Online Betting Sites by Country. Not every sports betting site in the world offers their services to every corner of the globe. In fact, some of the best online betting sites like to laser-focus their service to specific countries or regions. Yes — as long as you choose a trustworthy sportsbook. Most online betting sites are legitimate, but a few unscrupulous outliers should be avoided. What is the maximum amount of money I can bet on an online sportsbook? Different sites have different limits. But in general, most major sites have maximum limits between $1,000 and $2,500 per bet. We review and only list the best betting sites so you'll have a great experience. Reliable Sportsbook Review List for 2019 - 100% Unbiased online sportsbook reviews that cover all aspects of every betting platform. Here are internet’s best boxing betting sites, along with the common examples of wagers for boxing: Bovada – Covers majority of all major boxing matches MyBookie – Up-to-date.

Online betting is an extremely convenient way to make money with your sports knowledge and hot tips. If you’re someone who knows how to pick winners, it’s time to start making some real money for those picks. Thankfully, you can start turning that profit without ever leaving the house. Below, we have a list of the best betting sites available in your area that offer the most trusted, reputable, safe, and complete online betting experience possible.

These sports betting sites are just the tip of the iceberg. In the remainder of this guide, we’re going to cover a ton of different online sportsbook options as well as some crucial information to your success. Here’s a quick look at some of the information we’re going to cover. Feel free to click and jump ahead to the section that most interests you or scroll down and check things out in order.

Online Betting Sites by Country

Not every sports betting site in the world offers their services to every corner of the globe. In fact, some of the best online betting sites like to laser-focus their service to specific countries or regions. This allows them to offer bets on the most popular sports for that country, bonuses that fit that country’s tendencies, and ultimately, just a better all-around experience for a unique bettor base. If you’re looking for the top online betting sites that offer services to your country, check out the links we’ve provided for you below.

Best Betting Sites by Sport

Got a particular sport that you’re an expert at? Looking for specific sports to bet on? Did your sport’s season just end and is it time to find action and value elsewhere? Whatever the reason may be, many of you here are probably looking for the best sports betting sites offering action on a particular sport. While most of the reputable betting sites offer action on all major sports, many of them specialize in particular sports.

What does this specialization look like? It typically means that online betting sites are offering more bet types on that sport, more games, more leagues, and better promotions targeted at that sport. Basically, it’s going to seem like they’re playing favorites with a particular sport, and we are okay with that. If you are really looking for the best sports betting sites broken down by the sport they do best, check out the links we’ve provided for you below.

Top Sports Betting Sites by League

Each popular sport out there has it’s “top of the line” league, its main event. In every sport, there is one (sometimes two) leagues that stand out above the rest as the best places for bettors to make money. If you’re a highly-specialized sports bettor who has come here looking for the best action on a particular league, you’re in luck. The links below will take you to a sports betting site broken down by the league they offer the best action in.

Much like the sport-specific sites, these online betting sites will offer more bets, cover more games, and have more specialized bonuses for the games within these leagues. If you bet on sports and you’re ready to get into the real money betting action on a particular league, check out the links we’ve provided for you below.

Popular Sporting Events to Bet On

Whether it’s a major championship, the culmination of a tournament, or an iconic event, there are many special dates on the sports betting calendar to get excited about. The air just seems a little more refreshing when you wake up and it’s Super Bowl Sunday, or any day in March (March Madness), or even the morning of the Daytona 500. These are just a few examples of some of the busiest times for sportsbooks, both in person and online.

What does it mean when sportsbooks are busy? Well, besides lines at the brick and mortar spots, it means a ton of amateurs looking to place some bets will be pushing the lines in silly directions. This means incredible opportunities for you to make a killing. But you can only turn that serious profit if you’re wagering with a trusted sportsbook.

Different online betting sites seem to take major sporting events at different levels of seriousness. Some go nuts for certain major events while those same sites might ignore another major event. If you’re looking to bet on some of these events, you need to know which sites cater to them. The links below will tell you just that.

Best Online Sportsbooks By Type

Some of you out there might care more about the features of the sportsbooks you choose than the sports or events it specializes in. As long as they are a highly trusted betting site that covers major sports, you’re happy. That is, as long as they excel with the unique want or need that you have. Below, we have the site categories broken down by their area of expertise. These are the sites that absolutely blow away the competition when it comes to these elements of their product. The rest of their sportsbook is still great, but these are the areas they absolutely shine in.

What Makes These the Best Online Betting Sites?

