Sports betting can be overwhelming and intimidating with all the odds and figures to deal with but to enhance watching sports there is no more fun way to do so than placing a bet. 

Once you have placed a wager on a team or horse the rush that you get is exhilarating especially when there is money to win!  Professional sports gamblers can make a lot of money doing and for big South African National sports occasions sometimes it is quite sociable and communal to each pick a team or winner with a group of friends or family.

Although there is lots of new complex betting lingo, types and ways of going about it the simple principle of betting still remains the same as it was 500 years ago.  To place sports bets you are predicting the outcome of the winner. So for example, horse racing if you select a horse you are predicting the likelihood of that horse being faster than others.  Where the competition side comes in is the point spread because if all sports gamblers had to do were to pick the winning team in a game, everybody would simply wager on the best team and collect their money. Therefore sports books create a point spread, to make both teams odds look equally so if the underdog wins then you win more and if the favourite wins you win less.

So there’s the theory of sports betting– now what to do when you go to place your bet.

The stake is the amount of money that you want to gamble with and if you do win then your returns are calculated according to the odds at which your bet was agreed. The basic of sports odds is that it is simply the chance or probability of a certain outcome in a sports game or match.  Every outcome of the game or race has a likelihood or chance of happening odds are the numerical interpretation of this. Sports books create the odds they think will entice customers without losing their own profit. There are different types of odds, American, fractional and decimal. Decimal odds are probably the easiest to understand and work out from the original stake made because the figure quoted is the exact amount that will be paid out if the bet is a winner. Decimal odds are essentially equivalent to the decimal value of the fractional odds, plus one.

When placing a bet even that can get confusing as there are different types of bets you can place. The three most common types of bet are: each way, win bet and lay bet. Each way bets are a way of guaranteeing a win as there are more possible ways to win. If a horse or team in a league comes either 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd then you still win the bet.  There is a simple win bet where if a bet is placed on a sports team or player and that wins then you win the bet and the money you agreed upon.  A lay bet is a bet on the sports outcome that you think won’t happen or the rugby team for example, that you think won’t win and if that comes true then you make a profit.

There other types of bet that have become more popular too such as the multiple bets or parlays where bets are put on a few teams or outcomes and if they all are victorious you get a substantially greater amount of money than just putting a bet on one but if any one of them don’t you lose all your stake. One of the modern phenomenon’s that has come from online sports books is in play betting – bets that take place whilst the sports event is happening. You can bet on live play because of the speed in which bets can take place today.

How to place bets?  Using an online sports book has become the most popular way of doing so and there are many different ones to choose from, some with more competitive odds others with exciting promotions to tempt you to sign up to theirs.

There are now also more extras and gadgets on this sites to help you make a more educated guess about the sports event you are about to bet on such as statistic tables and winnings calculators that will give you more than the basics of sports betting.