How Bet on Sports for Beginners 2022

Sports Betting for Beginners

Millions of people in the United States and around the world enjoy sports betting. But, for beginners it can be difficult to get your head around all of the terms and strategies associated with sports betting, luckily expert help is at hand.

Our beginners guide to sports betting will teach you all the basics and tell you how to start online sports betting. We will define the key terms, explain how odds work and give you some expert tips. It is perfect for anyone new to the world of sports betting.

Sports betting for beginners – Key things to know

Whilst there is a lot to learn about sports betting, here are just a few key points you need to know:

• Sports betting requires you to place real money bets on the outcome of sporting fixtures.
• You can also place bets on individual occurrences during sports events.
• Sports betting should always be fun.
• You should stick to sports and markets that you have good knowledge of.

Sports betting for beginners – Understanding the basics

First things first, placing a sports bet can be a very simple process. That’s the good news, the bad news is that placing winning sports bets is not quite as easy. However, there are plenty of online tools and guides to help you.

By carefully reading our expert guides such as this and our online betting guide you can develop a good understanding of key betting terms and strategies. That will enable you to place bets with confidence, as well as increasing your chances of finding those all-important winning bets.

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Sports betting for beginners – What are the different bets you can place?

When you look at a sports betting website or app you will see a huge array of sports events and betting markets. The range of betting markets will vary from operator to operator, but the types of bets you can place will generally fall into one of these categories:

Moneylines

This is the simplest way of betting and just involves you picking the winner of a sporting match up. In some cases such as tennis or snooker, you will have two options for the game. In other sports, where a draw is a possible outcome, you will have three options. And in sports such as horse racing and golf you will find a large amount of moneyline options.

Spreads

This is a very popular way of betting in the United States. The spread gives the underdog in the fixture a theoretical points advantage that makes the game. When placing a spread bet, you can either bet on the underdog covering the spread by either winning the game or losing by less than the spread amount. Or you can bet on the favorite beating the spread by winning by more than the spread amount.

Over/under bets

The sportsbook gives you a total figure for an event that will happen in the game and your decision is whether to bet on the actual figure being over or under that total. For example, in NFL games, there will be over/under markets for the total points scored. The market will be set at (for example) 55.5 and you have to bet on whether there will be more or less than 55.5 points in the game.

Prop bets

This refers to bets placed on the outcome of a specific event within a contest, as opposed to the overall outcome. For instance, in soccer you can place prop bets on which player will score the first goal.

Futures

Futures bets are long term bets placed on markets that will not be decided until the end of a season or tournament. For example, placing a pre-season bet on who will be NBA champions.

Parlays

A parlay bet covers multiple markets in order to increase the total payout. These are riskier bets as you need multiple outcomes to all succeed, but they can give you excellent returns.

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Sports betting for beginners – What do the odds mean?

Now we have looked at the different types of betting markets available, the next stage of our betting for beginners guide will look at odds. Odds are compiled by bookmakers and reflect the likelihood of an event occurring. They can be displayed in one of three ways:

Fractional odds

This is the most common way of displaying odds in the United Kingdom. As the name suggests, fractional odds display numbers in fraction form, for example, 4/1 or 5/2.

The first number shows the number of times the favored outcome will fail to win, and the second number shows the number of times they will succeed according to the oddsmaker.

For example, Liverpool are playing Arsenal. Liverpool are 2/3 to win the game, this means that the oddsmakers think Liverpool have a two in three chance of winning the game.

Your winnings from a bet placed using fractional odds can be calculated by multiplying your wager by the odds displayed, then adding the value of the wager.

Decimal odds

Decimal odds are favored in most parts of Europe. They are probably the easiest odds format to understand and to calculate your winnings.

The decimal figure shows you the amount of payout you will make for every dollar you bet. You can calculate your winning by multiplying the size of your wager by the decimal odds displayed.

American odds

As the name suggests, this is the format used by most sportsbooks in the United States.In American odds, a minus sign against a team or player indicates that they are the favorite, whereas a positive sign indicates they are an underdog in the market.

To calculate the profit using American odds, you can calculate your profit on favorite by multiplying your wager by the odds displayed divided by 100. If you are betting on an underdog, your profit is your wager multiplied by 100 divided by the odds displayed.

Sports betting for beginners – Our top five expert tips

The next stage of our betting for beginners guide is going to give you some expert advice on how to find winning bets and optimize your sports betting experience.

Sports betting for beginners – Conclusion

You should now have a firm understanding of betting odds and the different types of sports bets you can place. You also have some expert tips to use when looking for bets.

Your next task is to put that knowledge into practice. To do this, you need to always have responsible gambling at the forefront of your mind. Setting safer gambling controls will go a long way towards achieving this, as will always ensuring you bet with your head.

It is also vital that you thoroughly research your bets and take the time to look for the best value for your selections. Do all of that and you will have an excellent chance of placing winning bets and having a fantastic sports betting experience.

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Sports betting for beginners FAQ