We don’t just hand out our best online betting site recommendations loosely. Just because you offer sports betting action and have some cool graphics does not automatically make you a viable candidate. We have a very intensive and thoroughly mapped out process that we use to review every site. There are numerous areas of criteria that we check and recheck to ensure that we’re giving an honest view of what all our recommended sites have to offer.

What we would like to do now is give you a small glimpse into what that process looks like. Below, we have the top seven criteria that help some betting sites stand out above the rest.

Diverse Action Offered on Many Different Sports

Most bettors love to bet on sports of different levels and varieties. Whether you are a recreational bettor or a seasoned professional, you most likely have several different sports you like to bet on. Even if you’re glued to one sport, there are very few bettors we know that don’t throw at least a little action on major events like the Super Bowl or the World Series.

Because of this fact, it’s important that the best sports betting sites online cover a diverse range of sports and offer a diverse range of bet types. We want to be able to bet on all of the major sports out there as well as the less popular sports. We want to see coverage of a lot (if not all) of the games within those sports, not just the TV games.

Additionally, we want to be able to make a lot of different wagers on those games, matches, and races. Sure, picking winners can be a profitable way to approach betting, but there are so many other ways that you can turn predictions into cash. The best online betting sites that we’ve recommended are at the top of their game when it comes to diverse action.

Site Security, Trustworthiness, Industry Reputation, and Fast Payouts

If you think about it, online gambling sites are a lot like banks. They hold people’s personal information and large sums of their money. What does this mean? It means that they can potentially become targets of thieves and hackers much like banks always are. In order to combat this threat, they need to be on the attack when it comes to site security.

All of the sportsbooks that have made our lists are on the cutting edge of web security. They utilize technology, dedicated teams, and several other methods to keep you and your money safe and sound.

But security is not the whole equation when it comes to how the site is run. We’re additionally looking for bookmakers that can be trusted and have a positive industry reputation. Ask yourself:

• Do they take care of their customers?
• Are they fair?
• Are their games fair?
• What does the industry have to say about them?
• Do they payout winnings? If so, how quickly?

All of these questions are where we begin our research when we are looking to determine the best online betting sites available. Thanks to a refined process, we’re confident that the sites you see on this page are the best in all three of these categories.

Competent and Accessible Customer Service Options

There will be times during your sports betting experience where you are going to need help. This might be something as simple as having a promotion explained to you or as complex as helping you move money across the world into your account. Whatever the issue is and no matter how big or small, you want to be able to get effective help quickly.

When we are working to determine the best sports betting sites, we take a deep look at the availability and efficiency of the site’s customer service. Can you get ahold of someone quickly? Do you have several different options to reach them? Is the person you first speak to able to help you with your problem? If not, does your more complex problem get escalated properly and fixed?

We would hope you never need customer service help, but that is just not realistic. The online sports betting sites we’ve recommended here have high-quality customer service teams that you can reach 24/7/365 from many effective mediums.

Juicy Bonuses and Expansive VIP Rewards Programs

This is definitely not the first thing we look at when picking out sports betting sites to recommend, but it is something that we certainly do not ignore. Sportsbooks compete for your business aggressively. The most common way that they do this is through bonuses, free stuff, and VIP rewards programs. A quality online sportsbook will have bonuses to help get you in the door and promotions to help keep you loyal. Basically, you should be getting free stuff and kickbacks at all times with whomever you decide to bet with.

The sites we’ve recommended on this page understand the importance of enticing new bettors and rewarding loyalty. When you choose one of these sportsbooks, you can be confident that you’re going to get a great bonus right out of the gate. Additionally, you can be confident that if you continue to bet with the sportsbook, you will be rewarded appropriately.

Because it is much easier to track your play online, you will get much more rewards and bonuses at the online betting sites than you would at a land-based sportsbook. Sure, they won’t have a waitress coming around bringing you free drinks, but you can take the free cash they throw your way and buy a lot of drinks for yourself if you want to.

Quality Mobile Betting Platforms

Our recommendations contain sportsbooks that offer incredible mobile betting platforms. Don’t forget that there are many ways to bet online. If you are looking for somewhere that you can bet at home, in the office, on the bus, or anywhere else on the go, these are the online betting sites you’ve been looking for. You can make all of your real money bets as long as you have a smartphone and a connection to the internet.

Continuous Innovation and Forward-Looking Management Team

The best betting sites we’ve recommended here are not resting on their laurels. They are run by management teams who strive to be on the cutting edge of the industry. They are constantly looking for the newest technology, the most innovated processes, and ways they can improve your online betting experience. This means new sports covered, creative, and always changing bonuses, growing VIP programs, and a user experience that is constantly getting more and more convenient.

