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Sports Betting
Sports betting types
By Michele
Nov 13, 2003, 17:19

Want to bet on sports events,  but don’t know how it works?  Here are the different kinds of bets you can place on a football game,  using an online sports book.

The most common bet on sports is the Straight Wager,  or Bet Against The Spread.  Everyone’s heard of point spreads.  But the spread is not merely the number of points one team may earn more than the other;  it’s a handicap the oddsmaker has figured,  like the extra weights a stronger horse has to carry in a horserace to give the other horses an even shot at winning.  In this case,  the spread is a certain number of points awarded to the other team.  So when you visit a sportsbook to bet on sports and see the lines,  the point spread is expressed as  “+”  a certain number of points for one team,  and  “-“  that same number for the other team.  The team with the  “+”  number beside it is the team the sportsbook thinks is more likely to lose.  To bet on sports in Straight Wagers costs an extra 10% for the bookmaker’s fee  (also called the juice,  or the vig)  so you’ll be betting $11 to win $10 more.

Because a field goal is the most common way for a team to win late in the game,  especially by breaking a tie,  the number 3 is important in Straight Wagers.  If the spread posted is 2.5,  you can buy an extra half-point from the bookmaker to make it an even 3.  This is useful if you are betting the team with the  “+”  points,  the underdog.  If you bet on sports believing the favorite will win,  you can buy that extra half-point to bring the spread of  -3.5 up to -3.

To bet on sports another way,  you might bet Totals,  also called Over/Under.  This is a bet on the sum of both teams’ scores.  You decide whether you think the combined score will go Over the number listed by the sportsbook,  or Under.  The vig is usually 10% for Totals.

You could also bet the Money Line,  which is betting on the odds posted by the sports book specific to that team and game.  If Pittsburgh is playing Cleveland,  and the sports book says it is more likely that Pittsburgh will win,  the odds for Pittsburgh will be to the left of the spread number,  may be in parentheses and often will be a number over 100,  expressed as + or -.  The team they expect to win will have the negative odds.  The two teams’ odds numbers will be different,  not like the point spread number.  There is no additional fee for this bet.

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