimately, this is simply a market with odds for who will win the match. In sports such as basketball and football, the money line will have two options given how rare a tie is, while a soccer match may have three options to include the tie on the money line. Money Line odds will be updated like this.
| Team | Money Line Odds |
| Kansas City Chiefs | -150 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | +130 |
Spread
The spread is a slightly more complex form of the money line. In this type of market, the two sides of a match will be handicapped by a certain number of points. This is to make the spread betting market more even so that both bets you could place are closer to odds of +100.
| Team | Spread Odds |
| Chiefs -7 | -110 |
| Eagles +7 | -110 |
Total
Totals are markets on points being scored throughout a match. Bettors are offered a score by which they can bet over or under, either believing that a team will or will not score over a certain number of points. These are usually customizable, so you can create the bet you really want, such as the Packers to score over 30 points in an NFL game, for instance.
| Chiefs to score 25.5 points Odds | |
| Over | -120 |
| Under | +100 |
Props
Bets which appear in the props section represent the chances of unique, individual occurrences happening in a match or tournament. You could place a props bet on a player scoring a certain number of points, or go for a riskier bet such as a hole in one to happen during the course of a golf major. Both of these would represent props, though the breadth of these markets across many sports is vast.
| Hole in One Odds | |
| Yes there will be | +300 |
| No there won’t | -500 |
Parlay
A parlay is made up of multiple selections which are grouped together to make a single bet. These could be made up of a prop or total bet, such as a team to score a certain number of points, as well as a money line choice of who will win. The positive with a parlay is that it multiples your odds substantially, as you now require more than one event to occur to win your bet. Equally, if any one part of your parlay bet does not win, then the entire parlay loses. That is the risk you take by placing this kind of bet.
| Odds | |
| Patrick Mahomes to throw for three touchdowns and Chiefs to win | +100 |
Futures
If you prefer to bet on the outcomes of an entire tournament or trophy instead of one-off games, then futures betting is for you. These are markets on events happening beyond the day you place the bet, such as who will win the Super Bowl or the MLS. With futures betting, the odds are likely much bigger and appear like a racebook’s market would. Take the Super Bowl, for instance: before a ball has been thrown, there are 32 teams in the running to win it, increasing the odds on show dramatically.
| Super Bowl Winner | Futures Odds |
| Kansas City Chiefs | +600 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | +750 |
| Buffalo Bills | +850 |
| San Francisco 49ers | +1000 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | +1100 |
Each Way
This type of bet only refers to horse racing, sometimes golf, and also futures markets on other sports. When you place an each-way bet, you are backing two possible outcomes on a race, one that your horse will win, or that it will place in the first three. If it finishes second or third, your bet wins usually at one quarter or one fifth of the odds you took on it to win, while the+65 win side of the bet will lose. However, if your odds are big enough, you may well still be in profit if your horse is in the placings, meaning you can win money even on a horse that does not win the race.
How Sports Betting Works on Different Sports
As you can tell, the types of bets listed above are not available across all sports. Different sports offer different ways of betting on them, so you get a separate experience each time.
So you know what kinds of bets can be placed on the main betting sports in the US, we asked out experts to outline the key methods of how sports betting works in each of them.
🏈 Football
When you visit the best football betting sites, they will present things as easily as possible for new players. The key markets most will focus on are the money line ones between two teams in an NFL game, though you will also have spread and total markets on these games, usually either side of the money line. You may have to click on the individual match-up in order to find props bets, while the key markets during the off season are the futures ones, such as the odds for the winner of the [next_year] Super Bowl.
🏀 Basketball
Basketball is extremely similar to football in the prioritisation of money line markets for single matches. There will also be spread handicap options on each game, with the variety coming from props and total markets during the matches, and futures markets, such as the NBA champions and MVP awards. There are simply so many different ways of sports betting with the best NBA betting sites.
⚽ Soccer
In contrast to football and basketball, soccer matches provide bettors with the option of a tie as well, pushing the odds of all three potential occurrences up. Equally, there are many more soccer competitions for futures betting, as seen below with BetOnline, such as the English Premier League (EPL), La Liga and the MLS, or even European competitions such as the Champions League. A great site we like to use before placing bets on soccer is BetIdeas.com, it provides users insightful AI-powered outcome predictions.
