Sports Betting

Sports betting is a fun pastime for countless people but it can be a little intimidating for newcomers. New sports bettors quickly find terms like vigorish, spread and money line thrown at them and they can quickly become overwhelmed. There's a little bit of a learning curve but once you do get the hang of it, sports betting can be a lot of fun.

The types of bets you can make on sporting events are endless. Bets can range from the simple type - betting on which team will win - to all kinds of bets on the number of points, touchdowns, changes in lead etc. The easiest way to get started is to start simple and place bets on which team will win. After you get used to the most basic of bets, you can move on to some of the more complicated variety.

Most commonly, sports betting takes place on the internet through online bookmakers. Bookmakers offer the wagers, accept the bets and pay out all winnings. They make their profit by charging a vigorish, which is a charge for using their services. The vigorish works by making the sports bettors wager slightly more money than they can win.

For example, take two friends betting $100 each on the flip of a coin. If they used a bookmaker who charged an average vigorish, he would require each of them to wager $110 on each flip of the coin with a maximum return of only $100.

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Almost every sports bet falls into one of four categories:

1. Money line or straight up bet
2. Point spread wager
3. Over and Under Bets
4. Proposition Bets

Money Line Bets

Money line bets (also referred to as straight up bets) are most often straightforward bets for one team to win and another to lose. If there is an underdog in the game, money line odds are adjusted to account for this.

For example, say there's an upcoming game between Dallas and Kansas City, with Dallas being a 2-1 favorite to win the game. The money line bet would place Dallas at something like -200 so that anyone betting on Dallas must wager $200 for every $100 in potential winnings. Kansas City might be placed at -150 so that anyone betting on Kansas City would potentially win $150 for every $100 bet.

Point Spread Wagers

Point spread wagers are the most common of the four categories because bookmakers are usually able to get an even number of bets on both sides of the game. Most point spread wagers are offered at 11-10 odds so that bettors must risk $110 to win $100 - the extra $10 is collected as a vigorish.

Point spread wagers also require that the winning team win by a certain number of points. A sample spread wager usually looks something like this:

Dallas: +21 1/2

Kansas City: -21 1/2

This bet would require that Dallas win by at least 22 points for it to be considered a win. If Dallas wins and covers the spread, everyone who bet on Dallas will win. If Dallas loses the match or doesn't win by at least 22 points, everyone who bet on Kansas City will win the bet. The use of half points is to ensure that there are no "pushes" in which a team wins or loses by the exact number of points posted.

Over and Under Bets

Over and under bets also offer 11-10 odds but these are simply bets on the combined score of the two competing teams. If the posted total is 56 1/2 bettors may bet that the total score of both teams will be either higher than the posted total or lower.

Proposition Bets

Proposition bets are the least structured and most widely varied bets out of all four types. They can include bets on anything from how many turnovers there will be, how many changes of lead there will be to which quarterback will pass for the most yards. The odds and rules for each proposition bet are determined on an individual basis so no two proposition bets are identical.

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