An Essential Guide to Straight Betting

Getting into sports betting isn’t easy and will never be easy. It’s tough to get into betting with the help of just research alone, especially if you don’t have that one friend who splurges all his money wagering on teams. Sports betting incorporates numerous terms and systems that aren’t beginner-friendly, to say the least. But just like every other thing in life, there’s always a way to streamline things. And with the help of this article, we’ll run you down through the basics of the sports betting basics: straight betting.

Straight Betting

Straight bets are wagers on a game or event’s outcome or result. Straight bets comprise moneylines, spreads, and over/unders or totals. In straight betting, a certain pointspread needs to be covered by the team that the bettor bets on. Meaning betting on the favored team means that you trust that they’ll win more than the pointspread and betting on the underdogs implies that you believe they would cover. Straight bets are the most famed form of sports betting. For reasons that they are easy to understand and straightforward.

SPREAD

The point spread is essentially the margin of points between two teams by the end of regulation. It is usually represented by the signs (+) plus and (-) minus. Plus signs (+) indicate that a team is favored to win the game with a certain amount of points. On the other hand, Minus signs (-) indicate that the team is an underdog and will lose at least by a certain amount of points. Moreover, sportsbooks also often show how much a bettor needs to bet to win 100 dollars flat off their bets. Take this for an example, if a bettor wages 110 USD on an underdog with the odds of (+8 and +110), which basically means that the score margin at the end of regulation between the underdog and favored team needs to be at least 8 points or less. If the team they bet on covers the 8-point spread, they would win 100 dollars. However, if their team fails to close the final score margin by 8 points or less, the bettor would outright lose their money. Essentially, betting on the spread is not about WHO or WHAT TEAM will win the game. Instead, it is about HOW MUCH will one team win against the other on the grounds of the final score of a game or event.

MONEYLINE

Moneyline is a wager on the winner or loser of a game. Unlike the spread that centers around the final score margin, the moneyline is more straightforward and is all about the winner regardless of the numerical gaps. The favorite is represented by the minus sign (-), and inversely, the underdog with the plus sign (+). If you bet on an underdog that has an odds of +300, that means that you have to bet 100$ to win 300$. And if you bet on the favorites with an odds of -300, you need to bet 300$ to win 100$.

TOTAL (OVER/UNDER)

The total, more commonly known as over/under bet, is betting on the combined amount of points scored by the two playing teams by the end of the game. Betting on the over means that you trust the playing teams to be able to score as much or more than the given point total while betting on the under means that you believe that they’ll put up less. Few and far between, some games end with the exact point total. In such cases, all bets are voided, and the money is refunded. Like the spread, it is also usually accompanied by how much you need to put at stake to win $100.
If you bet at the under with the odds of (OV 50 and -110), this means that you would win $100 if the two teams of the game that you bet on combine for more than 50 points. On the flip side, if they fail to reach the cut, the bettor outright loses the bet. And in an atypical fashion, if both teams combine for 50, the bet gets voided. Right now, you might be thinking that betting isn’t all that complicated as it once was. You are most likely right. However, we’ve still only scratched the surface. Betting is a vast and niche market that encompasses schemes to splurge and spend money on. Straight betting is only the start of the long journey of a bettor; there’s still a wide field of choices open ahead to earn you quick and bigger bucks like parlays and teasers.

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