Category: Education

An over/under in sports betting is a bet on the total number of points scored in a game. It’s often called “the total.” You’re wagering on whether or not the combined points/goals/runs scored by both teams will go over or under a predetermined amount. You’re not trying to guess the exact amount (though sportsbooks do…

What Is Points Betting at PointsBet? Points betting is a high-risk, high-reward sports betting option that’s available only at PointsBet (hence the name). PointsBet’s own slogan sums it up well — the more you’re right about a particular bet, the more you win. The more you’re wrong, the more you lose. Come check out how…

All U.S. sportsbooks default to what we call “American odds” — which are centered around winning or risking $100. Any odds with a minus sign (like -110) indicate that you must risk more than you’ll win — a $110 bet at -110 would win $100. Any betting odds with a plus sign (like +150) means…

Juice in sports betting is the cut a sportsbook keeps for taking your bet. It’s also known as the “vig.” If you bet $10 on a point spread against a friend, the winner gets $10. But when you’re betting at a sportsbook, you have to pay a cut to the book for taking your action…

Have you ever heard someone reference this mysterious betting market? Their language may sound something like… What does the betting market think of this game? The betting market gives Kamala Harris a 60% chance to win the 2024 presidential election. This market is so mispriced. Anything offered by a sportsbook — from an NFL point…

When you look at futures odds for an event like the Super Bowl, you see all 32 teams at plus-money and some at longshot prices. But just because you’re getting a price greater than 6/1 on every team doesn’t mean you’re getting fair prices. You’re paying even more of a premium when betting most futures…

A betting exchange is a marketplace that allows bettors to wager against each other at lower fees than those offered by a traditional sportsbook. In an exchange model, two customers agree on the odds and stake for a given game, and bet against one another. I may offer a $50 bet on Packers -3 against the…

The probabilities of two outcomes in sports betting never add up to 100%. That’s because sportsbooks take their cut — called the juice or vig. But to truly see how a sportsbook views an event, you need to remove that vig. Here’s how to do it. _PromoID=[5113] How Implied Probability Works Before we can remove…

A hook in sports betting — more commonly called “the hook” — is the name for the last half point of a non-whole number spread. So if a team is a 3.5-point underdog, the last 0.5 points is considered “the hook.” Losing the hook is when you bet fails by only the 0.5 margin. Of…

  While you don’t get to decide the point spreads for each game (how nice would that be?), you can adjust the spreads that oddsmakers set in order to place a bet on a more desirable number. How? By buying points. But you don’t get those points for free, of course. Table of Contents 1.…

I promised converting decimal odds to implied probabilities was easy. So here we go. Fractional odds, often used by British and Irish bookmakers, can also be converted to decimal odds to understand potential profit in betting scenarios. 1 / Decimal Odds That’s it! Decimal odds explained for you. What’s the implied probability of the Dolphins…

So you’ve made a bold sports bet. And it’s looking pretty good. You might win a whole bunch of money … Unless, of course, it loses. You certainly aren’t rooting for your bet to lose in this scenario, but what if you’re realistic and think that it still might? Shouldn’t you be able to reward…

A push bet in sports betting is when the bet lands on the exact number offered by the sportsbook, and your bet gets refunded. Say you’ve bet on the Chiefs as 10-point favorites over the Chargers, and K.C. wins by exactly 10 points. Whatever amount you bet is returned to you in full. A push…

A backdoor cover is when an underdog is trailing by more than the point spread, and scores meaningless points late in the game to cover the spread. Example: Say you’ve bet the Detroit Lions at +13 in Green Bay against the Packers, and Detroit is down 30-14. Jared Goff gets the ball back with two…

It might feel easier to bet at one sportsbook. Your money is all in one place, and you know exactly where to go to find what you want to bet. But if you’re in a legal betting state, the quickest way to go from loser to break-even bettor (and hopefully beyond) is by using multiple…

Have you ever gone to a sportsbook and had trouble finding a game you wanted to wager on? If so, the first thing you should always do is look for the added games on the betting board first, then ask a ticket writer if you are still struggling to find them. And if you have…

Table of Contents Arbitrage Definition Arb Examples Is Arbitrage a Viable Strategy for Me? Arbitrage Definition An arbitrage in sports betting is when a bettor makes multiple bets on the same event to guarantee a profit no matter the result. It’s usually a result of different sportsbooks offering different odds on the same event. Arbitrage…

Chalk in sports betting refers to the betting favorite, and more often a heavy favorite. It can linguistically take many forms: “It was a chalky NFL Sunday” “You only bet chalk, you coward” “The chalk cleaned up in the first round of the NCAA Tournament” _InlineAdBlock=3 Why Do We Call it Chalk? The term chalk…

How Does a Parlay Work in Sports Betting? A parlay in sports betting is when a bettor makes multiple wagers (at least two) and ties them together into the same bet. If any of the bets in the parlay loses, the entire parlay loses. However, if all wagers win, the bettor gets a bigger payout. For…

To be a successful sports bettor, you need accurate and reliable real-time data. If you don’t know where a line opened, how it moved, why it moved and what the public and the sharps are betting, you might as well be flipping a coin. With The Action Network’s PRO product, bettors get full access to our…

We live in a highly digital world where almost every aspect of our lives takes place online. And while mobile betting is growing increasingly popular, it’s still important to know how to place a bet the old-school way: in person at a sportsbook or a casino. 10 Easy, Profitable Tips for Betting BaseballRead now For…

Being a winning sports bettor over the longterm is not easy. In fact, it’s extremely hard. One key difference between profitable bettors and those just making contributions to sportsbooks is properly tracking and analyzing one’s own betting results. But before you can properly break down your own personal performance, you need to first understand what…

If you’re a frequent reader of The Action Network, you’ve probably crossed paths with our “Sharp Reports” on a few occasions (or more, hopefully). Assuming so, you’re aware that sharps are bettors with long track records of success, and our reports are meant to encompass the picks that have generated the most action from those…

If you read the latest feature piece by Jon Gold on the infamous Gilbert Arenas-Javaris Crittenton gun incident, you learned it all stemmed from a card game called Booray (or Bourré). There’s a strong likelihood this is the first you’re hearing of the game, so here’s how to you can play yourself. >> Sign up for…

Whether you’re someone who believes Bitcoin is the future or just another bubble, there’s no denying its growing popularity among both investors and those simply with opinions about it. However, in the sports betting community, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are changing the way both sportsbooks and bettors operate. Having multiple sportsbooks to bet at, also…