Sports Betting, American as Apple Pie
Back in the day of bare knuckle fighting, two horses racing down a path and even legal cockfighting, sports betting has been a favorite pastime in America.
Horse racing was prevalent beginning prior to the Civil War.
Gambling on baseball began in the late eighteen hundreds. You may have seen the film, Eight Men Out, depicting the World Series gambling scandal involving the 1919 Chicago White Sox.
In todays world, legal gambling alone is a two billion dollar industry.
Online wagers are in the area of thirty times that number. It is believed that twenty five percent of the United States population places at least one bet annually. Fifteen percent of these do it on a regular basis.
If you have ever wondered, how to bet on baseball, in very basic terms it’s quite simple.
First you must make a determination of who you think is the better of the two opposing teams for that particular game. Your reasoning will normally take into account overall team statistics. Things such as, team batting average, fielding percentages and especially what pitcher is on the mound that day.
Once you have a baseball team in mind, you’ll go to the odds board.
The first betting option here is the money line. This ia a straight bet on the games outcome with the favored team requiring a larger bet against a one hundred dollar standard. In other words, a team at minus one twenty(-120)on the money line requires a $120 wager to profit $100. Conversely, if a team is +120, a $100 bet will return you the same $220. Whether the game’s final score is 1-0 or 12-10, if you have the winner you collect the funds.
There is sometimes a run line added to the money line which may be, as an example, -1.5. At this point, not only must your team be victorious, but they must win by more then the run line number. In this example by at least 2 runs.
Lastly, there is the over/under figure meaning total runs scored in the game combined, irregardless of which team scores them.
College, or otherwise known as NCAA football betting is one of the more popular forms of wagering on Saturdays,(and now Tue., Wed., Thur and Fri. nights thanks to ESPN) from September through mid January.
These games have point spreads which must be added or subtracted from the team of your choices total to determine the winner. A team with a -7 must win by at least 8 points. On the other hand a +7 allows that team to lose by 6 or less points and the bettor still collects. In this example if the game was determined by exactly 7, it is considered a “push” or tie.
They, like baseball, also have an over/under based on the total points scored by both teams combined.
GOOD LUCK !