By Nicky Price
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Since my first day in “the business” I have noticed quite a few questions pertaining to sports betting and sportsbooks. Recently, I decided write up a little piece that I refer to as "Sports Betting and Sportsbooks 101" to share with my fellow sports bettors . Here I will explain what I was taught about the basics, money management, units, sucker bets, and sportsbooks.
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First the basics. There are 3 types of basic wagers.
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1) Spread Bet - Example NYG +4.5 over Sea Seahawks. What you are betting is The New York Football Giants will lose by no more than 4 points in this game. (Any one in their right mind knows the Almighty Giants will cover that but for those that didn’t know the same game can be bet like this)
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Sea Seahawks -4.5 over NYG. If you were a donk and chose that side you are betting that the Seahawks will beat the Giants by 5 or more points. Seahawks win by say uhhhh 3 you lose.
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2) Total Bet - Example NYG/SEA over the 46 points. You are betting that the combined score of BOTH teams will be more than 46 points. If they happen to score 46 points the wager is a PUSH or a tie and you are returned you money.
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3) Moneyline Bet - Example NYG +160 over Sea Seahawks. You are risking $100 to make $160 that the NYG will win the game outright or with out the spread. If you took this bet you probably want to strangle Jay Feely right now which is understandable.
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Money management is THE most important element of sports betting strategy. When describing the size of a wager, you will hear many bettors refer to it as a "unit". Many often ask " How much exactly is a unit?" When looking for an answer to that question you must first look at your own personal betting style. There are two mainstream styles that you will see people use (and NO, parlays are not a style).
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1) Betting only your strongest plays .
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2) Betting ALL of your plays.
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Neither of these styles is wrong or bad, however I do prefer #1 over #2. When looking over my play card I bet only the games in which I feel most confident in.. My school of thought says: if I’m not 100% confident in a play, its not worth my money. For this style I suggest to use the 5% per unit method. This means 5% of my entire bank roll is 1 unit. Keeping in mind that I am only betting my most confident plays. I bet them ALL for the same 1 unit EVERY game. The school of thought behind style 2 says I do not want to miss out on games that I might have less confidence in and I want to set myself up for a huge day if and when I hit big. For this method I suggest using anywhere from 2.5% - 3% per unit. Yes this method can set you up to have huge days, but it can also set you up for huge losses. You don’t want to be out of the game before mid season so keep money management in mind.
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The one thing that sportsbooks use to cripple novice bettors’ bank roll is SUCKERBETS. A suckerbet is anything over a 2 team parlay or teaser. Your average bettor has his eyes set on one thing. THE BIG SCORE!!!!!1111oneoneone. What creates the allure of this sort of bet? Your average bettor sees something like 2 Guns Up hitting his monster teaser and thinks if he can turn $50 in to $600 ,or $400, and change after the hedge, then why cant I? WELL, THIS IS WHY!!! The odds of doing that are absolutely ridiculous (ß hahaha spelled it right w00t). If you are reading this, realize you are new to the game and that is extremely hard to do. You WILL blow your entire roll trying. Stay away from these bets. It is hard enough to win a pot, and its even harder when you are folding everything but a straight flush. If you are feeling really confident in your games and you want to increase your earnings, utilize nothing more than a two team parlay. OK but what if I really like 3 or 4 games? This is when you utilize what is known as a round robin parlay. Basically a round robin is simply a family of 2 team parlays. Say you really like 3 plays which we will label A, B and C. You do three 2 team parlays with games A and B, games A and C , and games B and C. All you have to do is pull a 2-1 and you win money. If you go 3-0 you win all three parlays and win 2.6-1 on each bet. MORAL OF THE STORY I KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT BUT DON’T .
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