Betting on sports has become one of the most popular forms of gambling in recent years. With the advent of online betting sites that can be found here offering a safe experience and some of the best bonuses, it's now easier than ever to place a bet on your favorite team or athlete. But if you're new to sports betting, where do you start? There are hundreds of different bet types available, so it can be overwhelming trying to figure out which one is right for you.
Luckily, we've put together a list of the 5 most popular sports bet types to help you get started. Read on to learn more about moneyline, point spread, parlay, prop, and futures bets.
Moneyline Bets
A moneyline bet is simply a bet on which team or individual will win the game outright. No point spreads or other fancy math is involved—it's a straightforward wager on who you think will come out on top. Moneyline bets are one of the most popular types of sports bets because they're easy to understand and don't require any knowledge of the sport beyond a basic understanding of the teams or individuals involved.
Point Spread Bets
A point spread bet is a bet in which you pick not only the winner of the game but also how much they'll win by. For example, let's say that Team A is playing Team B and Team A is favored to win by 7 points. If you bet on Team A, they must win the game by more than 7 points for you to win your bet. If they win by exactly 7 points, then it's a push (a tie) and your original bet is refunded.
Point spread bets are one of the most popular types of bets because they add an extra level of skill to handicapping games. In order to win a point spread bet, you not only have to correctly pick the winner, but you also have to correctly predict how much they'll win by. This can be difficult to do if you don't know much about the sport or teams involved, which is why point spread bets are generally considered more advanced than moneyline bets.
Parlay Bets
A parlay bet is a type of bet that involves multiple different bets—usually 2-10—that are all placed together as one wager. If any one of those individual bets loses, then the entire parlay loses. However, if all of those individual bets win, then the parlay also wins and pays out at higher odds than each individual bet would have paid out alone. Parlays are one of the most popular types of sports bets because they offer big payouts—but only if all of your picks are correct!
Prop Bets
A prop (short for “proposition”) bet is a type of wager that doesn't directly involve picking who will win or lose the game. Instead, prop bets usually focus on an individual player or team statistics like how many points someone will score or how many sacks a team will rack up. Prop bets can be found for just about any sport, but they're especially popular in football and basketball because there are so many things that can happen during those games that aren't necessarily related to who wins or loses.
Futures Bets
Futures bets are wagers placed on events that will happen at some point in the future – usually at the end of a season or tournament. For example, you might place a futures bet on which team will win next year's Super Bowl before the current season has even ended. Futures bets generally have longer odds than other types of sports bets because there's more uncertainty involved – after all, anything can happen between now and then!
Conclusion
As can be seen, there is a lot that needs to be considered if you are participating in sports betting for the very first time. The five different bet types highlighted above should be considered the best places to begin.
