As we all are familiar of live sports betting but if you are new to sports betting and if you go to sports book you would find there are different types of bets offered, which you would not understand immediately. The three types of most common bets that you would find are :
The straight bet
Basically the straight bet is one of the most common types of bet, and it simply means that you have selected which team will win. Our team is favoured by another by the point spread for betting purposes, the favourites spot the underdog points. Usually favourites are indicated by a minus sign (-) and the underdog by a plus sign (+) followed by the spread amount. In case of favourites you would subtract those points from the teams score and in the case of underdog you would add the number of points to the teams score. The wining bet is the one with the highest number of points after -/+ points have been applied. Games that tie are considered as no action and money is re-deposited back in your account, due to the changing events the point spread may fluctuate at any time.
Money line
Money line bet may be considered as most straight forward amongst the three bets because whichever team wins is one that payoffs. If a game is determined on money line then it will cost more to bet on the favourite, the money line that is read during the time of your betting is the money line you keep regardless of any line movement. For e.g. a line like this
401 Dallas cowboys – 140
402 Washington red skins + 130
If you bet on Dallas you would pay $140 in order to win $100 whereas if you bet on Washington you would pay $100 to win $130. The money line may be represented to 2 decimals, in this case substitute $100 for $1.
Over/ under
The over under bet is the bet that is based on one of the team’s winnings, whereas it has two characteristics in common with the point spread and the money line. This bet is based on overall outcome of the game and is placed on total amount of points scored, each game has a total listed point and you bet on whether the total number of point would be over or under that amount. For e.g. if the under over is 38.5 and you believe that the combined points scored by both the teams will exceed that number, you would bet over whereas if you believe that the total points score would be less than 38.5 you would bet under. The specified bets types are most common and you would find these types of bets in all of the bookies but still there are a lot of other bet types. And always remember that the bookies hand out nothing for free, so high odds for a specific bet means it is harder to make it right, just be sure to know what you are betting on.