Tag: Guide to Sports Gambling
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Things to Consider Before Placing That Sports Bet
The Big Game is happening is less than three weeks and you know what that means--sports junkies will go crazy placing bets. But what if you've never placed a sports bet? If you're starting to feel left out of the frenzy, don't worry. Over the next few days, we're giving you Sports Gambling noobz a quick how-to on placing bets from our newest contributor, Seth Gruen. Today, he's talking about doing a little research before your first bet.
If you know your sports and sports teams well, that’s a pretty good start to being an educated sports gambler. Most vital, though, is taking that knowledge and using it to determine how the lines and odds are moving in the days and hours leading up to an event.
Now, you don't have to go crazy trying to track down a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac before you place a bet but rather, keep these three factors in mind:
1. Injuries: Injuries will have the most obvious effects on bet outcomes and lines. Players play the games. If a specific player won’t play in the game or will be limited due to injury, that will most obviously affect the outcome of a bet.
How much? Well, that’s up to you. In determining that answer, it’s most important to examine an injured player’s importance when healthy. In football, a star quarterback (cough, Peyton Manning, cough) has more of an impact than a star lineman, for example. But often there aren’t any detrimental injuries so they can’t always be relied upon as an indicator.
Guide to Sports Gambling / Placing Bets / Sportsbooks / → All Tags
A Guide to The Types of Bets You Can Make in Sportsbooks
The Big Game is happening is less than three weeks and you know what that means--sports junkies will go crazy placing bets. But what if you've never placed a sports bet? If you're starting to feel left out of the frenzy, don't worry. Over the next few days, we're giving you Sports Gambling noobz a quick how-to on placing bets from our newest contributor, Seth Gruen. Today, he's talking about the kinds of bets to make.
Walking into a sportsbook can be as overwhelming as staring down a craps table. Winning a bet is as much a byproduct of an individual’s knowledge of the teams and players as it is understanding a bet.
There are five bets most common among sports gamblers. Here's what you need to know:
The Spread: Almost every game in football and basketball has a spread associated with it. In other words, one team is typically favored. On rare occasions, a spread doesn’t exist if odds makers are feel the teams are so evenly matched (and of course that the sportsbook will still get its 50/50 split on each side of the bet.) That’s called a "Pick ‘em." But under most circumstances a line is created in which one team is favored by a certain number of points.
For example if the Green Bay Packers host the Chicago Bears they could be favored by 7.5 points. If the Packers win by more than 7.5 points, those betting on the Packers win. If the Bears lose by less than 7.5 points or win, those betting on the Bears would win.
As a general rule, the home team gets three points in its favor. So if the two teams played in Chicago, based on the fictional spread of 7.5 points in Green Bay, the Packers would be favored by 4.5 points.
Guide to Sports Gambling / Placing Bets / Sportsbooks / → All Tags
Clueless About Placing a Sports Bet? We're Here to Help
The Big Game is happening is less than three weeks and you know what that means--sports junkies will go crazy placing bets. But what if you've never placed a sports bet? If you're starting to feel left out of the frenzy, don't worry. Over the next few days, we're giving you Sports Gambling noobz a quick how-to on placing bets from our newest contributor, Seth Gruen. Today, he's starting with the obvious.
It's painfully obvious that casino sportsbooks are no different from the casinos that house them--they're in it to make money. And if you remember me as the jerk who thought he was smarter than everyone by stating the obvious (though I promise this isn’t the case), that’s fine. You’ll at least remember the most important aspect of any sportsbook bet. Let me repeat it for you again--casino sportsbooks are in it to make money.
So how do they do it? Well, it's actually quite clever.
Spreads, lines, over/unders and odds are all created so that a certain percentage of people bet each way, creating balance (or imbalance) on each side of a bet that yield a profit for the sportsbook.
