I know that you are anxiously waiting for February 3, 2019, and the 53rd Super Bowl Sunday. It is the sports event that has acquired the status of almost a national holiday over the years when the families across America gather to celebrate the peak of the NFL season.
The Americans are as passionate at cheering and supporting their favorites as they are at betting on them, which makes the Super Bowl the most bet on a sports event in the United States. There were more than $120 million in bets on the Super bowl game in 2014. The online sports betting appeared on the gambling scene, providing the opportunity for millions to bet without leaving the house, which made this event even more lucrative for earning a considerable amount of money.
You must have started wondering by now: ”How can I get a piece of this action?”
Don’t worry, if you’ve always wanted to try out sports betting online but you didn’t know where to start, all you have to do is follow these simple steps.
Choose a Reliable Sportsbook Site
Do the homework and use various sources to find out as much as you can about the betting site you’ve chosen, since there are plenty of scam ones in such a vast space that is the Internet, just waiting to take your money.
You can visit many of the so-called Watchdog sites that contain comprehensive lists of rogue betting sites that they update regularly. Once you land on a trustworthy site, make sure you get to know some of the essential things about them. For example, extremely important information for players is what options the site offers for paying out their customers.
The top betting sites do their best to offer various deposit and payment options to the players:
- E-wallets are the most popular way to deposit and withdraw money at the moment. This popularity stems from the fact that the transactions are super fast and safe because you don’t need to leave any personal info to make a deposit or get your winnings. The well-known e-wallets are Neteller and Skrill.
- Most of the casinos accept Visa and MasterCard for placing deposits, although many people avoid this from fear of revealing confidential information on the Net.
- There is also a classic way of money transfer like Bank Wire, Moneygram, or Western Union for those not used to novelties.
Make an Effort and Read the Terms and Conditions
Everyone wants to avoid unpleasant surprises when bonuses are in question. Namely, once you claim many of these bonuses, the site requires you to spend your deposit money and the bonus money on betting several times before letting you cash out. This requirement is also known as a rollover requirement. Moreover, you should get to know what the minimum and maximum bets are so that you can adjust your wagering amount to your bankroll.
Get Familiar with the Vig
Another important feature of online sports betting is the vig, or “vigorish.” The vig is a percentage a betting site takes from every bet placed as a kind of compensation for providing a service, and the total payout will be reduced by this percentage.
Let the Games Begin
Once you have opened your account on the sports betting site, the essential thing to get familiar with before placing a bet on a specific sporting event are the odds. Odds represent the probability that a certain outcome will occur. Sportsbooks set the odds for various sports events so that players are aware of them and can choose the specific one based on odds. The main factor in determining the odds are the statuses of a favorite and the underdog, but there are so many other factors like the weather conditions or the physical state of a team’s best player that can affect the outcome.
That’s why it is great that all the odds are already offered when you land on the betting site. However, they are susceptible to changes until the very start of the game, and the sportsbooks are in charge of that. It is important to note that online bookies observe the dynamics of betting so that they can change its course. For example, if most people play it safe and bet on the favorite with low payouts, the sportsbook is going to increase the vig for placing bets on the favorite to win or lower the payouts for betting on the underdog. They do this to motivate bettors to place their bets on a certain team. Now that you understand the basic elements of sports betting, it is time to make your first bet, so let’s see what the most common forms of betting are:
Moneyline Bet
This kind of betting is the simplest because you only have to predict whether a particular team is going to win, lose, or the game will be a tie. The payouts on the underdog winning will be high, and they will offer bigger winnings. However, the payouts on the favorite to win are always low because this is a more realistic outcome so the expected payout will be lower. However, if you are a beginner, try to stick to betting on favorites and earn smaller sums until you learn the ropes.
Point Spread Bet
While the money line bet is the simplest way of betting, the point spread bet is the most popular among the bettors. Here, you don’t bet on the winner, i.e., which team will win or lose the game. Instead, you bet on a difference by which one team will win or lose the game in order to win this bet. For example, when the spread is 3 points, this means you will get the money if the favorite wins the game with 3 points or more, i.e., if it covers the spread. However, if the favorite wins by less than three points, you will lose money.
Total Bet
This kind of betting is also quite common. Here, you don’t bet on a certain team to win or lose. This is a bet you place on the total number of points scored in a match. You choose a number, and you have two options from there. You can bet that the total number of points will be either under or over the number you have chosen. The total bets, just like the point spread bets, have a higher vig than the classic moneyline.
And that’s about everything you need to know to become a successful bettor and start earning money. Although I’ve based this text on football betting, let’s not forget that Americans also love to bet on hockey and basketball games as well.
Finally, now that you are equipped with this essential tips-pack, you can start your betting adventure, just in time to gain enough confidence and experience before the Super Bowl Sunday comes.