How to Bet on Sports: The First 11 Things Beginners Need to Know
To beginners, sports betting can feel at best overwhelming and at worst rigged against you. Not a great place to start a new hobby.
I pick on DraftKings to illustrate something scary. They have probably my favorite user experience and navigation of any sportsbook, and if this is what I'd consider the best, how confusing is it everywhere else for someone brand new to betting?
Below, I'll take you through the 11 most important things to know if you're just starting your betting journey — from deciphering all the numbers on the screen to placing your first bet at transparentbets.com and beyond.
1. Favorites vs. Underdogs
When oddsmakers release a betting line on a game or any other bet, the first thing they do is decide which team should be the favorite and which should be the underdog.
The favorite is the team that is more likely to win the game and will get a minus sign next to its odds. The underdog is expected to lose and gets a plus sign.
2. Spreads
There are two main ways to bet on a favorite or an underdog. The first is the point spread, which is a bet on the margin of victory.
The Eagles are a -4.5 favorite over the Lions in Week 1. That means anyone betting on Philadelphia needs the Eagles to win by 5 or more points. Anyone betting on Detroit needs the Lions to lose by 1-4 points or win the game.
- Eagles win by 7: Eagles bettors win
- Eagles win by 3: Lions bettors win
- Lions win by 3: Lions bettors win
Point spreads are adjusted for team ability and many other factors. That's why the Colts are an 8-point favorite on the road against the lowly Texans, while the Eagles are a smaller favorite on the road against the Lions.
Spreads are available in every sport but most common in higher-scoring sports like basketball and football.
You can place point spread bets like the example above with FanDuel. To learn more about the sportsbook, read our FanDuel promo code review.
3. Moneylines
The second way to bet on a favorite or an underdog is on the moneyline. A moneyline bet requires you to just pick the winner of the game, and uses American odds to calculate the payout.
American odds are centered around winning $100.
So if you're betting a -200 favorite, you need to risk $200 to win $100, or any fraction of that — $20 to win $10, $2 to win $1, etc.
If you're betting a +200 underdog, you will win 2x your money for every dollar wagered — $100 to win $200, $10 to win $20, $1 to win $2, etc.
Back to Colts-Texans. Oddsmakers believe Indianapolis is the much stronger team. So to bet the Colts just to win the game, you need to risk a substantial amount.
4. Over/Unders (Totals)
In addition to setting a line for the favorite and the underdog, oddsmakers will also set a total number of points scored in a game by both teams combined. This is called the total or over/under.
Bettors can then wager on whether or not the game will go over or under the total. You're not trying to guess the exact score (though that bet is available, too).
Eagles-Lions has a total of 46 — about average for an NFL game.
- If you bet the over, you need 47+ points
- If you bet the under, you need 45 points or fewer
- If it lands on 46 exactly, it's a push and bets are refunded
Over/unders can be impacted by factors like the elements as well. Be sure to check out our NFL weather page for the latest updates on the forecast of the game(s) you're following.
5. What Is the -110 Number Listed Next to My Bet?
With many bets, you may see two numbers — a spread like -4.5, and then odds below it, like -110.
- The spread is the margin of victory your team needs to win by
- The -110 odds are the price you need to pay to bet that spread
Let's say you're betting on the Colts at DraftKings.
- The spread is -8, so to win your bet, you need Indy to win by 9+ points.
- The "juice" is -110. So you'd need to wager $110 to win $100, or $11 to win $10, on that spread.
If you wager $11 to win $10 and the Colts win by 14, you'd win $10. If the Colts win by 3, you'd lose $11.
NFL spreads will usually be -110 on both sides.
But for something like an MLB spread, where the line is almost always -1.5 for the favorite and +1.5 for the underdog, the juice will differ depending on the gap in ability between the two teams.
6. How to Place a Bet
OK, so you now know what each bet means. So how do you place them?
Most sportsbooks make it quite easy.
- Navigate to your desired game and bet type
- Click the "bet cell"
- The bet will populate in your bet slip
- Enter your bet amount
- Submit bet
Each team will be lined up with its corresponding lines. So in that video, USC was a 14-point underdog against Alabama. To bet USC, just click the cell across from its name.
7. How Much to Bet
In the end, you have the final say on how much to risk on a game, but a good rule is risk only what you can afford to lose. Sports betting is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be good days and bad days. As a result, we recommend a flat-betting approach.
This means betting the same amount on every game and risking only 1% to 5% of your bankroll per play (the bankroll is the starting amount you have at your disposal to bet with). For example, if you are starting with a bankroll of $100, you should risk no more than $5 per game.
By employing a flat-betting approach, bettors guard themselves against losing their entire bankroll during a bad stretch, but also set themselves up for a positive return on investment (ROI) when they're doing well.
8. Parlays
A parlay is a wager type in which two or more bets are linked together to create one bet with a greater payout, but all the bets must win.
So instead of betting $10 each on three games, you can make one $10 wager that will pay out more of all three teams win. But if even one loses, you lose your $10.
The payouts will vary based on how many bets you include, and the prices of those bets.
This MLB parlay with Mariners +114, Mets -220 and Marlins and Marlins -134 pays +443.
Even more popular than traditional parlays featuring multiple games is the same game parlay, pioneered by FanDuel and now offered by almost every sportsbook.
This feature allows you to parlay multiple bets from the same game, with the correlation of each event priced in. That means if you bet over 51 in Rams-Bengals and Matthew Stafford over 2.5 passing touchdowns, you won't get the full parlay payout, because those events are more likely to happen together.
9. Props
Betting spreads and totals isn't enough for most people anymore.
Props — short for proposition bets — can be any wager that's not a standard point spread, moneyline or total.
But when people refer to props, they're usually talking about player props like:
- Steph Curry over or under 5.5 assists
- Max Scherzer over or under 7.5 strikeouts
- Derrick Henry to score the first TD +500
Like point spreads, you often have to pay the corresponding price with props.
Here, Scherzer's strikeout total against the Reds is set at 7.5. But it's more likely than not he goes under, according to FanDuel's lines, so you have to pay a steeper price to bet the under than the over.
10. Shop for the Best Line
Lines can vary based on the sportsbook, because different books have different clienteles. As a result, one book may post the Cavs -8 while another has -7.5.
Having access to more than one sportsbook allows you to shop for the best line. Getting an extra half-point might not seem like a huge deal, but it adds up over the long haul and increases your chances of winning.
11. Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses
This isn't Monopoly money, so you want to make sure you're tracking your progress. The easiest way to do that is with our award-winning (and free!) app, which has awesome features like live bet cover probability and odds shopping, it also lets you track all of your bets across nearly every sport.
And that’s valuable because you can identify where your strengths and weaknesses are as you start betting. Are you more successful betting on the NFL or NBA? Do you thrive when taking player props or over/unders? These are all a good thing to know, and it can allow you to maximize your winnings.
