Get Started With Online Sports Betting

Yes, but there’s always a catch. In 1992, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was passed, which prohibited states from offering regulated sports betting if they hadn’t already done so. In May 2018, the Supreme Court struck down PASPA, which opened the door for states to offer legal sports betting. So there are no federal guidelines when it comes to sports wagering in the United States, it’s up to the individual states to set their regulations.

The point spread is the great equalizer. Who would want to bet on a football game between the best team in the league and the worst? The outcome gets a lot more interesting when you give the bad team a two-touchdown head start. Betting on the favorite with the point spread requires that team to win the contest by a certain amount of points. Betting on the underdog with the point spread will allow that team to lose the contest, as long as it's not by more than the posted number.

A parlay is a multi-wager bet that requires all the legs to win in order for you to cash your ticket. The more teams you include, the more money you can potentially win. But if any of your selections fail to win or cover the point spread, your ticket is toast. Each oddsmaker has their own individual rules for what events can and cannot be parlayed, so make sure that you are familiar with your book's house rules.

Betting on baseball is different from basketball and football because the majority of baseball betting is done on the moneyline, and not with a point spread. Generally speaking, baseball betting is all about picking the winning team. When good teams play bad teams, it’s not uncommon to see the better team as a -300 favorite, or even into the -400’s. The average bettor is afraid to lay a price like that, but for some professionals, there’s value in laying those big numbers in the right situation. But don’t forget: Even the worst teams in the league will still win 55+ times during the course of the season.

Betting on the moneyline means that your team just needs to win the game. There are no point spreads involved. Moneyline bets are displayed on a $100 scale, with the favorite having a minus displayed in front of their number, and the underdog having a plus in front.

If you are looking to play the favorite on the moneyline, that's the number that you need to lay in order to win $100. If you are betting on a -200 favorite, you need to lay $200 to profit $100, and you would collect $300. If you are betting on the underdog, the number that you see is the amount that you would win off a $100 bet. If you are looking to play a +175 underdog on the moneyline, you would lay $100 to profit $175 and collect $275. Again, there are no point spreads involved, you are simply picking the winner of the game.

You are wagering on how many total points both teams will score in the contest. Pro baseball totals are typically around 9 runs in a game. Pro basketball totals are usually around 210 points. Pro hockey games usually have a total around 6 goals. Pro football totals are typically in the mid-to-upper 40's. You are placing a wager on whether the total points scored between both teams in the contest will go over or under that number.

Every football and basketball game will have a point spread associated with it. Betting on the favorite with the point spread requires that team to win the contest by a certain amount of points. Betting on the underdog with the point spread will allow that team to lose the contest, as long as it's not by more than the posted number. Hockey and baseball also have point spreads, but they work a little different. In hockey (the puckline) and baseball (the runline), the favorite is always -1.5 on the spread with the underdog at +1.5. Betting on the favorite requires your hockey or baseball team to win its game by two or more runs. Conversely, betting on the underdog at +1.5 means that your team can lose by either one run or one goal, and your ticket will still cash.

Your team has beaten the mark set by the oddsmaker. If you bet on a -7 favorite to cover the spread in a football game, your team needs to win the game by eight points or more. If they don't, then you failed to cover the spread. If you bet on a +10 underdog in a basketball game, your team can either a) Win the game in an upset; or b) Lose the game by nine points or fewer. If they accomplish either of those things, then you covered the spread.

Betting against the spread goes beyond the simple wins and losses of a sporting event. Betting on the favorite requires your team to win the game by a certain point margin. Betting on an underdog allows your team to lose the game, as long as it's not by more than the given number of points.

Odds determine your potential payout on a winning bet. If you're looking to make a single wager against the spread in a football or basketball game, the odds for an individual bet at most sports books are -110. That means that you have to lay $110 to profit $100, and collect $210. You need to lay $11 to win $10, and collect $21. Etc.

But betting odds go well beyond individual wagers. It's important to know what your odds are when making a futures bet on a team to win their championship. It's also important to analyze the odds on parlay bets to make sure that you are getting the best bang for your buck. From parlay calculators to odds conversion charts, there are plenty of tools available for bettors to analyze their odds.

When looking to bet an individual basketball or football game against the spread, you will traditionally have odds of -110. That is the industry standard. In some circumstances, oddsmakers will shade the vig (i.e. the "juice") toward one team to attract some bets toward a certain side and help them balance their books. For example, 3 is a very important number in football because more games finish with a winning margin of 3 points than any other potential outcome. Oddsmakers are very careful with creating point spreads around the number 3 because of how often games end with a 3-point margin. So instead of moving the point spread from -3 to -2.5 or -3.5, oddsmakers will keep the spread at -3 and shift the odds from -110 on each side to -105/-115 or +100/-120.

The reason oddsmakers are so careful with moving the "juice" and not moving the actual point spread is because they don't want to get middled. Middling occurs when groups who bet on the favorite AND the underdog at different point spreads both win. If Group A bets on the favorite at -2.5 and two days later the spread is up to 3.5, Group B swoops in to take the underdog at +3.5. If the game ends 17-14, both groups have just won.

If you are serious about taking sports betting beyond a fun, recreational hobby, it's important to have access to multiple sports books, if possible. Making sure that you are getting the best numbers at the best odds will help you become a profitable long-term bettor.