Sportsbook Betting by Sportsbooksgames.com

  • Added:
    Dec 28, 2012
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1. Always approach the sportsbook games in terms of an entire season.

Don't try to win big on one game and set your goals to win more games than you lose over the long haul of an entire season. If you are serious about success, you must make a plan and remain disciplined. You should plan the proper bet size on each play or game. You should never risk more than 5% of your bankroll on any one play. I would guess that most of the sportsbooks gamblers are wagering too much on each game and ask you not fall into that same trap.  

2. Narrow your weekly gambling choices down and make quality bets.

Narrow your weekly gambling choices down to no more than seven games per week. It's a rare week when more than a few games will stand out as good gambling values. Find these games and you'll better your odds of winning more than you lose. Whatever system you use for your sportsbook betting remember to keep it simple. You don't want to worry so much about how much each play is worth and forget to handicap. If you want to be successful at sports betting remember that money management will be important.  

Types of Sportsbook Bets Include:

Straight bet - Amid all the fancy and lucrative-looking bets that are available, never lose sight of the value in a standard straight bet. You probably should learn and practice this bet often before learning any others, and it should be noted that people who bet for a living or a large portion of their income place straight bets almost exclusively.

The straight bet is simple: it pays 11/10 and you place one by simply picking a team, also known as a "side" or the over/under for points in game, also known as the "total." So you would bet $55 to win $50, $110 to win $100, and so on.

Say the Bears are a six-point favorite over the Lions and the total is 42. To bet the Bears, you must "lay the points," meaning they must win by seven or more to cover and give you the win. Betting the underdog Lions, you are "taking" six points, and they can lose by five or fewer, or win the game outright, and you have a winning bet. If the Bears win by exactly six, both sides "push" and all bets are returned. It's also a push if the final score equals 42, otherwise the over or under will win.

Money line bet - If you are not interested in betting the point spread - although you should be, because it presents the best long-term value - another option available is the money line, in which you lay or take odds relative to the dollar with respect to your team winning or losing.

If you like favorites, you're going to be betting a lot to win a little. The money line will always be listed to the right of the point spread on the odds board in a sports book. In the above example, the money line would probably be Chicago -250 and Detroit +200. To bet Chicago simply to win, you must wager $250 to win $100, while a $100 bet on Detroit would pay $200 if the Lions come through.

Parlays - these might be the most popular bets out there, especially among novice and amateur bettors, perhaps because of the lure of betting a small amount for a potentially big payoff. But they are fool's gold at best. Parlays involve wagering on two or more games on the same bet following the casino's pre-determined payout scale. Each game on a parlay must win for the bet to be a winner.

Although the potential payouts look tempting - many sports bettors have dreamt of cashing in nearly $10,000 by nailing a $10, 10-teamer at 850/1 - they are a bad bet because they are difficult to hit and do not pay anywhere near true odds. This is how the sportsbooks make a lot of their money. For instance, let's say you want to bet a two-team parlay. For two games, there are four different possible combinations of outcomes, thus the true odds are 4/1. However, the sportsbook is only going to pay you 2.6/1 for your efforts, thus giving them a "juice" or vigorish in their favor. However, if you only have $20 to your name for a football bankroll and really like two games, the two-teamer might be the way to go because you could win $52 for your $20 wager.

The house vigorish - and your chances of winning - get worse with the more teams you add. So while some sportsbooks will let you place a 15-teamer with astronomical odds, you probably have a better chance of being struck by lighting - twice - before winning one. You are much better off sticking to two-team parlays exclusively, if you insist on taking poor odds and placing parlay wagers.

Teaser bets - The teaser is so named because it, too, looks tempting, but if you allow yourself to get too seduced, you'll usually end up on the losing end. The teaser bet gives or takes away extra points from the team you back.

However, there are some good values with teaser bets if you know how and where to find them. For instance, the six-point teaser is an especially effective bet in the NFL, where most games are tightly contested and six points can make a world of difference. For instance, in our previous example, the Bears would go from laying six points to simply needing to win if you put them on a teaser bet. Conversely, Detroit backers could get 12 points instead of the starting six.

3. Look for the best early moneyline and point spread values in the season.

Take advantage of early season point spread and money line value before the odds makers have had a chance to catch up with which teams are hot and which teams are not. During the early part of a season, look for teams that are playing much better or worse than expected to get your best value. Many novice handicappers concentrate on how a team performed the previous year, but in this era of salary cap constraints and constant roster turnover, teams never perform at the same level in two consecutive years. In addition, teams that performed well the previous year are no longer a good value because you are laying a much higher price with them, especially at the beginning of the next season. Start your handicapping analysis before the season starts so you'll be ready to take full advantage of the first few weeks of the season.

4. Find the best odds and gambling lines.

One last place to look for value is in the line itself. With hundreds of online sportsbooks already in existence, and more springing up every season, handicapping lines and point spreads will vary from one sportsbook to the next. Having multiple places to shop for the best lines offer bettors an extra point on many games. A few extra wins that would have been pushes, and pushes that would have been losses can make a huge difference in a handicapper's bottom line at the end of a season. A few minutes of shopping around for one last chance of additional value will make certain that you are getting the best odds for your gambling dollars.

5. Use research not trends.

The first type of a sportsbook betting method is where you research as much as possible about the teams and the games specifically, weigh all the relevant substantive factors as best you can, and arrive at your best educated guess as to the likely outcome. The key to this method is a lot of research. The more informed your opinion or intuition is, the better.

The second method involves looking for specific trends that appear to hit at a greater than chance rate, and then betting the games that fit these trends. The overwhelming majority of such trends have little or no predictive value whatsoever. One reason I say this is because there are an infinite number of possible trends like this, so of course you can always go back after the fact and find as many as you want that have hit at a surprisingly high percentage. But you want to identify the ones that will continue to hit at that above chance percentage, and that is a very elusive task. For all intents and purposes, ignore trends and concentrate on trying to figure out who is the better team and by how much.

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Top Sportsbooks will show you some of the things you'll need to know to make better picks and win more money this season. http://www.sportsbooksgames.comis recognized as the authority on offshore sportsbooks having served the betting community since 1999. Please consider this article for publication in your newsletter or on your website. Permission is granted to reprint for free with resource box.


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