SportsLine's Sports Betting Guide Series

From a step-by-step process on how to read odds to advanced MLB, NBA and NFL betting strategies, here's the sports betting guide you need to read before placing a sports bet

Betting on sports has never been bigger in the United States. In 2024, total legal wagers in the country soared to $142.55 billion, a 17.7% increase from 2023's record of $121.07 billion. With the availability of sports gambling driving this unprecedented growth, knowing how to bet on sports has never been more important.

For that reason, SportsLine has created this series of guides on sports betting. The guides will cover everything from basic topics (e.g., what is a point spread?) to advanced ones (e.g., the drawback of attempting to "middle" a game). Both beginning and advanced bettors can benefit from the series. It's Sports Betting 101 and Sports Betting Masterclass rolled into one. 

This series of guides is divided into three categories:

• Bet types (point spread, money line, futures, parlays, etc.)
• Bets by sport (NFL, NBA, MLB, college football and basketball, etc.)
• Strategy (best and worst betting strategies and how to read odds)

Bet type guides

These guides will explain the most popular types of sports bets and how to place them.

Futures

A futures wager is a bet on the long-term outcome of a particular sport, such as placing a wager on the odds for an NFL team to win the Super Bowl or a specific player to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award.

This guide will explain how to read futures odds, go through futures betting across the major sports, define the different types of futures betting and reveal when the best time to place a futures bet is.

Money line

Money-line bets are the most basic wagers you can make and are ideal for beginners. Unlike other bets, money line wagers require the bettor to simply bet on the winner of a specific game or match, whether it be a team or individual sport. This guide will explain what a money-line bet is and how to place one.

Over/Under

Betting on the total of a game is betting on whether the combined score of both teams will exceed or fall short of the set Over/Under line. The winner of the game doesn't matter—only the score does. This guide will discuss how Over/Under betting works and how and when to place a bet on the Over/Under.

Parlays

A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, which are also known as legs. For the parlay to win, all of the individual legs need to win.

This guide will explain the process of betting a parlay, the varying types of parlays, the drawbacks of parlays, the popularity of parlays and the one strategy someone should consider when betting a parlay.

Point spread

A point spread essentially is a handicap or margin between two teams that evens things up between the favorite and the underdog. Instead of taking the underdog to win outright, you can wager on the underdog's point spread, where they can either lose by a certain number of points or win the game outright. Instead of laying a heavier price on a favorite's moneyline, you can instead wager on the favorite to win by a certain number of points. As a result, it evens out the odds on both teams. This guide will examine what point-spread betting is and show how to place bets against the spread.

Props

A prop bet is a wager that looks to predict a specific outcome for a player or team within a game. A prop bet can be similar to an Over/Under of total points in a game, except applied to an individual team or player. This guide will take a look at the various forms of prop betting, explain prop betting odds and explore the many available options when it comes to prop betting.

Sport-specific betting guides

These guides will take a sport-by-sport look at sports betting, explaining the intricacies of wagering on the NFL, NBA, MLB and college basketball and football.

NFL

It's not a surprise that the U.S.'s biggest sport is also the most popular sport to wager on. From spreads and moneylines to player props and futures, people line up to get in on the action from the gridiron. Besides defining the most important NFL betting markets, we also offer advice on how to bet the sport like a pro. 

NBA

The NBA has changed a lot over the past decade, and as a result, bettors have needed to adjust their betting strategy on the sport as well. This guide will go over all the ways to wager on the NBA and share key tips on how to wager on a sport that has tremendous variance with the rise of three-point shooting and questions of whether players will sit on any given night.

MLB

MLB has command of the spotlight in the summer, as there are many games every day to bet on. But because it's a 162-game season, it can be a tricky sport to bet. This guide will explain what you need to know about baseball betting, from run lines to specific strategies to help you during the dog days of summer. 

College football

Does college football betting differ from NFL betting? While both sports have similar markets, there are different strategies for wagering on the collegiate ranks compared to the pros. This guide will analyze all the dynamics for betting college football and what you need to be on the lookout for.

College basketball (coming soon)

March is basically Christmas for sports fans, with non-stop action between conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament. This guide will explain what you need to know about college basketball betting, along with providing tips and advice for what novice bettors need to know before betting on the sport.

Strategy guides

This section begins with a basic lesson on how to read odds and concludes with an advanced guide on the best and worst sports betting strategies.

How to read odds

Sports betting 101 begins with knowing how to read the odds and understanding how they work. Otherwise, an uninformed bettor may think that wagering money at -105 odds on the Super Bowl coin flip to come up tails provides value when, in the long run, it's a losing proposition.

This guide will go through the three most common types of odds and the difference between odds and implied odds. It will also explain odds across different sports as well as odds across different bet types.

Sports betting strategies

With sportsbooks holding a significant edge before a bet is even placed, bettors must be smart with their betting strategies in order to reduce the house's advantage and give them a chance to be successful. Luckily, SportsLine's sports betting experts are sharing the sports betting strategies they employ.

This guide will share SportsLine's experts' general betting strategies, strategies for specific sports and strategies for specific bet types. Just as important, the guide will also give betting strategies to avoid.

Gene Menez

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