How to Get Started Betting on Sports Online

Some of you here might be brand new to betting on sports online. If that’s you, welcome! Online sports betting is an incredibly convenient way to make your real money wagers without having to drive all the way to the sportsbook or casino. While this way of betting is extremely convenient, it may seem a little overwhelming at first. You may not know where to start, what certain terminology means, how to read the odds, or even what strategies to employ.

That’s okay. Everyone has to start somewhere. If you’re ready to get started right way, check out the resources we have for you below. These guides have all been created with bettors like you in mind. We’ll walk you through all the details you need to know about how to bet online. And we’ll make sure to do it in a way that isn’t confusing or overloaded with complex and unnecessary concepts.

Placing Your First Bet Online

The first place you should stop if you’re absolutely brand new to betting online is right here. We’ve put together a comprehensive betting guide to walk you through all the steps to get started. We’ll discuss picking out the best online betting sites for you, deciding what game or event to bet on, choosing the type of bet you want to make, and how to make all of that happen. By the time you get to the end of this guide, you will be fully equipped to make your first real money sports bet online.

Sports Betting FAQ and Terminology

“I’ll take the under on the circle game as long as the line doesn’t shift thanks to the late morning action from the sharps.” Yeah, if that sounded like Greek to you, that’s okay. Much like other professions, sports bettors have a tendency to talk in jargon. Once you learn the lingo, it makes things easier. But it can also seem like a foreign language to new bettors. In the first guide linked below, we’re going to walk you through all the important terminology that you need to know. If you want to be able to understand the experts (and sound like one yourself), this is the guide for you.

Got some specific questions about sports betting? Check out our frequently asked questions guide. As the name says, we cover the most frequently asked questions we hear from new sports bettors. This is a great spot to get some valuable information about the entire sports betting process from start to finish.

Understanding Sports Betting Odds

You paid attention in statistics and your other math classes in school, right? Yeah, we didn’t either. Unfortunately for us “math lovers,” sports betting revolves heavily around math, stats, and calculations. Sure, you can try and pick winners while ignoring the odds at the best sports betting sites, but you’re going to leave yourself at a pretty big disadvantage. If you’d like to get a good introduction into how to understand sports betting odds, check out the links provided below now.

Additional Online Sports Betting Resources

We’ve already covered a lot about betting on sports online, but there is still so much more to learn! One of the great things about online sports betting is that there is endless information you can use to increase your chances of winning. Below, we’ve collected all of our additional resources for beginners. These guides will help you get from where you are right now, into the sports betting action, then hopefully cashing out big winners sometime soon.

Sports Betting Strategy Guides, Articles, and Resources

The one thing we haven’t directly addressed yet in this guide is how to win. Sure, everything else we’ve covered will help you win. Choosing a reliable sports betting website helps increase your chances of winning, and so does knowing how the bets work and how to bet properly. But the one thing that will have a big impact on your profit level that we haven’t discussed yet is strategy.

In the guides linked below, we will dive into the foundation of sports betting strategies. If you want to do more than just be in the action, this is where you want to start spending your time. These beginner strategy guides will also feed into our more advanced strategy guides as well.

Online Sports Betting Legality and Laws

One of the most popular questions that we get from sports bettors all over the world is: “what online betting sites are legal in my area”? The follow-up question to that is also whether or not online sports betting is legal in their state, country, or region. In most areas of the world, online sports betting is completely legal. There are some areas where you do see some restrictions, but for the most part, these restrictions are not on the individual sports bettor, but the sportsbook themselves.

If you’d like a more in-depth look on the legality of sports betting in your area, check out the links we have provided for you below. We’ll take a deep dive into the law books and give you our opinion of what they mean and how they affect you. Most of you will have no issues whatsoever (including those of you playing from the US). But for those of you that need to see it clearer, the link below will help answer all of your questions to the best of our ability.

Tips for Picking out the Best Sports Betting Sites

1. Test the Mobile Interface If You’re Planning to Bet On the Go
2. Join Multiple Online Betting Sites to Shop Lines
3. Stick to the Sportsbooks We’ve Vetted
4. Test Out the Steps of Making a Bet
5. Make Sure They Have Banking Options You Like
6. Know That You’re Never Married to an Online Betting Site

Picking out a sports betting site is a big deal. Why? Well, making the wrong choice can set you up for failure and potentially put a big dent in your bottom line. On the flip side of that coin, making the right choice about your betting site can set you up for success and give you the best opportunities to make the most money.

