Sports Betting Guide: From Beginner To Pro

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There’s something about gambling that holds an irresistible appeal for humans. For as long as there has been civilisation, there has been betting of some sort - and for as long as humans have pitted ourselves against each other in physical competitions, other humans have made bets on the result.

Horse racing (and betting on horses) in particular has an established history that goes back to ancient times, at least as far back as Ancient Greece, over 2500 years ago.

Sports betting is, then, one of the oldest forms of entertainment in the world, though it looks a bit different nowadays. The majority of betting now takes place online through online betting sites, and it’s easier to get into sports betting than ever before.

But is it really possible to make reliable profits from sports betting? Is there anything you can do to improve your success rate, beyond going for a likely selection and hoping for the best? And can a beginner wade through the overwhelming jargon to become a successful sports bettor?

Well, there are quite a lot of people who do make consistent profits from sports betting, but it’s important to be aware that it isn’t risk free. It also requires strict self-discipline to avoid falling prey to the tricks used by bookmakers to encourage bettors to gamble riskily, and sufficient funds to ensure you can weather any downturns in your fortunes.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about sports betting, from the sports most frequently bet on and how betting odds work, to more complex subjects including betting strategies and bankroll management.

Whether you’re a total newcomer to sports betting, or an experienced bettor looking to refine your strategy, we’ll take you through everything you need to know to bet on sports as safely and profitably as possible.

Sports Betting Basics

What is sports betting?

Sports betting is, as it sounds, the act of betting on sports. In its simplest form, a sports bettor wagers their money (the stake) on an outcome of a sporting event - e.g. that a team will win a match, or a competitor will win a race. If they’re right, the bookmaker pays them a return on their stake, according to the odds at the time they placed their bet. The higher the odds, the more money the bettor wins - but also the less likely they are to do so.

Types of bet

There are a huge number of types of bet, which can quickly become very confusing to a newcomer. Leaving aside the very most complex ones, which are best tackled by experienced sports bettors, here are some of the most common:

Singles bet

The simplest and most straightforward type of bet - you’re betting on one outcome at a time, at the odds listed on the betting site. For example, you might bet that Manchester United win their next match, or that Emma Raducanu wins hers.

Multiples bet

As it sounds, a multiples bet involves betting on more than one thing at once. There are endless possible combinations of bets, but a couple of main types of multiples bet:

• Bet builder. This involves betting on multiple selections within one match. For example, you might bet that Manchester United win their next match, and that both teams score in the match, and that at least 3 goals are scored in that match. If all those things happen, you win your bet.
• Accumulator bet. This involves betting on the outcomes of several different matches or races. For example, you might bet on the winners of four different horse races, or on the victors in five different football matches. If all your choices are winners, your bet will win - and as the chances of this happening are quite low, your winnings are usually pretty high.

Over/Under bet

This is a bet on a statistic within a match, for example on the number of goals within a match. You can bet if, say, there are over 5 goals within a match - and if that is indeed the case, you’ll win.

Handicap bet

This type of bet is one of the most confusing to newcomers. It involves giving one team or competitor a head start over the other - so for example, you might bet on one team with a handicap of -1, meaning that they’d have to win by at least 2 goals for you to win your handicap bet. Similarly, in tennis, you might add or subtract a game or even a set from a player’s final score for a handicap bet.

The idea is to even out matches where one team is the strong favourite, making it more worthwhile to bet on their opponent. There are two major types of handicap betting, Asian handicap and European handicap, so make sure you understand the difference before you try your hand at either one.

Bear in mind also that handicap in horse racing works very differently - although it is roughly based on the same principle of balancing out competitors with large disparities in performance.

Each way bets

These are usually found in horse racing, but can also be made on sports such as greyhound racing or golf, where a ‘place’ market may be offered. Place betting means betting on a competitor to finish within a few places of the top, the number of paid places depending on the number of competitors in the event. Horse races will often have 3 or 4 paid places (though sometimes more!), while golf tournaments may pay out on the top 3, 5, or even 20 places.

An each way bet is a bet on both the win and place markets, so you get a payout whether your selection wins or just makes one of the top places. The places won’t pay out as much as a win, but some bettors place each way bets to help mitigate potential losses. The downside is that your stake is effectively doubled (as you have one bet on a win, and one bet on a place), meaning that if your selection doesn’t even place you lose twice as much.

Spread betting

For many people, this is a very confusing concept, so you should only place a spread bet if you’re confident you understand how it works. In spread betting the degree of accuracy of your bet determines your winnings - or your losses.

For each market, a bookie will offer a particular ‘spread’ - a prediction of what the outcome will be. The customer then bets on whether the outcome will be higher or lower than the spread, and their winnings or losses depend on the accuracy of that bet.

Although spread betting is most common on football, there are also markets for spread betting on horse racing, basketball, and other sports as well.

In-play/in-race bets

As they sound, in-play bets are placed after an event has already started. The benefit of in-play bets is that you already have some idea of how the match is going, which you can use to make an educated guess as to how it might turn out.

The downside is that you have to be quick! The odds change constantly over the course of a match or race, so you need to be on the ball to lock them in. This can potentially lead to mistakes or poor decision-making, as you have to act so swiftly.

Other bets

There are an incredible range of possible bets, often combining multiple bets in different ways, for the more experienced bettor to dabble in. Check out our comprehensive guide to types of bets to find out everything you need to know about more obscure bets, like Lucky 15s, Heinz bets or Yankee bets.