by The Sports Girl
This is the first in a series of lessons I will
be writing for the women at The Gamble Goddess. More and more
women are getting involved in sportsbetting and finding that it
can be very fun and rewarding. So I am here to teach you what
you need to know from the basics all the way to the advanced level.
I will also be on the forums
with advice and tips and you can ask me questions there. So comeback
often as I will be adding new information frequently.
So, you've looked at a couple sportsbooks and
you want to know what they're talking about? Well, there's nothing
to get intimidated about. Once you read through this you'll understand
the basic bets you can place. There are a few different kinds
but I'll stick to the main ones for now - Spreads, Totals
(or Over/Unders) and Money Lines.
Spreads - Spreads
are the most popular form of sportsbetting there is. They may
seem a little confusing at first but they are very simple. In
Spreads, the team that is favored has to win by a certain amount
to win the bet. For example: if Miami is playing Boston and they
are favored by 10.5 points, they must win by more than 10.5 points
for you to win the bet. If you bet on Miami, as long as they don't
lose by more than 10.5 points you will win. Basically you are
adding 10.5 points to the underdogs score at the end of the game.
It's that simple.
For Spreads, you bet $1.10 to win $1.00. As well,
the payout is the same for both teams. In this way it is very
straight forward as you just pick one of the two teams and you
win the same amount.
Totals (Over/Unders)
- Totals are based upon the combined score of the game and
it doesn't matter who wins. All you do is bet on whether you think
the combined score will be above or below a certain level. For
example, in basketball the over/under may be 180. If the combined
score is over 180 you need to bet on the over. If it ends up as
a tie all money is returned to the players.
As with Spreads, you bet $1.10 to win $1.00 no
matter which side you choose.
Money Lines -
They aren't as popular as the other two but they are the easiest
to understand. All you do is bet on which team you think will
win. The amount of money you win is based on how big a favorite
or underdog your team is. If your team is a big favorite you might
only win $5 on a $100 bet. But if they are a big underdog you
could win several hundred dollars on the same bet. It should be
noted that many newspapers and sportsbooks don't give you Money
Lines on all sports so you may have to look around to find them
That's it for now, I'll see you next week. Good
luck!
NEXT:
Making Sense of the Numbers
