Sports betting is a popular pastime in the United States. Bettors place bets on their favorite sports and hope to see a specific outcome come true. Should the outcome they predicted come true, they will win a real money prize. The best sports books provide American gamblers with the chance to bet on all the most popular sports. Options include football, basketball, hockey, baseball, soccer and horse racing, amongst others. Read on belo
w to find out more about online sports betting at casinos online in the USA and the wonders of this fun-filled hobby.
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What You’ll Find On This Page
- How Does Sports Betting Work?
- Best Sports for Online Betting
- Odds on Sports Betting
- Is Online Sports Betting Legal?
How Does Sports Betting Work?
Sports betting is rather simple to understand. All bettors need to do to place a bet is pick a sport, select the type of bet you would like to place and then wait for the results. Should your prediction come true, you win the bet and an amount of real money based on the odds of the bet you made.
Many Americans agree that bets often make watching your favorite sport so much more exciting. This is especially true when one looks at the different types of bets you can make while betting online. Some of the most popular bets offered at the best online sports betting sites include the following:
- Live betting – these are bets made on sports that are currently taking place. For example, placing a half-time wager on an NFL game that suggests the trailing team will overcome the deficit to win.
- Pari-Mutuel Betting – bets which are made against other bettors rather than bookie. These bets don’t really offer fixed odds and payouts change according to how many people bet on a specific outcome. Or, how many people are involved in the pot.
- Spread Betting – bets that are based on trying to get the most accurate prediction rather than just stating who won or lost.
- Futures – selecting a team to win the sport’s championship game (for example, the Superbowl or Stanley Cup) long before the actual game takes place.
Best Sports for Online Betting
There are loads of betting options available at the best bookies for the most popular sports in the US. Some of the sports that have proven to be extremely popular with our players include the following:
- Football – it is no secret that football is the most popular sport among Americans. With the NFL and NCAAF drawing millions of viewers each week, it really is no surprise that all of the best online sports betting websites provide bettors with loads of wagering options. This includes futures, under/over bets and spread bets, among others.
- Baseball – known as the sport most associated with American history and culture, baseball is a popular betting option with players able to bet on loads of different factors. While watching an MLB match-up, bettors can place wagers such as overs and under, basic bets and player bets based on a singular stat (for example, how many homeruns he will score in a season.)
- Basketball – there are two huge basketball betting options in the United States – the NBA and the NCAAB. Sportsbooks that offer both of these options provide fans with multiple betting options. This includes bracketology based bets, futures and many more.
- Hockey – the NHL is home to some of the craziest feats in professional sports. With the sports league being one of the most popular in the United States, betting options based on league games are quite popular at top sports books. Players can place futures, player bets, prop bets and puckline bets at the top sports betting sites.
- Golf – betting on golf can involve betting on a particular player’s performance over a season, trying to guess if a player will be able to strike a hole in one at a specific tournament and simply betting on who might win a particular tournament.
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Odds on Sports Betting
The odds on a bet determines how much a player will win on a particular wager. It is important to note though that in sports betting, there are multiple ways through which odds can be displayed. There are three popular odds systems used at the sports books around the world: American, fractional and decimal.
- American Odds – as the name suggests, these are the odds that players will generally tend to find at US-based sportsbooks. They are displayed with positive and negative signs to denote favorites and underdogs in a match. For example, +300 underdogs vs -200 favorites. The symbol is used to help players determine how much they will win in a particular bet. In this particular case, bettors would win $50 on a $100 bet on the favorites and $300 for a $100 bet on the underdogs.
- Fractional Odds – this system is very popular at UK bookmakers and thus American bettors won’t really need to learn how they work. However, if you’re curious about how they’re displayed, teams, players or outcomes will have a fraction like 2/1 next to them. This denotes how much players can expect to win from making a particular bet.
- Decimal Odds – this system is quite popular in mainland European countries (i.e. not the UK). Odds are displayed as follows: FC Barcelona (3.00) vs Real Madrid (1.33). Bettors just multiply their bet by the figure to understand how much they have a chance of winning.
Is Online Sports Betting Legal?
This is a rather complicated issue at the moment. While in May of 2018, the Supreme Court removed a ban on all forms of sports betting, it is up to each state to decide on their own whether sports betting is legal in their territory.
Then, the whole idea of online gambling is another issue in itself. It is very possible that while some states may allow sports betting, they do not necessarily allow online gambling. This means that Americans living in these states will need to look for a land-based sportsbook to place a wager.
Ultimately, anyone who wishes to place a sports bet online in the United States needs to double check the laws within the state that they live to see if they allow for online sports betting. (General rule of thumb is that most gambling activities will be legal in New Jersey and Nevada. This is due to the economy of both of these states being so heavily reliant on gambling tourism/activity.)
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