The fact that you are here looking for advice on the best sports betting sites is already a huge step in the right direction. But maybe you’ve gotten this far in the guide, and you haven’t made a decision yet. What we’d like to do is give you a few quick tips to try and help you make that final decision.

Tip #1 – Test the Mobile Interface If You’re Planning to Bet On the Go

If you’re only going to bet from your desktop at home, this will not be important. But if you’re like most sports bettors, then you will want the ability to bet from anywhere. You never know when the lines are going to change in your favor or when you’re going to get a hot tip minutes before the start of a game. Make sure that you take a few minutes to check out the mobile platform of the site you are going to use. Most sports betting sites in this day and age have incredible mobile and desktop platforms that are seamlessly integrated (meaning you can jump back and forth between the two when it’s convenient).

Tip #2 – Join Multiple Online Betting Sites to Shop Lines

Having trouble deciding between two betting sites? You can join both of them. If you’ve read the strategy sections linked from this guide, you know that shopping your betting lines is a must-do practice if you are serious about making money from sports betting. Thankfully, online sports betting makes this practice much easier logistically. So, if you are stuck between a few options, you’re actually probably in a much better spot than you think. Just join both! It does not cost anything extra to join multiple sites.

Tip #3 – Stick to the Sportsbooks We’ve Vetted

We’re not the kind of people to ever tell you what to do. You’re all adults, and you are certainly smart enough to make your own decisions. That being said, we would like to advise you of something based on our experience in the online sports betting industry: Stick to the sportsbooks that we’ve vetted. We do not call these the best sports betting sites for the heck of it. We do that because these sites are safe, secure, and will offer you the type of experience you are looking for.

If you choose to go outside of the recommendations we’ve laid out here, you open yourself up to some danger. It’s very hard for the untrained eye to spot betting sites that are not looking out for your interests. By sticking with our recommendations that have already been fully vetted, you guarantee that you’ll have a safe and secure sports betting experience.

Tip #4 – Test Out the Steps of Making a Bet

Something that you may not know about online sportsbooks is that you will have full access to the entire site even prior to making a free account. This means that you can get the ultimate feel for what betting there would be like if you were an actual member. At most sites, you can search through the different bets, check out the odds, and you can even build betting tickets. The only thing that you’re not going to be able to do without an account is actually submit the bet. But you will be able to do everything up until then.

Take advantage of this. Make sure you are comfortable with the betting process. Make sure you fully understand how things work and ensure it all works for you. If everything is to your liking, then you can go ahead and make your account and get to making some real money bets!

Tip #5 – Make Sure They Have Banking Options You Like

One of the big perks of choosing to wager with an online betting site is that you’re going to have access to a lot of great banking options. This will make the deposit and withdrawal process much smoother. That being said, not every site is going to have the same banking options.

Make sure you take a minute and see what options they have for deposits and what options they have for withdrawals. You don’t need multiple banking options for both options, but you need at least one good one that you are a fan of.

Tip #6 – Know That You’re Never Married to an Online Betting Site

When choosing a site to join, you are not obligated to stay there. No matter if you have made 1,000 bets or 0 bets, you can leave whenever you want. All you have to do is withdraw your money and you are gone. What does this have to do with picking out the best betting sites for you? Well, don’t overthink the process. If you find something you like, give it a try for a few weeks. If it’s a good fit, awesome! If it turns out not to be the best fit, no big deal. You can always pick up and go somewhere else. It’s not like buying a car or a house where you are stuck with your purchase. You have a lot of freedom that you can exercise at any point in time.

Recent Sports and Sports Betting Blogs

Want to stay up to speed with all the latest happenings in sports and the sports betting industry? This is a key to success with your bets. Picking out a trustworthy online sports betting site can only take you so far. You will need to stay up to date with the latest news so that you can use those sites to make your masterful picks. Check out the latest sports blogs below!

The first online sportsbook was founded all the way back in 1996. Created only 2 years after the opening of the first online casino, a gambler from Finland placed the inaugural online sports bet on a soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Hereford United. The world of gambling would never be the same again.

Since that fateful day over 2 decades ago, access to the internet and participation in online sports betting have both exploded. In fact, in the year 2018, it’s expected that nearly $60 billion will be wagered with online bookmakers. That’s more money than the annual GDP for some smaller nations.

With such a growing and profitable industry available, new online betting sites are springing up all the time. But it can be difficult to discern which are worth your time, and which you should avoid. That’s where we come in!

