OKBET SPORTS BETTING GUIDE | The Basics of Sports Betting Explained in Easy Steps

Sports betting has gone from obscurity to prominence during the last four years. When the decades-long taboo against gambling in American society finally crumbled, a gigantic, multibillion-dollar legal sports betting market may emerge.

Millions of sports enthusiasts throughout the country will be ready to try their luck in the betting market for the first time now that sports betting is allowed in several states.

But if you don’t know any of the jargon, where do you even begin?

BASICS SPORTS BETTING GUIDE

If you’ve never placed a sports wager before, here are 12 essential tips to get you started

Favorites vs. Underdogs – One of the first things that happens when a betting line is posted is that the oddsmakers choose a favorite and an underdog.

A negative symbol (-) will appear next to the chances of the underdog winning the game. A + sign indicates that the underdog is favored to lose.

Spreads – Betting on a favorite or underdog may be done in two major ways. The first kind is a wager on the winning margin, known as the point spread.

This week, the Eagles are -4.5 point favorites against the Lions. For a wager on the Eagles to pay off, they would need a victory by a margin of at least five points. Betting on the Lions requires a loss by one to four points or a victory by Detroit.

The Eagles win by a score of 7, guaranteeing victory for Eagles backers.
Lion backers cash in as Eagles win by 3.
Betting on the lions pays off as they win by three points.
Point spreads take a number of variables into account, including a team’s strength. That’s why the Colts are favored by 8 points to beat the mediocre Texans on the road yet the Eagles are only favored by 3 points to beat the dismal Lions.

Even while spreads exist across all sports, they are more often used for higher-scoring games like basketball and football.

Not clear yet? Look at this video that describes point spreads in detail.

Moneylines – The moneyline is another option for betting on a favorite or an underdog. Moneylines are based on American odds and require you to choose a single team to win.

In the United States, the chances of winning $100 are often discussed.

To win $100 when wagering on a -200 favorite, you must risk $200. To win $10, you must risk $20. To win $1, you must risk $2.

If you bet on the underdog (+200), you will get two dollars for every dollar you bet.

Revisiting the Colts and Texans. The oddsmakers had Indianapolis as the favorite. That means you’ll need to put up some serious dough to wager on the Colts and even hope they pull off the upset.

The Colts have a -375 odds, so a $100 wager will cost you $375, or $37.50 to win $10.

It’s +300 on the Texans. The payout for a $100 stake is $300. On the other hand, a wager of only $5 will net you a profit of $15. If betting on the underdog is riskier than on the favorite, why take the risk of backing the favorite?

The juice is the commission that bookmakers charge to keep their advantage over gamblers.

While moneylines may be used for wagering on any sport, they are more often employed for lower scoring games like baseball, hockey, and soccer.

Over/Unders (Totals) (Totals) – Oddsmakers will not only decide on a point spread for the favored club and the underdog, but also on a point total for the game. A common term for this is “over/under.”

A total score for a game may be bet on to determine whether the game will go Over or Under that number. What you’re not doing is making a precise score prediction (though that bet is available, too).

The 46-point score in Eagles-Lions is about par for an NFL game.

Over bets need a score of 47 or more.
To win a wager on “under,” the score must be 45 or less.
If the outcome is a roll of 46, all wagers are nullified and the money returned to the players.
The over/under betting strategy is often used.

Will Tom Brady throw for more than 295.5 yards?

Over 9.5 wins for the Yankees and 7.5 assists by LeBron James

How Do I Interpret the -110 Slash Next to My Wager? – Many wagers have a spread, such as -4.5, and odds, such as -110, underneath it.

A team must beat the spread, which is the predicted margin of victory, in order to collect a winning bet.
Putting money on that spread will cost you -110 in odds.
If you bet on Indy at -8, you’ll need them to win by nine or more points for you to break even.

The juice is a negative 110. Taking into account the money line, you would have to risk $110 to win $100, or $11 to win $10.

Even if you bet $11, if the Colts win by 14 points, you’ll only lose $1. You would lose $11 if the Colts win by three points.

In the NFL, the typical point spread is -110 for both teams.