🏇 Horse Racing
Horse racing is where each-way betting comes into play, and you can bet on a horse to finish in the places as well as in first. However, you do have the option of placing a bet “on the nose”, a slang term for a horse to win only. You could also try and back the first two home in a forecast bet, or even chance a tricast to land the first three home. Combinations allow for you to try and choose them in any order as well as exactly, and the odds for finding a forecast or tricast at the best horse racing betting sites can be enormous.
⛳ Golf
Golf fans can rejoice when it comes to sports betting on their favorite hobby. Due to golf tournaments featuring such a vast number of players, the odds you can get about even the biggest-named players winning week on week are much higher than those on the favorite in any other sport. Once again, futures markets are where the value lies, though when the three-ball groups are announced for the tournament each week, you can also choose the individual winner of those too.
How to Place a Sports Bet Online
If you do not yet have an account with one of the best new betting sites, then there are a few steps between you and making your first sports bet online. They are very easy to complete, however, as we demonstrate with one of our favorite sportsbooks, BetOnline, below.
Step One – Sign Up to a Sports Betting Account with BetOnline
Finding BetOnline via your chosen browser is easy. Searching them as one word instead of two is key. Once you have clicked through to their homepage, you will see a green “Join Now” icon. This can be found on the top right of the screen. Click on it and you will be taken to the registration form, where you only need to fill in your key details.
Step Two – Verify Your Sports Betting Account
Verification is vital, as otherwise BetOnline cannot prove you are who you say you are, and your account will not be fully registered. As long as you gave an email address you can access, a link will be sent through to you. Click on it and your account will be verified and ready to go.
Step Three – Deposit Your First Funds
You may be a crypto enthusiast or sceptic, but either way, BetOnline and other online gambling sites will cater to you. BetOnline are one of the best in this regard, as they allow for all the usual traditional payments as well as 15 different cryptocurrencies. However you like to play, deposit your first funds and you will be ready to bet.
Step Four – Choose your Sport
You now know all about how to bet on sports, you can choose whichever sport takes your fancy for your first bet. The sports tab is the furthest left on BetOnline’s homepage, and there is a huge drop down menu to select from and enter your first bet.
Step Five – Place your Wager
The only thing left is to select your stake. As an experienced player, you may choose to try and win the big bucks on sports betting straight away, though if you are less confident, set your stakes low to begin with. Either way, you are now ready to bet!
How to Win at Sports Betting – Our Tips
If you want to try a way of guaranteeing money off betting, then check out our guide to matched betting, a foolproof way of making money off the bookies. However, if you just like the thrill of betting on your favorite sports, then we have some tips from our most knowledgable experts on how to maximise your chances of winning, even if this cannot be guaranteed.
1. Try Different Bets
We have previewed a number of different forms of sports betting on this page, so give them all a go. Sticking to the money line may be the way some bettors prefer to play, but it does not present a lot of variety, nor will your odds ever be that big, no matter how great the disparity between the two teams in a match. Try futures, totals and props to make the most of online gambling. You may also want to explore various betting strategies, some of which we have covered in our sports betting strategy guide.
2. Stick to Favorite Sports
It is almost impossible to know something that the bookmaker does not when it comes to a sporting event, but the more knowledge you have about a certain sport, the more educated your bet will be. This at least arms you with the best chance of finding a value bet and getting one over on the house.
3. Don’t Go Too Big
For those sports betting online for the first time, it is most important to bet within your means and only gamble what you can afford. Placing big bets may seem alluring due to the potential winnings, but this is rarely the answer and can lead to a steep downward spiral. Check out NCP Gambling‘s guides to help inform you as to how to stay safe when gambling.
4. Avoid Your Team
It can feel like a double victory when your team wins its match and you have had a bet on to boot. However, these can often be decisions of the heart rather than the head, and the feeling of losing both trumps that of winning both. Let the joy of your team winning be enough and bet instead on events where you would otherwise have more of a mutual interest.
5. Shop Around
The most profitable gamblers online know that were they to stick with one betting account, they would not be anywhere near as well-off as they actually are. You get the best odds from having multiple betting accounts, as some online bookmakers will have superior odds on some sports, while others will excel elsewhere. Having these options gives you a much better chance of winning overall.