The Best New Online Betting Sites:

Here is a list of the best new online betting sites out there right now:

This guide was written to help you decide which new betting sites to give your business to. With so many options out there, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with choices, and possibly fall victim to some unethical operations. We are here to not only provide you with the best new betting sites as determined by our team of experts, but also to educate you about how to identify a quality website on your own.

Lastly, we’d like to send you on your way with some decent beginner’s betting tips and things to keep in mind. Once you’re done reading this guide, you should have a solid foundation on which to begin your foray into online betting!

Qualities that the Best New Online Betting Sites Possess

Trustworthy/Safe

The unfortunate truth is that there are numerous online gambling websites out there that operate in unethical ways. Some are outright scams, while others just use shady tactics such as setting unfair odds or withholding payout requests for a variety of unacceptable reasons. Our primary concern is helping our readers avoid these companies.

This is why our experts take vetting our recommended websites exceptionally seriously. Traditionally, we will study a site’s history of dealing with customers and factor in their reputation, but since these are new betting sites, the process is a bit different. We must dig a bit deeper, researching things like the terms and conditions, average payout timelines, and the background of the companies and owners behind the online sportsbooks.

There is no criterion more important than safety and trustworthiness when choosing a new betting site. You are going to have to deposit hard-earned money into an account on any betting website that you pick. This demands a degree of trust and the expectation of honest, reliable service. We take these expectations incredibly seriously, as our readers’ gaming experience is our primary concern.

Responsive and Helpful Customer Service

Excellent customer service is the cornerstone of a positive online gambling experience. When giving an online sportsbook your patronage, you’ll want to ensure that any issue that may occur will be tended to in an empathic and quick manner. If you’ve ever dealt with a corporation that doesn’t prioritize customer service, you’ll understand why. It’s extraordinarily frustrating.

Before giving a new betting site your business, do a little research on their customer service department. There should be a clearly marked area of their website dedicated to dealing with customer problems. Find that area, and make sure there are multiple methods of contact available. You should typically see three options:

• Telephone
• Email
• Instant Messaging

It is worth your time to test each of these contact techniques before signing up. Call the phone number and verify that it is monitored and answered by helpful staff. Next, send an email to the address given. See how long it takes to receive a response; the quicker, the better. Lastly, test out their online live chat function and ensure that it is also monitored and provides instant assistance. This minimal amount of work up front may save you hours of headaches down the road!

Wide Range of Banking Options

Legit Online Betting Sites

It’s also preferable for new online betting sites to provide a wide range of banking options. The most important thing is that any place that you choose to sign up with caters to whichever financial transaction is most convenient for you. But variety can still be an essential trait, depending on where you live.

For example, you may prefer to use your credit card online. This may work for the majority of your transactions, but if you live in the United States, for instance, you will need to find alternative means. The reason being, the USA has passed legislation making it illegal for banking institutions to process transactions with known gambling operations. In this case, you’ll need to bank through Bitcoin or various e-wallets.

Different payment types also take different amounts of time to process. You may not mind depositing with a slower method, but you want your withdrawals fast. This is entirely understandable; it is your money, after all! Here are some of the average processing speeds for some of the many banking types online gamblers utilize:

• Bitcoin – Typically instantaneous
• e-wallets – Can be instant, but could take up to 3-4 days, depending on the betting site
• Credit/Debit Card – 2-5 days
• eCheck – 1-3 days
• Paper Check – 2-3 weeks or more

Quality Website

We’ve also found that the quality and professionalism of the website itself is paramount. A well-made site can drastically affect customer experience in a few distinct ways. Here are a few of the fundamental reasons having an easy-to-use, quality website is essential:

• Graphics Quality – These days, online betting sites offer a wide variety of wagers and features. One favorite type of sports gambling is called “live betting” or “in-game betting.” This is a type of wagering that allows you to place bets while a game is currently being played. Some new betting sites allow for live streaming of the event, and an interactive interface on which to make your picks while enjoying the action. This requires smooth streaming and upscale graphics to create an enjoyable, exciting experience for gamblers.
• Website Design – When you aren’t live betting, there are occasions when time is a significant factor for bettors. If you are attempting to get your picks in before the game starts and the odds are taken off the board, you don’t have time for confusion. If a site is difficult to navigate, which leads to an inability to make the bets you want, when you want them, it will drastically lessen your satisfaction.
• Professionalism – Again, you’re depositing your own money into an account on these new betting sites. You need to be assured that they are a top-notch, respectable, business. A well-made professional website can provide some of those assurances. You don’t want to be spending time and money with an organization that doesn’t take pride in their presentation or has inadequate attention to detail.

