How to Choose an Online Sportsbook

Sports bettors today have their choice of hundreds of different online sportsbooks to select from. Naturally, some are very good, while others should be avoided at all costs.

With so many sportsbooks out there, a bettor should some time and find the one that suits them the best, based on their preference of play.

When looking for an online sportsbook there are give primary details a prospective customer should look for: financial status, wagering ease, ease of making deposits and withdraws, betting options, and bonus programs.

Of these five, obviously financial status is by far the most important, as it doesn’t matter how many bonuses a sportsbook will give you or how many betting options are available if they don’t pay you when you win.

Financial Status
A sportsbooks’ ability, and willingness, to pay off winners is by far the most important thing a prospective customer should look for. While it can difficult to find out the bottom line of a sportsbooks’ financial standing, there are certain things to look for.

The number of years in business is a good starting place. A sportsbook that doesn’t pay off its losses will soon become known in the sports betting world and will have trouble adding customers.

Prospective customers can also look at various independent sportsbook rating sites, such as Sportsbook Review, to get additional input on a particular sportsbook, and don’t hesitate to check out of some of the posting by sports gamblers on the forums. Many sports bettors have common tales of good sportsbooks and poor sportsbooks. Also, don’t be afraid to ask other sports bettors where they play and if they are happy with their sportsbook.

Wagering Ease
Wagering ease doesn’t have quite the importance it did several years ago, when there were some extremely difficult to use web sites out there. The majority of sportsbooks have simple, easy to use software for you to make your wagers.

Most sportsbooks will let you take a “test drive” of their site before you sign up for an account, so spend a few minutes and make sure you’re comfortable with the betting process.

Ease of Making Financial Transactions
This one is primarily for residents of the United States, who are more likely to run into deposit problems than residents of other countries.

Many sportsbooks use their own financial processors and can generally take credit card deposits, while others will often see credit card deposit attempts rejected by your bank. Intertops, for one, is known to have a high rate of credit card deposits go through, and many times bettors, who will have problems trying to make a straight credit card deposit, will have better luck using their debit card.

Many sportsbooks will mention their success rate somewhere on the web site, so take a few moments to look. Remember, it’s in the sportsbooks’ best interest for your deposit to go through, especially since a bettor is likely to just use another sportsbook instead of going through the trouble of using some type of money transfer or money wire.

Betting Options
Betting options is probably the second most important aspect of choosing a sportsbook, trailing just financial status. Having an account with a sportsbook that doesn’t offer lines on what you would like to bet is simply a waste of time and money.

College totals are a big part of my handicapping, so it would be pointless for me to use somebody like sportsbook.com, which just offers totals on televised college basketball games.

Again, most sportsbooks will let you see odds on the games they are accepting wagers on, so explore the web site before making a deposit. If you want to wager on European hockey games and the sportsbook you are looking at joining doesn’t accept wagers on European hockey, it is easy to find another that will.

Depending on how much you wager on a game, betting limits would also fall under the betting options category, as a $2,200 a game college basketball player wouldn’t be wise to open an account at Bodog, which has a $500 limit on NCAA basketball games, while Olympic will take the entire $2,200, which is their limit.

Likewise, the same would hold true for smaller bettors, who could possibly run into the reverse problem of not wagering enough to meet the sportsbook’s minimum wager.

Bonus Programs
This is one of the most important factors for a number of bettors, who like the concept of free money, which is never a bad thing.

Nearly every sportsbook will offer some sort of incentive for new customers, which in many cases is 20-percent of your initial deposit, and the majority of places will add 10-percent to any additional deposits. Some restrictions may apply, such as bonuses are only given on non-credit card deposits, so be sure to read the fine print with any sportsbook.

The process of selecting an online sportsbook isn’t always an easy one, but by spending a few minutes before signing up, a sports bettor can save a great deal of aggravation down the road.

