Explain Sports Gambling
We do not endorse illegal online gambling. Please check the online gambling regulations in your jurisdiction before placing any wagers with the betting sites advertised on SportsBettingDime.com, as they do vary. SportsBettingDime.com does not target any individuals under the age of 21. A popular term in sports betting is “unit” and below I will explain what bettors mean they refer to a unit, and examples of it being used. A “unit” in sports betting is a measurement of the size of someone’s bet. Sports betting is one of the more popular forms of gambling, because it offers a few advantages over many of the alternatives. In this article we look at its benefits when compared to playing casino games or playing poker, and also some of the other reasons why you might want to try betting on sports. Sports betting is illegal throughout most of the United States, common throughout much of Europe, and an everyday part of the gambling industry in Nevada. It's difficult to figure out how much money is bet on sports in the United States since the majority of it is done illegally, but experts estimate a 'handle' of more than $200 billion.
Understanding Sports OddsNCAA Football Betting Terms
Action: A bet of any kind.
ATS: Abbreviation for Above the Spread
Back-door Cover: This term refers to meaningless points scored late in the game by the underdog team to cover the spread.
Book: A sportsbook or a betting establishment that offers odds and accepts wagers.
Bookie: A person (or establishment) that takes bets on the outcome of sporting events.
Explain Sports Gambling
Cover: If you beat the spread by the required number of points, you’ve ‘covered’ the spread.
Edge: This is the advantage in any wager.
Favorite: This is the team that is expected to win.
Front-door Cover: This is the opposite of Back-door cover. It is used in reference to the favored team scoring meaningless points late in the game to cover the spread.
Explain Sports Gambling Stocks
Futures bet: This refers to placing a bet on any future event in the season. For example, putting down a bet early in the football season for who will win a bowl game.
Handicapper: This is a person who studies and rates sporting events.
Handicapping: This is when someone tries to predict the outcome of any given game.
Home field advantage: The edge a team is supposed to have when they play on their home field. Since the home field is a familiar turf and in front of the home crowd, teams are expected to perform better than they would if they were travelling thus giving them an edge.
Hook: This is a half point added to football odds.
Line: This is the odds, points, money line, or point spread offered on football games.
Linemaker: This is someone that sets the odds, points, money lines, or point spreads for football games.
Lock: This term is used to refer to an easy win.
Longshot: This is a term used to refer to an extreme underdog.
Moneyline: This refers to the amount of money a player must wager in order to win $100, or the amount of money a player wins if they put $100 on the underdog.
Oddsmaker: This is another term for the Linemaker. It is the person who sets the odds, moneyline, or point spread for football games.
Over/Under Bets: This refers to a bet on whether the combined total of the points scored by both teams will be more or less than a set number.
Overlay: This is a term to refer to odds that are higher than they should be. These odds favor the bettor not the house.
Parlay: This is a wager on two or more teams or outcomes where the selections must win in order for the bettor to win.
Past performance: This refers to any given team’s results in past seasons. This is particularly important when betting on NCAA football.
Player: This is a term that refers to any person that puts down a bet on any given sports event.
Point Spread: This is a number of points given to the underdog by the Linemaker in order to handicap the favorite. It can also be thought of in terms of the scoring differential between the two teams. The point spread is used to even the playing field.
Proposition Bet or Props: This is a bet placed on a specific aspect of the game, such as who will score first or how long the longest touch down pass will be.
Soft line: This refers to a line that has been adjusted because of the result of an action. It is not the true posted line.
Underdog: This is a term that refers to the team that is expected to lose.
Underlay: This is a term that refers to odds that lower than they should be. These odds favor the house and not the bettor.
A look at what are sports betting odds, how do they work – explained as we dive into it.
Interested in betting on sports, but don’t understand a thing about it?
Well, let us help. For sports gambling beginners, the first thing you have learn is odds. Let’s use Week 8 of the NFL season for example. The Houston Texans (4-3) host the Miami Dolphins (4-3) on Thursday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET on FOX).
Now, FanDuel, for example, has the game listed as:
Miami Dolphins +7.5 (-110)
Houston Texans -7.5 (-110)
For someone just dipping their toe into the sports betting waters, this could look like some sort of foreign mathematical equation. But it’s not, so there’s nothing to fear.
You can bet on all sports at FanDuel Sportsbook right now. Click here to bet on sports at FanDuel.
The -7.5 signals that oddsmakers at FanDuel have named the Texans as the favorites playing at home on Thursday night. That means, the Texans would need to win the game by eight points or more to cover the spread and win the bet. If they cover that margin and you bet $110, you’ll win $100. If you’d bet $11, you’d win $10. An $1,100 bet on the Texans would get you $1,000.
Now, on the other hand, the underdog Dolphins would need to win or not lose the game by more than seven points to win the bet.
So, let’s say the Texans defeat the Dolphins, 27-20. Although they’re victorious, if you bet $100 on Houston, you’d be out of one Benjamin Franklin because it didn’t win by at least eight points. If you bet on the Dolphins, even though they lost on the field, your bank account wouldn’t know it, as you’d be $100 richer since they lost by seven points or less.
Let’s go with another game, with the undefeated Los Angeles Rams (7-0) hosting the Green Bay Packers (3-2-1) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET on FOX).
FanDuel has that game’s odds listed as:
Green Bay Packers +9.5 (-110)
Los Angeles Rams -9.5 (-110)
Want more advice on how to bet on sports? Check out more of our sports betting guides at MetroBet.
The Rams in this case are the favorites, meaning they’d need to win the game by 10 points or more to cover the spread and win the bet. Not an easy task against Aaron Rodgers. Conversely, the Packers would need to win or not lose by more than nine points for you to win the bet.
Most sports’ odds work in the same way and look similar, so, comb through as many as possible until you get comfortable. Then, wager wisely.