Step by Step Guide to Sports Betting

Posted by Mother Pucker on April 4th, 2009

As you may have read in my earlier posts, I’ve taken up sports betting, mostly NHL betting, in the last month and have done quite well. On March 10th, I deposited $200, and I’ve managed to work that up to $1332.81!

Is there any secret to what I’m doing? Not at all. Does it require that I sit around all day researching things to ensure that I’m making the smartest bet that I can? Nope! It’s just that if you use your head, and don’t bet with your heart (ie, your favourite team will kill you almost every time), you’ll be successful!

I know a lot of people are probably hesitant about getting into sports betting because they’re worried about how it works, or don’t know what to do, but not to fear because I was in the same position a little while back and needed to have a friend explain it all to me.

Now, I figure that instead of just bragging about all the money I’ve been making, I’m writing this guide for you to help you get in and start making some serious loot as well!

Step 1: Register with a sports book

The first thing that you’re going to need to do is register with a reputable sports book. I recommend Sports Interaction as they are currently running a promotion where you will get a 10-20% bonus on your initial deposit. What does that mean? If you deposit $50, you will be given an extra 5-10 bucks for FREE to play with! Free money right off the bat isn’t a bad way to start now is it?

Step 2: Learning the odds

There are a few different systems in play that let you know what you’re odds are. By default when you log into Sports Interaction, you will see odds that look something like “1.85″ or “2.21″. What do these mean? The first bet means that if you win, you will be paid out 1.85 to 1. So if you bet $10, you’re payout will be $18.50 (the $18.50 includes your $10 bet, plus your winnings of $8.50). The second bet means that you will be paid 2.21 to 1, so a $10 bet will pay you $22.10 (the $22.10 includes your $10 bet, and your winnings of $12.10).

Obviously the more favored a team is, the lower the odds are going to be. The above example is common to see when one team is favored over the other. Pick the favorite to win, and your potential winnings are going to be lower. Take the underdog and you will make a lot more money.

Another common way for odds to be displayed is something like +130 or -155. The team that is favored to win will be given a minus, and the underdog will be given positive odds. In the above example, if you take the underdog at +130 and bet $10, you will be paid $23 (your $10 bet plus winnings of $13). If you take the favorite at -155 and bet $10, you will be paid $16.45 (your $10 bet plus $6.45 winnings).

Those are the two most common methods for displaying the odds, so now you should be well equipped to look at any odds board and understand whats going on.

Step 3: Different ways to bet

Now that you have your account that you created in step one, and understand the odds that I explained in step two, it’s time to learn about the different ways you can bet.

Money Line Betting

This is where you are betting solely on which team is going to win, and is probably the best way to start out. I still bet the money line for 95% of my bets because it’s probably the easiest way to win and understand. Let’s look at an example for tonight’s games:

Montreal Canadiens (1.60) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (2.37)

You remember what those 1.60 and 2.37 odds mean from step two right? If not, go back and review what those numbers mean so that there is no confusion.

To make a Money Line bet, all you have to do is choose the team you think is going to win, enter your bet amount, and place your bet. Then just grab your favorite beverage and sit back and watch the game hoping that you’re team is going to win. In the above example if you take the Canadiens and they win, you’ll be paid $16. If you take the Maple Leafs and they win you’ll be paid $23.70.

Over/Under Betting

This is a bet where you are not picking a specific team to win, but rather betting on the point total of the final score at the end of the game. In hockey, a common over/under goal number is 5.5, which means that if you bet under, you’re betting that the final score of the game is 5 goals or less. If you bet the over, you’re betting that the final score will be 6 goals or over.

What happens if the game goes to a shootout? The winning team is awarded one goal to be added to the final score (so don’t worry about a team scoring 3 or 4 shootout goals, because they don’t count, the winning team just gets one goal added on).

Handicap Betting

This is a bet where you aren’t necessarily picking the winner of the game, but you are instead giving or taking points from teams. For example here is a game for tonight:

Montreal Canadiens -1.5 (2.70) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs +1.5 (1.50)

The -1.5 beside the Canadiens means that the Canadiens will have to win the game by more than 1.5 goals for that bet to pay. Other way around, the Leafs are +1.5, so that means that they can still lose the game by less than 1.5 goals (1 goal in this example because there aren’t .5 goals in hockey), and that will be a winning bet.

If you compare handicap betting to money line betting, you can see that they payout flips around between the favorite and underdog. This means that if you want to bet the favorite, the Canadiens in the example I’ve been using, a $10 money line bet will pay you $16. If you’re confident that the Canadiens will win by more than 1.5 goals, then taking the handicap bet at $10 will pay you $27. You can obviously get a bigger payout by taking the handicap bet, but of course there is a lot more risk involved in this than the straight money line bet.

Parlay Betting

This is where you take multiple bets on the same bet card. In the above examples we took one of the teams alone, but a parlay bet is where you take two or more teams. Why would you want to do this? Your payout will increase exponentially when you do this, so if you have two or more games that you are confident on, the payout is worth the risk! Here is an example of what a parlay bet can do for you:

Montreal Canadiens (1.60) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (2.37)
New Jersey Devils (2.10) vs. Buffalo Sabres (1.77)

If you take any of those teams to win individually, for example the Canadiens, you will get 1.60 to 1 odds. Say you also think that the Devils are going to win, you’ll get 2.10 to 1 odds. $10 bets on those teams will pay $16 for the Canadiens, and $21.00 for the Devils. If you bet them individually you are putting out $20 to get back $37.

Now, if you parlay those two teams to win, the odds jump up to 3.36 to 1. So a $10 bet will pay you $33.60, or if you use the same $20 you were going to bet on those games individually, you will be paid out $67.20. As you can see, a parlay bet is a higher risk, but they payout reflects that, and you can make some nice cash this way.

Other Betting Choices

There are also a lot of other betting choices available, but they don’t require as much explanation because they are pretty straight forward. For hockey here is an example of other things that you can bet on:

• First team to score
• When will the game end (regulation, overtime, shootout)
• Team to score first wins
• First/Second/Third period goal totals
• First/Second/Third period over/under
• Winning margin (which team wins and by exactly how much)
• Last team to score

As you can see there are a plethora of options when it comes to the type of bets you can make, so if you really want to get creative you can look at these choices. I hardly do, but figured that I’d put them out there for you for information purposes.

Step 4: Start betting!

I hope that I’ve explained everything that you need to know, so you may as well jump in and place some bets! Don’t forget about that free money that I mentioned to you earlier as well! If you have any questions or comments, or just want to brag about your winnings, please don’t hesitate to add them in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

Good luck!!!