The Best Odds

Long-term, betting on sports is a numbers game. The slightest difference in odds can make all the difference in the world. For this reason, we only want our readers to play on the best new betting sites that are offering the very best odds.

Luckily, this is one of the exceptional advantages that online gambling sites have over their land-based competition. Without the ridiculous overhead required for things like staff, utilities, land taxes, etc., online betting sites can afford to offer you more favorable odds. Since successful sports betting is all about finding the most valuable lines, even a half-point difference can be the difference between winning and losing.

Variety of Wagers

In today’s constantly connected, fast-paced society, attention spans are nearly a thing of the past. While we can’t solve enormous collective changes like that, we can do our best to plan for them. One way to do so is to pick new betting sites with a full range of wagering options to keep you interested and entertained.

Variety is the spice of life, and as such we like to provide our readers with sportsbooks that offer lots of options. The more sports, events, and wagers available, the more creative you can get. This gives you the opportunity to develop a niche specialty that you can exploit for profit.

For example, you may find yourself particularly accurate when betting on first-half totals for NFL games. That won’t do you much good if they’re strictly taking point spread or moneyline bets. The more precise you’re able to narrow your wagers down to, the better. If you aren’t interested in breaking things down this way and prefer more straightforward bets, those are available too.

Worthwhile Bonuses and Rewards Programs

It’s always nice to feel appreciated, and this applies to online sports gambling just as much as anything else. That’s why when searching out the best new online betting sites, we consider the bonuses each company is offering up front, and the programs they provide for loyalty rewards. Nothing makes us feel more wanted than free money!

You’ll notice that almost all betting websites offer some kind of bonus for new customers. These usually come in the form of matching the deposit amount or free-play credits, depending on when the reward is received. Matching money is frequently provided upon the first deposit, while free bet credits are gifted solely for signing up, but before making a deposit.

But be warned, the bonuses that gamblers receive before establishing a history with a given site often come with numerous strings attached. You won’t just be able to sign up and withdraw your free money. Sportsbooks aren’t interested in just giving cash away for nothing! Regardless, the bonuses can be used to practice new betting types or to get comfortable with the site.

The more valuable prizes are given in exchange for customer loyalty. Most new betting sites have some kind of loyalty rewards program. They track the size of the bets you typically make, and how frequently to determine your player’s status with the sportsbook. High rollers and highly-valued customers can be eligible for anything from expensive merchandise, to vacations, and even vehicles.

For the majority of gamblers that wager more conventional quantities, loyalty bonuses can still add up to a significant gain. You may receive cashback on a percentage of your losses, points to trade in at the company store, or entry into various raffles and contests.

Common Sports Wagers

Moneyline Betting

When you place a moneyline bet, you are merely attempting to pick the winner of the contest. Because most sporting events take place between unevenly matched opponents, moneyline odds are used to express which side is favored, which side’s the underdog, and what the potential return is for a winning bet. All of this information is provided by either a positive or negative 3-digit number.

You may be placing a bet on an upcoming boxing match.

• Fighter A is the heavy favorite and offered at -500 odds.

This means that a bettor must stake $500 just to win $100. A winning $500 bet on Fighter A would receive a total payout of $600. That’s $100 in winnings, and the $500 that you staked returned.

On the other side of the equation is the underdog. In this case, Fighter B may be receiving odds that look like +650. This would mean that for every $100 staked, the gambler would win $650. Like the example before, if we were to bet $100 on Fighter B and win, the total return would be $750.

The further from 0 the 3-digit number is, the more heavily they are favored or the underdog. Even odds are -100, meaning you receive $100 for every $100 staked.

Handicap Betting

Let’s say you’d like to pick a winner in an upcoming competition, but you want to avoid the uneven odds that moneyline wagers often provide. Most sports offer some handicap wagering to make things more even. These bets are commonly referred to as “point spreads.”

The Patriots are playing the lowly Browns at Foxborough. If you were to bet the moneyline, the heavily-favored Pats might be offered at -800 odds, requiring you to risk quite a bit of money for a relatively small return.

The smarter play may be to bet the spread.

In this case, the bookmaker may determine that the Patriots are expected to beat Cleveland by 13 points. They will offer a handicap or spread of somewhere between 12.5 and 13.5 points. If you are looking to bet on New England, you may see them provided for even odds at -13.5. This means that whatever the final score is, you subtract 13.5 from the Pats total. In other words, New England must win by 14 points or more to win the bet.

