United States of America
Aside from simple wagers such as betting a friend that one's favorite
baseball team will win its division or buying a football "square" for the
Super Bowl, sports betting is commonly performed through a
bookmaker or through various online
Internet outlets. The many types of bets include:
- Proposition bets are wagers made on a very specific outcome of a match. Examples include guessing the number of goals each team scores in a handball match, betting whether a player will score in a football game, or wagering that a baseball player on one team will accumulate more hits than another player on the opposing team.
- Parlays
involve multiple bets (usually up to 12) and will reward a successful
bettor with a large payout. For example, a bettor could include four
different wagers in a four-team parlay, whereby he is wagering that all
four bets will win. If any of the four bets fails to cover, the bettor
loses the parlay, but if all four bets win, the bettor receives a
substantially higher payout (usually 10-1 in the case of a four-teamer)
than if he made the four wagers separately.
- Progressive parlays.
A progressive parlay involves multiple bets (usually up to 12) and
rewards successful bettors with a large payout, though not as large as
normal parlays. However in a progressive parlay, unlike a regular
parlay, a reduced payout will still be made even should some of the bets
lose.
- Teasers.
A teaser allows the bettor to combine his bets on two or more different
games. The bettor can adjust the point spreads for the two games, but
realizes a lower return on the bets in the event of a win.
- If bets.
An if bet consists of at least two straight bets joined together by an
if clause which determines the wager process. If the player’s first
selection complies with the condition (clause), then the second
selection will have action; if the second selection complies with the
condition, then the third selection will have action and so on.[1]
- Run line, puck line or goal line bets. These are wagers offered as alternatives to straight-up/moneyline prices in baseball, hockey or soccer, respectively. These bets feature a fixed point spread
that (usually) offers a higher payout for the favorite and a lower
payout for the underdog (both in comparison to the moneyline).
- Future wagers. While all sports wagers are by definition on
future events, bets listed as "futures" generally have a long-term
horizon measured in weeks or months; for example, a bet that a certain NFL team will win the Super Bowl
for the upcoming season. Such a bet must be made before the season
starts in September, and winning bets will not pay off until the
conclusion of the Super Bowl in January or February (although many of
the losing bets will be clear well before then and can be closed out by
the book). Odds for such a bet generally are expressed in a ratio of
units paid to unit wagered. The team wagered upon might be 50-1 to win
the Super Bowl, which means that the bet will pay 50 times the amount wagered if the team does so.
- Head-to-Head. In these bets, bettor predicts competitors
results against each other and not on the overall result of the event.
One example are Formula One
races, where you bet on two or three drivers and their placement among
the others. Sometimes you can also bet a “tie”, in which one or both
drivers either have the same time, drop out, or get disqualified.
- Totalizators. In totalizators (sometimes called flexible-rate
bets) the odds are changing in real-time according to the share of
total exchange each of the possible outcomes have received taking into
account the return rate of the bookmaker offering the bet. For example:
If the bookmakers return percentage is 90%, 90% of the amount placed on
the winning result will be given back to bettors and 10% goes to the
bookmaker. Naturally the more money bet on a certain result, the smaller
the odds on that outcome become. This is similar to parimutuel wagering in horse racing and dog racing.