6 Sports Trading and Betting Basics Explained
I’m going to share with you some of the basic terms and approaches for successful sports betting and trading.
1) Fixed Odds betting – This is the most common form of betting.
Fixed odds relate to the fact the odds don’t change once you’ve placed your bet.
This is different from in-play trading or betting as the odds will move to reflect the performance, score, money in the market and other factors that could influence the odds.
2) A selection – this is simple, it’s just the bet or trade you placed on the specific market. For example, Chelsea to win is a selection, as is Chelsea to win 2-0 in the correct score market.
3) The stake – this is the amount of money you are prepared to wager on the selection. This should be a considered amount based on your overall betting bank, the odds and how confident you are in your selection.
4) Odds or SP – odds and SP, or starting price are the odds set by the bookmakers as a reflection of probability of an event happening or not happening depending on your selection.
Depending on your country and or your preference odds will be expressed as fractions, decimals or moneyline. I personally prefer decimals as it’s the simplest way to do the math. For example odds of 2.5 means you will get back 2.5 times your stake including your stake, in other words, 1.5 times your stake as profit.
5) Types of wagers; there are many different ways that bookmakers will offer in various markets and events. The most common ones being; overs and under, acca’s, and point spread or handicap. Overs and under markets mean you bet or trade on an event being over or under a certain number such as goals scored being over 1.5 is betting that more than 2 goals will be scored in a game, Similarly, you can have under 1.5, if you expect less than 2 goals to be scored.
6) Acca’s – accumulators; where you pick multiple selections to make up one bet with a single stake, so a 4-fold would be 4 selections with one stake bet and the odds would multiply up by all 4 odds assuming your overall acca is a success. And a point spread or handicap is where the market has a range (point spread) or one player or team has a handicap, usually in the form of goals or points (as in tennis).
These are much more like gambling as you are reliant as much on luck as you are on your own research and due diligence.
There you are, some basic terms of sports betting and trading explained.
I’m Peter Bright Author and founder of Two Trap Greyhound System and MBTSports, thanks for your attention.