Sports betting has different types of bets and odds that are comprehensive in wagering, making sports watching interesting.
MoneyLine Betting
Moneyline betting is the simplest type of sports betting. In moneyline sports betting, you must pick one team to win the game out of two teams, A and B.
Before placing a moneyline bet, bettors do a lot of research about both teams. Sportsbook websites announce the odds when a matchup is announced in football, basketball, and other sports. These odds are based on home versus away performance, matchup edges, and recent play of the teams. Similarly, each sport has some player matchup edges that can impact the game. Two different sportsbooks can give varied moneyline odds of one matchup.
Now let’s look at what the – and + odds mean. In the table below the odds of team, A are given with the minus sign. The minus sign preceding the number shows that team A is the favourite, which means it has more chance of winning the game. Similarly, the odds of team B are shown in positive numbers, which means the team has fewer chances of winning.
In American odds betting, everything is based on winning 100 units. However European methods of calculating odds are based on decimal odds.
So the minus sign value shows how much money you should bet to gain 100$. In contrast, the plus number shows what you will win if you bet 100$. Let’s look at an example of money line odds.
| Teams | Moneyline Odds |
| Team A | -140 |
| Team B | +170 |
If you wager on Team B, you only need to bet 36$ to win 100$ because this team is the underdog. But for Team A, you need to bet 140$ to win 100$ which means you will win a total of $240 along with your deposit amount.
Point Spreads
In point spreads, oddsmakers make matchups between the two unbalanced teams by adding and subtracting their points. The team represented by the – sign is considered a favourite team and has more chances of winning. The oddsmaker subtracts some points from it, and these points are added to the final score of the + team.
Spread betting is mostly used for football to create excitement and good odds rather than just choosing a winner. Here is an example of the point spread.
| Teams | Odds | Point Spread |
| A | -110 | -4.5 |
| B | -110 | +4.5 |
As you can see, team A is -4.5 which means it is the favourite team. It means that team A must win the game by five points or more to win the bet. Contrarily, team B is the underdog, which means that to win the bet, they need to win the game outright or not lose the game by more than 4 points.
In sports betting, money lines and points spread are the most common types of bets, in which you bet on the outright winning team or against it.
Total Bets Or Over/Under Betting
There is another type of exciting bet that sportsbooks offer, and that is a total bet or Over/Under betting.
In a total bet or Over/Under Betting, you bet on the combined score of both teams. You must select whether the combined score of both teams will be over or under the score set by the sportsbook.
Let’s suppose there are two teams, A and B, and the set total is 48.5. If you are betting on this game, you will bet for over if you believe that both teams will score 49 or more. But you should bet for under if you think they will make 48 or less.
Prop Betting
Prop betting is also known as preposition betting. In prop betting, you can bet on the occurrence during the game, and it doesn’t affect the sport’s outcome.
In-game Betting
In in-game betting, Canadian sports fans place bets on the game after the game has started. In-game betting is the simple betting on a game while it’s occurring. In-game betting odds usually change during commercial breaks and timeouts.
Sportsbooks configure new lines on the game constantly based on how the game is progressing. For example, if a team is constantly scoring low in the initial stage of the match and is losing by a bunch of points, but you have a feeling that they will return victorious, bet on the match this way. So you will get a profitable line on that bet if you win.
Parlays
A parlay bet is a bet in which a bettor places more than two bets and unites them together, then takes the profit of all of those bets by winning them together. But if the bettor loses any single bet from the parlay, he will lose all his bets, but if he wins all bets in the parlay, they will get a huge payout.
Parlay bets are popular because bettors can win huge amounts of money by investing little money. However, parlay bets are riskier than other bets.
For example, if the bettor places a parlay bet of $100 on three teams with team A +100, team B +203, and team C +150. If all the three-team win, the bettor will win $1515. But if one of the three teams loses, he will lose all his money.