Don’t be afraid to ask others who they bet with and if they would recommend them to somebody else, and more importantly, spend some time looking into a sportsbook’s willingness to pay. If a sportsbook has a history of non-payment, it is unlikely to change in the change in the future.

Parlays & Teasers

Parlays
Definition: A parlay is a combination of two or more wagers that a bettor links together and all of them must win for the gambler to win their parlay bet.
Examples: Joe won the first four games of his parlay, but lost his bet when his fifth team failed to cover the point spread.

Teasers
Definition: In the sports gambling world, “teaser” is a bet that consists of two or more basketball or football teams and all of the teams have to cover the point spread for the bettor to win. Unlike a parlay, in a teaser the bettor can add or subract points from the point spread and receives lower odds than a parlay in exchange.
Examples: Leroy bet a three-team teaser in the NBA.

Understanding Totals

Many sports bettors believe betting on overs/unders is easier than trying to predict the winner of a game and bookmakers tend to agree with that fact by placing smaller betting limits on overs/unders than they do when betting a team, either against the point spread or on the money line.

Overs/unders, more commonly referred to as totals, are a type of betting opportunity offered to gamblers where they may bet that the final score of a game is over the bookmaker’s posted total or it goes under the number. The winner of a totals bet is determined by adding the final score of both teams. It’s that simple.

Imagine the New York Jets are playing the Miami Dolphins and the posted total is 40. If you bet over on the game, you win your bet if the two teams combine for more than 40 points. If the Dolphins win 24-17, for example, you have made a winning bet. If the Dolphins were to win 24-14, you would lose the over bet, as the final combined score was just 38. If the final score added up to 40, the bet would be considered a push, or a tie, and your money is returned to you.

Football and Basketball Totals
When betting on football and basketball totals, the bettor risks $11 to win $10, just as they do when making a bet against the point spread. If the bookmaker can get an equal amount of money wagered on the over and the under, he is guaranteed to make money no matter what the final score is.

Most NFL football totals will range between 32 and 52, with an average number right around 41 points. If two high scoring teams with poor defenses are playing each other, the total may be posted higher.On rare occasions, two sound defensive teams playing in poor, cold weather, may see the total dip below 32, but this doesn’t happen too often.

College football totals may be even higher, as some teams have great offenses and equally poor defenses. College football totals have been known to reach into the 70-point range.

When a bookmaker accepts a maximum bet on a football total, they will typically adjust the line by .5 points in an effort to attract money bet the other way, although this is at the discretion of the individual bookmaker. They may move the line a full point or they may not move it at all.

Basketball totals work in exactly the same manner as football totals, where the bettor risks $11 to win $10. Naturally, the over/under numbers are much higher, as many more points will be scored in a basketball game, as opposed to a football game, and totals can range from 120, for a low scoring NCAA team, well into the 200s for an NBA game.

When bookmakers accept a maximum wager on a basketball total they will typically respond by adjusting the line 1.5 points in an effort to attract people to be the other way. Example: If the posted total on the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets is 190 and a bettor places a $500 wager on the over, which happens to be the maximum bet allowed at a particular sportsbook. The sportsbook would then raise the total to 191.5 in an attempt to get people to wager money on the under.

Baseball and Hockey Totals
Baseball and hockey totals wagers use the same principal as football and basketball overs/unders, where the bookmaker posts a number and you can bet either over that total or under the total, but there is one essential difference and that rests in the amount of money a bettor must risk to win $100.

Because scoring in baseball and hockey is so much lower than in football or basketball, the bookmakers are reluctant to change the number of a total and instead will adjust the odds. Example: If the over/under number on the Dodgers and the Giants is 9 and a bettor places a $500 wager on the over, the bookmaker is unlikely to raise the total to 9.5. Instead, he will make bettors who wish to wager over 9 risk $120 to win $100, which is written as -120. Those wishing to bet the under would then be able to wager at even money or +100, as totals nearly always use a difference of .2, commonly called “20 cents.”

