Sports Betting
Working Out The Odds In Sports Betting
How do you figure out the odds in
sports betting? Most of the time, sports betting doesn’t offer odds in the
same way that other online
gambling games do. You may find that you can take the Dodgers as a
5-to-1 underdog to win the World Series, or get 8-to-1 against Eli Manning
being named the NFL MVP, but most of the time, sports bettors deal with
money lines and point spreads.
The Money Line
The money line is similar to traditional odds betting. Let’s say the
money line on the Jets vs. Buffalo game is -240/+110. What this means is
that if you want to bet on the New York Jets, you will have to bet $240 to
win $100. If you want to bet on the Buffalo Bills, you can wager $100 to
win $110. Effectively, this is the same thing as the odds bets you have
always seen. If you are taking the Jets, you are laying 2.4-to-1. If you
take the Bills, you are getting 1.1-to-1.
The Point Spread
Another way to bet on sports is through point spreads. This is simply an
amount a team needs to win by to produce a winning result. In other words,
if the Chicago Bears are an 8-point favorite over the New Orleans Saints,
Chicago has to win by more than 8 for a bet on Chicago to win. If they
lose or win by less than 8, bets on New Orleans win.
Figuring Out the Odds
Of course, the way to win in all gambling is to make sure that the odds
you are getting paid at are longer than the true odds of an event
happening. This is difficult to do in sports betting. However, there are a
number of factors that a bettor can consider, including injuries on both
teams, how teams perform in certain weather conditions and which team has
the home field advantage. Understanding these ideas will not give you an
exact odds calculation regarding how likely a team is to win, but it can
give you a framework to contrast against the payout odds when making your
wagers.