Different Online Sports Wagering Types Explained

Welcome to Don Best Sports, I’m Kenny White.

I’ve been in the sports betting industry for over 30 years in Las Vegas. I worked my way up from a ticket writer – as most of the guys and girls on our staff at Don Best have – to an oddsmaker and that’s what I’ve been doing for many years. In my time I have made odds on just about every different sport you can possibly think of.

There are many different types of bets we talk about, such as straight bets. This is one team or one event. It could be one team, over/under, prop bet. The betting odds on most straight bets are 11/10 but they can vary with different money line bets. For example, when you have a huge favourite you could lay up to 1/20, laying $2000 dollars to win $100. You could lay up to $200,000 to win $100 if the odds were 1/2000.

Those type of wagers are very rarely seen but that’s how a straight bet works. When you win you get the money back that you put up plus the money back that the wager would win. If it’s 11/10 you bet $11 to win $10 so you’d get back $21.

That’s American style betting. In the UK things are a little different. For example, in some wager shops the winning bet pays the Vigorish but in the US the losing bet loses the Vig, the winning bet gets the Vig back.

As well as straight bets you also have Parlays. Two-team, three-team, four-team, five-team Parlays and above. With 15-team Parlays $5 will win you a million dollars at a lot of places in the state of Nevada, New Jersey now too with regulated sportsbooks popping up everywhere in the US.

Another popular type of bet is a teaser. Teaser bets in football are usually 6, 6.5 or 7 points to your advantage. So, if your favourite team is -7 and you do a 6-point teaser you are now -1. The object of that bet is you have to pick two teams and tease both to get a six-point advantage.

Those bets are a -120 or $12 to win $10. 6.5 points would make it $13 to win $10 and 7 points would be $14 to win $10. The more points you get in your favour the more money you have to bet to get your one unit wager.

There’s also first-half betting, second-half betting, in-game betting, first-quarter betting, second-quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter betting. Team betting, under/over wagers on total points scored in the game or in any of the sections already mentioned. For example, you can bet a total on any quarter of a game before it starts. In-game betting allows you to bet the teams, the sides, the totals. During the game there are many prop bets available.

That’s the many different types of bets to make when you’re betting sports. It’s a big menu but just make sure you shop carefully.

Stay tuned to Don Best for more great sports information.