GamingTips

Alright.  So sports betting is somewhat foreign to me, but I am trying to learn about it, and I will share as I learn.  In the meantime, I do understand  a couple of the key points, and I’ll take this opportunity to share it.

#1) No guide to sports betting will ever be complete.  More so than any other kind of gambling, anything goes.  Casinos will post numerous proposition bets.  If, like me, you live in Vegas, and you really want to bet on exactly how many free throws a certain player will make this season, or how many yards a quarterback will pass in 2010, you can probably find a casino that will take this bet.  Not that I reccomend this, as, just like bonus bets or proposition bets on the casino floor, these propositions tend to have worse odds (although more dramatic payouts) than other bets.

#2)  The race and sports book makes its money on commissions.  Although I’ve heard that they will try to set certain games at artificial levels, knowing that some teams’ fans will always bet with that team, I’m not sure if that’s true.  They deal with the reality that there will always be winners and losers.  Their goal is to set the money line or spread (see below) as competitively as possible.  Think of it this way.  If team A and team B have equal numbers of bettors, and equal money bet on them, whether A wins or B wins, the other side covers the book’s losses.  They can then make money on their commission.

#3)  There are two basic types of bet which are very common in sports books.  The first is a money line bet.  I’ll cover this more in depth in another post, but, essentially, it is a bet that team A beats team B or vice versa.  The score does not matter.  This bet usually pays at some kind of odds, based on the standings of the two teams.

#4)  The second common type of bet is the spread.  This is also a team that team A will beat team B or vice versa.  It pays even money (except commission), however, and the score does matter.  If the spread favors team A by 6.5 points, they must actually cover the spread (that is, win by at least 7 points) in order for betters who bet on team A to win.  Even if team A wins, but only wins by 3 points, or even 6 points, team B’s betters will win on this particular spread.  This is essentially a way to handicap the game, instead of paying at some calculated odds.

Look for more on this topic soon.  Thanks!