Juice varies according on the degree of disparity between the two teams’ abilities, except in situations like MLB spreads, when the line is nearly always -1.5 for the favorite and +1.5 for the underdog.

Gambling: The Basics – All right, so you understand what each wager represents now. Where do you put them, then?

Online sportsbooks often provide a straightforward interface.

Select the Game and Betting Option You Want
You may place a wager by selecting the “bet cell”
Your bet slip will automatically update to reflect the wager.
Put in your wager here.
Bets must be submitted.
There will be separate lines for each team. Now you know why USC was a 14-point underdog against Alabama in that clip. To place a wager on USC, choose the cell that contains their name.

Amount of the Bet – While the decision of how much to wager on a game ultimately rests in your hands, a decent rule of thumb is to wager no more than you can comfortably afford to lose. Gambling on sports is a long game, not a quick buck. Sometimes you’ll have a good day, and sometimes you’ll have a poor day. We advise a flat-betting strategy as a consequence.

This would include placing consistent wagers throughout the board, with each wager representing between one and five percent of your bankroll (the bankroll is the starting amount you have at your disposal to bet with). If you have $100 in your bankroll, for instance, you shouldn’t risk more than $5 every game.

Bettors may protect themselves against catastrophic financial loss by adopting a flat-betting strategy, while simultaneously positioning themselves to generate a positive return on investment (ROI) during winning streaks.

Parlays – All of the wagers in a parlay must come out on top for the bettor to collect anything at all.

If you want to bet on all three games, but only want to spend $10 total, you may place a bet that will return more than $10 if all three teams win. But if even one of them loses, you’ll be out $10.

Payouts will change dependent on the types and quantities of wagers included.

It’s worth +443 to wager on an MLB parlay that includes the Mariners (+114), Mets (-220), and Marlins (-134).

The same-game parlay, which was popularized by FanDuel and is now available by almost every bookmaker, is even more popular than classic parlays involving numerous games.

It’s possible to parlay numerous bets from the same game, with the inherent relationship between the outcomes already factored in. Because it is more probable that both outcomes will occur simultaneously, the entire parlay payoff will not be awarded if you wager over 51 in Rams vs. Bengals and Matthew Stafford throws for more than 2.5 touchdowns.

Independent NFL and NBA games have seen a huge increase in the use of same-game parlays.

Props – Most bettors nowadays want more betting options than just spreads and totals.

The term “props” is used to refer to any kind of wager other than the point spread, moneyline, or total in a sports betting context.

However, most of the time when the term “props” is used, it refers to items used by the players themselves, such as:

Over/under on Steph Curry’s Assists: 5.5
Toss a coin: Max Scherzer with 7.5 K’s or less
For Derrick Henry to get the game’s first touchdown (+500)
Props, like point spreads, usually come with a commensurate cost.

The number of Reds batters Scherzer is expected to knock out at this point is 7.5. OKBET lines indicate that it is more probable than not that he will go under, therefore betting on the under will cost you more than betting on the over.

Bet on props if you’re serious about generating money from sports betting.

Since U.S. sportsbooks cannot accurately price the hundreds of props they give for each game, they leave themselves vulnerable to a wider range of attacks. You may get an advantage over the sportsbooks by watching individual props and knowing how they are valued even if you are not using your own statistical models.

Buy Only the Finest Brands – Because each sportsbook caters to a somewhat different audience, the lines they post might vary. Therefore, the Cavaliers’ spread may be -7.5 at certain books and -8 at others.

Multiple sportsbooks enable you to compare odds and choose the ideal one for your betting needs. A half-point advantage may not seem like much, but it may make a big difference in the long run.

Whenever you visit one of our live odds sites, the best line for that particular game will be highlighted automatically.

Analyze your capabilities and shortcomings – You shouldn’t treat this like Monopoly money; instead, keep careful tabs on your expenditures. Our free, award-winning app makes it easy to keep tabs on all of your wagers in one convenient location, and it includes useful tools like live bet cover probability and odds shopping.

And that’s helpful because it allows you to see your own blind spots when you begin betting. Which, the NFL or the NBA, do you prefer to wager on, and why? Do you do well while taking over/unders or player props? All of these are useful pieces of information to have, and they may help you increase your chances of success.