Sports Betting Information

Sports betting is the practice of making wagers (bets) on the outcomes of sporting events. Generally, sports betting is done through a bookmaker, also called a "bookie" in slang. The bookmaker's role is to act as a market maker for wagers. Wagers are often based a win or lose outcome. The bookie accepts wagers and maintains a spread. The spread will ensure a profit no matter what the wager's outcome.

Type of Sports Betting

There are different types of sports betting that bettors commonly engage in. Here are the main types:

• Proposition bets: Wagers made on a specific result of a sporting match (football, baseball, etc.). For instance, guessing whether a particular player will score in a game or the number of goals each team will score.
• Parlays: Multiple bets, up to 12, with a large payout. The bettor is wagering that all of his bets will win, which makes for a higher payout than if he had made each bet individually.
• Progressive Parlays: Multiple bets, up to 12, which is like a parlay except that even if some of the bets lose a reduced payout is still made.
• Teasers: A bettor can combine bets on two or more different games.
• Run line, puck line or goal line: This type of bet has a fixed point spread that can offer a higher payout for the favorite with a lower payout for the underdog.
• Future Wagers: This type of bet has a long term horizon based in weeks or months, for instance a bet that in the coming season an NFL team will win the Super Bowl.
• Head to Head: This type of bed predicts results of competitors against each other (rather than the overall event outcome).
• Totalizators (flexible-rate bets): Changing odds in real time based on the share of total exchange each possible outcome receives and taking into account the return rate of the bookie.