If people continue to bet the over, the bookmaker will continue to adjust the odds upward and eventually bettors may have to risk $145 to win $100, or -145. In this case, an under bettor would risk $100 to win $125. The bookmaker will generally raise the odds up to -145 before raising the total to the next number, which in this case would be 9.5.

Betting overs/unders is another way to add some excitement to a game and many times will offer more betting value than trying to pick the winner. Many serious bettors concentrate on totals, believing they are easier to win than picking which team is going to cover the spread. Now that you understand overs/unders, you’re closer to experiencing the “total” sports betting adventure.

Betting Basics

If you’ve ever wanted to place a bet on a sporting event, but were overwhelmed by all the talk of odds, point spreads, bookies, and sportsbooks, relax. We’ll have you ready to join the action in no time. While at first glance the world of sports betting can seem to be a complex one, it’s not nearly as daunting as it may first appear.

Sports gambling has been around since the beginning of the United States, and the colonists were known to have wagered on fighting, horse racing, and even cockfighting. Gambling was a long-time tradition in England and it was only natural the colonists would bring their love of gambling across the ocean with them.

In the 1800s, horse racing was the sport of choice among gamblers, with boxing also popular, but as the popularity of baseball increased in the later part of the century, so did baseball betting, and the popularity of wagering on the sport was brought to the forefront during the 1919 World Series, which will live on in infamy as the Black Sox Scandal.

College sports, such as football and basketball, began to catch the public eye in the early stages of the 20th century, and over time, those two sports soon rivaled baseball as popular betting activities. For a number of years, football and basketball bets were placed using odds, a practice that still takes place today and is known as betting with the money line . For a detailed explanation of the money line and how it works, see Understanding Money Lines .

The Advent of the Point Spread
The only problem with the money line is that a number of the college football and basketball games were mismatches and all of the gamblers would be betting on the same team, which is not what the bookmakers want. In the 1940s, the bookmakers changed the face of sports gambling forever when they came out with the point spread . For a detailed explanation of the point spread and how it works, see Understanding Point Spreads .

Simply stated, the point spread is a handicap placed on the expected winner of a football or basketball game in points. If the Lakers are expected to roll past the Clippers, the point spread on the game could be as high as 20 points. Basically, that means 20 points are subtracted from the Lakers score or added to the Clippers score for betting purposes. If a gambler places a bet on the Lakers, they must win by 21 or more points for the gambler to win their bet. Those placing bets on the Clippers will win if the Clippers win the game or lose by 19 points of less.

The primary purpose of the point spread was to help the bookmakers balance their books. Instead of the vast majority of gamblers all betting on the same team, there were more bets placed on both teams. Because the bookmakers make the bettor risk $11 to win $10, balanced action will guarantee the bookmaker a profit regardless of which team wins the game.

The television explosion of the 1950s was another boost for bookies, as sports and television was a perfect match. People soon found out that a wager on a game would add to the excitement of watching the game and sports gambling has been growing at a steady rate every year.

The Start of Totals
Bookmakers aren’t dumb and they quickly realized the more betting opportunities they had for the public, the more wagers the public would make. That thinking led to the creation of totals . Totals, or over/unders, is a betting proposition where gamblers wager on the combined final score, without any regard to the winner of the game.

For a detailed explanation of the totals and how they work, see Understanding Totals.

Betting against the point spread, with the money line, or on totals are the three most popular forms or sports betting that take place today. In recent years, bookmakers have continued to come out with additional betting opportunities, such as parlays and teasers .

These two bets are explained in greater detail in How to Bet Parlays and How to Bet Teasers.

You’re now well on your way to joining the exciting world of sports betting. For the next step, how to begin placing bets, read Getting Started in Sports Betting .

Tuesday’s Top 10

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE_9sXV1LOc

The Daily Zap

Assist of the Night

Steal of the Night

Dunk of the Night

Nightly Notable

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