Sports betting is essentially about predicting the outcome of a sporting event and wagering money accordingly – if you’re right, you win. Anyone can place a wager on a match, but not everyone can place a successful wager on a match – otherwise there wouldn’t be a market to bet on!
As such, if you’re hoping to get started with successful sports betting, it’s imperative that you first become familiar with the basics of sports betting itself, before you even place your first wager.
Fixed Odds Betting
Fixed odds betting is the most popular form of sports betting and the one most people are familiar with. Punters predict the outcome of a match and place a wager on the selection chosen at the odds offered.
If the selection is correct, the wager pays out at the odds agreed upon when the bet was placed, even if the odds have changed since then. However, since this guide was written for complete beginners, if you are not comfortable with how odds work and what they denote, we suggest you do plenty of research on this aspect of sports betting before going any further.
Types of Sports Wagers
Sports betting is particularly popular as there are many markets and selections to choose from – punters can essentially wager on any sport, league, or competition. There is also wide variety of bets to choose from which equates to many opportunities to place a winning bet, particularly with competitive NRL Premiership odds.
Fortunately, it’s not necessary to learn about every single type of sports bet available and you should focus on the following as a beginner:
- Handicap or Point Spread
- Total or Over/Under
- Proposition or Special
- Futures or Outright
- Accumulator or Parlay
Types of Sports Betting
As well as the different types of wagers to choose from, there are also alternatives to traditional fixed odds betting. Each type of sports betting involves predicting the outcome and placing a wager, but they all work a little differently. Here is a brief overview of the alternatives.
- In-Play or Live Betting: wagers can be placed during an event.
- Exchange Betting: also makes use of fixed odds, but there is no bookmaker involved. Instead two parties agree to a wager with one backing a selection, while the other lays the selection.
- Spread Betting: no fixed odds are involved and punters choose whether a number will be higher or lower than the bookmaker’s posted spread, and the amount won or lost depends on how much higher or lower the number is.
- Pari-Mutuel Betting: each punters stakes are paid into a ‘pool’ and at the end of the event, successful wagers are paid out of this pool.
Top Tips for Beginners
- Learn all the basics
- Be patient and realistic
- Set up a budget and stick to it
- Opt for quality of bets over the quantity of bets – be selective
- Always place sports bets online
- Select a reputable online sportsbook
- Shop the lines and odds at multiple online sportsbooks