Sports Betting Beginners

By Al Westfall

There are countless new sports betting players that take up sports betting both on vacation trips to Las Vegas, but also at online sports betting websites, so if you are a new sports betting player, or thinking about becoming a sports betting player, or a veteran sports betting player, for that matter, here is a guide to the basics of sports betting both at casino sports books and online sports betting websites.

Sports handicapping on football against the sports betting odds is the most popular form of sports betting both in Nevada where sports betting is legal and at online sports betting websites. Football draws in so much more sports betting business both at Nevada casino sportsbooks and online sports betting websites that the rest of the sports pale in comparison as far as popularity with and business from sports betting players.

The most common way for a sports betting player to make a bet on football is against the pointspread. The pointspread in sports betting is like a handicap and is what the number of points added to or subtracted from one team’s total final score to determine the sports betting winner. Let’s say, for example, that the Kansas City Chiefs are installed by an online sports betting website as a seven-point favorite over the Oakland Raiders. This means that the Chiefs would have to win the game by MORE than seven points for the sports betting players that made their sports betting football picks on the Chiefs. If the Chiefs lose to the Raiders straight up or win by LESS than seven points the sports betting victory would be on the Raiders. This is the jest of how sports betting odds work with football pointspreads at casino sportsbooks and online sports betting websites.

The pointspread is the most common form of sports betting odds posted by casino sportsbooks and online sports betting websites on football games. In addition to the pointspreads both the casino sportsbooks and online sports betting websites have what is known as “juice” or “vigorish”, (AKA “vig”), which is generally 10% above what a sports betting player is trying to win on his sports betting wager. Using are Chiefs/Raiders example if a sports betting player wanted to win $100 on the Chiefs he would have to bet $110 at his online sports betting website. The same would hold true for the sports betting player taking the Raiders. The difference would be the pointspread of seven points posted by the online sports betting website.