The Different Types of Sports Bets

Sports betting is growing by the year, not only in how many services offer it online and offline but the different types of sports bets available. In this short guide, we try to shed light on the most popular and established bet forms online gamblers can find at famed gambling platforms. These are not all the wager types available out there, only the ones we most use and that most get featured in the digital sphere.  

Types of Sports Bets – Straight Wagers

There are three types of straight bets. They are the moneyline, totals, and wagering the point spread. Nonetheless, we will cover the last one in the handicap section, as we believe it better fits there. In this part of our tutorial, we will explain the other two straight bets. Let us get to it.

The Moneyline

Here, we have a super straightforward wager, staking money on which team/ player will win. You pick the team/player, and the correct guess payout gets based on sportsbook-assigned odds. So, if you bet on Team A with a moneyline of +150, you win $150 for every $100 staked. That is the American odds format. In the European format, betting 2.50 to win with $10 will result in a $25 payout for a successful wager.

Totals (Over/Under)

This wager uses the total combined score of both teams in a game. Your objective is to try to accurately predict whether the actual total score will be over/under the sportsbooks’number. If the Over/Under is set at two hundred, and you bet the Over, the combined score must be two hundred and one or more for you to win.

Types of Sports Bets – Exotic Bets

The category exotics carries this label because the wagers from this group involve combinations, adjustments, or specific scenarios that go beyond simple outcome predicting. We will cover those in a separate online gambling guide article. The ones we would list in this regular exotic batch are:

Parlays

These are nothing more than two or more individual wagers linked together for a higher payout. All the bets within the parlay must win for the bet to be successful. You combine bets on Team A winning, Player B scoring, and the total points going over a certain number. If all three conditions are met, you win. Essentially, parlay is the American term for accumulators. The usage of these terms may vary depending on the region/local sportsbook terminology. That said, multi bets usually is a more generic term to describe any bet involving multiple selections. Accumulators, like parlay, often refer to a combination bet where the odds are multiplied together for a higher payout.

Teasers

Teasers are similar to parlays. Yet, with adjusted point spreads or totals to increase the winning chances. You can modify the point spread/totals in favor of each leg. But in exchange for this, the overall odds will reduce. If Team B is a 6-point favorite, you might tease the spread to make them a 2-point one. The odds for each leg will adjust, but all selected bets must still win for success.

Round Robins

A series of parlays on different combinations of teams selected get called a round robin. To clarify, you pick multiple teams and create various parlay combinations using these, which allows for a balance between profit and risk. If you select three teams, a round-robin might involve three 2-team parlays, for instance, AB, BC, AC, and one 3-team parlay (ABC).

System Bets

System bets are multi-wagers, meaning they involve multiple selections but offer some insurance against losses. You will see distinct rules for specific systems, covering various combinations of single and multiple bets, providing partial payouts even if not all selections win. In a Trixie, you have three selections, and it consists of three doubles and one treble. You’d win something even if only two of your three selections are correct.

Proposition Wagers

Better known as props, these bets focus on a specific event within a game. One that may not necessarily affect its end result. These can be things like player statistics, the first team to score, how many three-pointers someone will make, or other specific occurrences transpiring. The list can be endless and only depends on a bookmaker’s imagination. Note that you get both player and team props.

Handicaps

Be aware that handicaps and spread bets are two terms often used interchangeably. They exist to level the playing field between competitors of unequal strength. We explain the difference between these below. In terms of handicaps, they are essentially a virtual head start or applied deficiency. That is all.

Positive/Negative Handicaps

In most cases, the stronger team gets given a negative handicap or a disadvantage, and the weaker one receives the opposite. An example of a positive would be if Team A has a +3 handicap and loses the game 10-9, the bet would win because the adjusted score for betting purposes would be 10-12. The negative is just the contrary of this.

Asian Handicap

The Asian Handicap eliminates the possibility of a draw. It provides fractional handicaps, aiming to offer two possible results. That increases your winning chances. By having no draw option, Asian handicaps reduce the risk associated with traditional 1×2 betting.

Spread Betting

Some gamblers confuse spread betting with wagering on totals. But they are not the same thing. Spread wagering focuses on the margin of victory/defeat, and totals focus on a measurable outcome in a game. Also, remember that spread betting is a form of handicap wagering. Yet, not all handicaps are spread betting. Handicaps are a more general term and can apply to various aspects of a game, including the margin of victory.

The sportsbook establishes a spread, or a predicted margin, by which the favored team the bookie expected to see triumph or the underdog gets expected to lose. So, If Team A gets favored by a 5-point spread, they must win by more than 5 points for a spread bet on them to win.

Outrights & Specialty/Novelty Wagers

Called futures by some, these are bets that cover competition winners. Therefore, betting outrights refers to staking money on who will win a sports league, competition, award, etc. These customarily supply higher odds because the result will get determined over an extended period.

Specialty or novelty bets are outrights, but they usually entail betting on something outside the typical realm of sports outcomes. This group often associates with celebrity activities, reality TV show happenings, weather-related events, entertainment-based awards, political elections, and more. They have been adopted by loads of Internet bookies to add diversity to sports betting platforms and appeal to wider demographics.

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