If they win by less than 14, the bet is actually lost. Conversely, you will see the Browns odds listed as +13.5. At the end of the contest, 13.5 points are added on to their total score to determine the winner. They may lose the actual game, but as long as they keep it close enough to “cover the spread,” the bet still wins.

Futures Bets

Futures bets, like the name suggests, are wagers that are determined in the future. Rather than gambling on a single game or competition, these bets are placed on the outcome of a season. For example, it’s common for sports bettors to place bets on which team will win the championship or make the playoffs before a given season even begins.

Because these bets include large pools of competitors, for instance, every team in Major League Baseball, the odds are usually given as fractions. Fractional odds will look like 3/1 or 9/2. This is read as “three-to-one” or “nine-to-two,” and represents how much a winning bet will earn per dollar staked.

Futures bets can be offered on a number of things. Besides the standard championship bets, you may see bets on individual awards like MVP or the Heisman trophy, or which teams will win their divisions and/or conferences.

Bettors that identify a winning team before the rest of the betting public can make considerable amounts of money from futures bets. Just a few years ago in the English Premier League, Leicester City won the league despite being 5,000 to 1 underdogs entering the season. There were multiple gamblers that actually hit this bet and scored enormous earnings.

Totals Bets

Sometimes you may have a feel for how a contest will play out, though you may be less sure about which side will win. In these instances, totals bets, or over/unders may be for you. These are wagers placed on the total amount of scoring both teams combined will achieve.

For example, let’s say the Houston Rockets are playing against the Golden State Warriors. This contest promises to be a high-scoring affair. We may not be able to decide which team is more likely to win, so instead, we look to bet the total. In this example, we’ll say the bookmaker sets the total (or line) at 275 points.

Once the line is set, we gamble on whether the combined total amount of points scored will go “over” or “under” that amount. If the game ends with a final score of 142 – 140, that game’s total was 282, meaning that it went over.

A common betting strategy for handicappers with a strong feeling about their predictions is to parlay a moneyline or handicap bet with a totals bet. So, you may decide that you feel the Warriors will win, and the total will go over. Parlay wagers combine several bets into a single ticket, increasing the odds as well as the potential payout.

Proposition Bets

Prop bets cover any other kind of wager that doesn’t fit in the types above. These bets can be about absolutely anything and are often both creative and absurd. A hot time of year for proposition bets is before the Super Bowl.

Every year sportsbooks all over the globe offer an extensive list of Super Bowl bets. These wagers range from gambling on the coin toss, to the length of the national anthem, which player will score first, and even the color of Gatorade that’s dumped on the winning coach’s head. The availability of prop bets is limited only by the creativity of the bookmaker.

Beginners Betting Tips

Whether you’re brand new to wagering on sports or just looking for a new online betting site, these helpful tips still apply. It’s important to remember that gambling does possess the potential for problem behaviors that may impact your life. As such, it’s vital to stay disciplined, responsible, and honest with yourself at all times.

Bankroll Management

Bankroll management is a term for planning ahead and organizing the money that you are going to gamble with in order to avoid problems. The first step is to determine the amount of money with which you are going to bet. This must be an amount that you can afford to lose without causing any disruptions to your day-to-day life or financial health.

Once you’ve decided on an amount of money, and how long the money needs to last, you organize even further by creating a staking plan. This will depend on how often you are looking to gamble within the timeframe you set for your bankroll. Depending on the frequency you plan to bet, a staking plan breaks up your bankroll into individual bets.

For example, your bankroll is $500 for the month, and you only want to bet a single contest each week. Your staking plan would be to make four $125 bets. This helps you stay organized with your money so that you don’t blow through your gambling funds too quickly.

Document Your Bets

A helpful tip for improving upon the success rate of your gambling is to keep precise records of your betting habits. This can be done by simply writing each wager down, although using computer spreadsheets will be more helpful down the road. The more detailed your records, the more valuable they will become.

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When documenting your bets, include as much information as possible. Record the pick that you made, the odds that you received, whether you won or lost, the thought processes behind your choice, and where you got your advice. Over time, these details will reveal a pattern in your handicapping. Maybe you will learn that a particular thought process tends to pay off often, or that a specific pundit commonly leads you astray.

Becoming a winning sports bettor requires more effort than blindly picking games. It takes constant refinement, attention to detail, and analysis of your results. The more work you put in, the more money you’ll take out!

Find Positive Value

This may come as a surprise, but the best sports handicappers don’t concern themselves with picking winners. In fact, merely trying to figure out which team will win and placing your bets accordingly is a surefire way to lose long term. Instead, you are trying to find positive value in the odds that the bookmakers offer.

