We’ve all heard of the guy who bet on the underdog judi slot online team in the Superbowl and walked away with thousands of dollars, or the friend of a friend who knows a guy that can hook you up with a Filipino cock fight next weekend. If you’re a sports fan, it’s a pretty safe assumption to say you know that betting, both legal and illegal, takes place on practically every professional game and many college games.
Simply placing a bet can be a confusing affair — sports books have their own lingo, and the systems vary. Figuring out how to bet well enough to make some money is another matter entirely. How are the odds determined? Who sets the line? What percentage of the time do you need to win to break even?
In this article I’ll make you familiar with the lingo in the world of betting and odds making and show you how one of the world’s favorite pastimes can earn you a lot of money when you know what you are doing.
Different sports have different systems for oddsmaking and betting. There are even different systems for the same sport, depending on what kind of game the bettor wants to play. But to understand any of these systems, you first have to understand the jargon.
Action – Action is simply betting activity. Phrases such as “I want in on the action” or “Show me where the action is” come from this term. Since betting on sports is illegal in many places, you can’t always look up your local bookie in the phone book.
Handicap – In sports betting, “to handicap” is to give one team a points advantage in order to level the betting field. Sportsbook – An establishment that takes bets, also known as a book. An individual who takes bets is a bookie.
Juice – This is the percentage of all bets taken by the bookie as profit. The juice is also known as the vig, short for vigorish. Sometimes bookies take a straight percentage of the handle, but more often the vig is figured into the odds Handle – The handle is the total amount of money wagered on bets. Super Bowl betting generates the biggest handle of the year for most bookies.
The spread – The point spread is used in high-scoring sports like football and basketball. It is basically a handicap used to make all games competitive in the eyes of bettors. The spread gives one team an advantage of a few points. Standard notation for the point spread shows the favored team first, followed by a negative number (the actual spread). The home team is shown in capital letters.
You can make sports bets on football, soccer, baseball, basketball…well pretty much any sporting event on the planet and you can make a lot of money from it, if you do it the right way. If you’ve ever wanted to place a bet yourself, but weren’t really sure on if it was worth the risk, you have come to the right place. Gambling in its very definitely means someone has to win and someone has to lose. What if you could find a way to tip the balance and be on the winning side with almost every single bet you make.
