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Working Out The Odds In Sports Betting
Winning at sports betting is not easy. Many factors go into determining
whether a team will win a certain game and by how much. Even when one team
is obviously favored, it does not always win. That is, as they say, why they
play the game. However, if you are going to bet on sports, you should take
an organized approach. That means trying to calculate whether the odds you
are being offered are more favorable than the true odds of the event happening.
This is why many sport bettors today turn to online gambling sites. A lot of the
times the online sports bookies offer much better odds than the local sports
bookie.
Understanding Odds in Sports Betting
To make this determination, you first need to understand the way that
odds in sports are calculated. Most sports bets do not follow a typical
X-to-1 format. In other words, you won't generally find that the Celtics
are 6-to-1 to beat the Knicks, for example. In sports, bets are usually made
with spreads or money lines.
Spreads vs. Money Lines
With a spread, a team must win by a certain amount of points to win the
bet. If you take the Steelers -3 over
the Cowboys , the Steelers must
win the game by more than 3 points. If they win by less or lose, those who
took the Cowboys +3 will win the bet. With a money line, the amount you
can win or lose is based on a $100 bet. In other words, if the line on the
Steelers-Cowboys game is -$120/+$140, it means that to win $100 betting on
the Steelers you need to put up $120, and if you put $100 on the Cowboys
you can win $140.
Using Odds in Sports Betting
Once you know the betting odds, you need to know which team is more likely
to win or cover the spread. It's difficult to make an exact calculation,
but experienced sports bettors look at a variety of factors including what
injuries key players may have sustained, what a team's history is against
similar opponents, how a team fares when they play on their own field (or
on the road, whichever is the case for the game) and many others. This helps
create a detailed picture that will allow the sports bettor to determine
his best bet. |