The odds that are set for a given contest carry with them an implied probability. So, a bet with -100 odds means that each side has a 50% chance of winning since the return is $100 won for every $100 staked. Those would be the expected odds on a wager on a coin toss, for example. But what if the sportsbook offered +200 odds for heads, and -400 odds for tails?

In this situation, the bookmaker has made “heads” an underdog bet, despite both results having an even chance of occurring. In this situation, you’d have to bet on heads, no matter how strongly you anticipated the next toss coming up “tails.” Anytime the actual probability of an event is higher than the implied probability based on the odds, it’s a positive-value bet.

Shop for the Best Odds

There’s no rule that says you can only sign up with one new betting site. You can, and should, consider signing up with 2 or more so that you can shop for the best odds for each game or event.

For the most part, online sports betting sites will set similar odds as each other on each contest. But there are still instances when there will be slight deviations. No matter how narrow the difference, it’s always worth your time to seek out the most advantageous odds that you can find.

The professional odds makers that work for sportsbooks are incredibly accurate with their predictions. Bets commonly come down to the last play of the game. Even a half-point difference will often be the difference between winning and losing. Additionally, the payouts will be ever-so-slightly better, if you pick the most valuable bets. It may be a negligible amount extra for a single pot, but over the course of your gambling career, it can add up to significant sums of money!

Research

We can’t tell you how much effort to put into your sports gambling. The more casual bettors may not want the hassle of doing extensive research and data collection. Maybe they just want to place their bets as a way to make watching sports more exciting.

But for the participants that want to win, research is critical. The best handicappers are always looking for an edge by crunching numbers and analyzing data.

The more effort you put into research, the more accurate your predictions will be. And if your predictions are reliable, spotting bets with positive value will be much easier.

Researching can include all sorts of activities. You can study advanced statistics and build sophisticated models to help you generate simulated results from which you form your decisions. Other people will only watch the pundits on television or read about sports online. Whatever you choose to do, just remember that there’s a definite correlation between research and winning.

Refine Your Data

Once you’ve grown accustomed to collecting data, the next step in becoming a winning sports bettor is always identifying which information was helpful, and which was useless. Building accurate models requires constant refinement of your data. For example, you may find that teams’ home and away records should be prioritized above their travel distances, so you adjust your approach going forward accordingly.

Constant refinement is how you learn from your mistakes. Let’s say part of your data set was a prediction from ESPN’s Steven A. Smith. After a few weeks, you’ll probably learn that he’s literally almost always wrong. The next move to make would be to remove his prediction from your data set, or at least change your approach to his information. Maybe you’ll find more value betting against him from now on instead.

Never Chase Losses

If there’s only one betting tip that you take from this guide, it should be this one.

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Chasing your losses is when you hit a losing streak, and rather than stick to your staking plan, you attempt to change your fortunes by making larger and more frequent bets to get back on track. Often, gamblers that are chasing their losses will feel “due” for a big win, and thus make more massive bets to recoup the money lost on a recent string of failures.

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Avoid the temptation of ever feeling due for a win. Gambling doesn’t work that way; each bet is independent of every other. We all inevitably run into rough patches in which we are unlucky. When this happens, it’s more important than ever to stick to the staking plan and continue managing your bankroll with discipline.

By making the right decisions during a losing streak, you can protect yourself from devastating losses and financial instability. One of the most common ways gamblers dig themselves into a hole is by chasing their losses. If your luck doesn’t turn around as planned, you can lose significant amounts of money quickly, which leads to horrific consequences. Never ever chase your losses!!!

To Wrap Things Up

If you’re looking for the best new online betting sites, you’ve come to the right place. The online sports betting industry is a vast sea of legitimate options, scams, and well-intentioned but poorly-run gambling operations. With so many sites to choose from, it can be overwhelming for novice bettors.

Rather than trouble yourself with hours of research and studying websites, which could be better spent making your picks, let our experts show you the way. Our team is continuously vetting and reviewing new betting sites in an effort to only pass along the best recommendations to our readers. This allows you to rest easy, knowing you’ll be dealing with the safest, highest-quality online sportsbooks on the internet.

So, check out our list of recommendations and find the betting site that’s best for you. Now that you’ve read this guide, you should have a clear understanding of what to expect from the best new betting sites and a sturdy foundation of knowledge from which to make your picks from. Whether you choose to dive into the research and put immense effort into your picks to win big, or you merely want to make watching the game more exciting, the world of online sports betting has something for everyone.