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Sports Betting has Been Around Since Before the Gladiators
Sports betting is a type of gambling in which you predicting results by making a bet on a sporting event. More than other form of gambling, the legality and acceptance of sports betting varies from country to country. In the U.S., for example, sports gambling is only legal in Nevada casinos, while in much of Europe, bookmaking (the profession of accepting sports bets) is highly regulated but not illegal.
Sports Bookmakers
Aside from simple bets - betting a friend that your favorite baseball team will win its division, for instance - sports betting is commonly done through a bookmaker (a “bookie”). Legal sports bookmakers exist throughout the world (perhaps most notably in Las Vegas) but in areas where sports betting is illegal, bettors usually make their sports wagers with illegal bookies and on the Internet, where hundreds of online bookmakers accept bets on thousands of sporting events.
Pick the Sports Bet That’s Right for You
Bookmakers generally offer two types of sports bets: a straight-up bet or a point-spread bet. Straight-up prices are used to set odds on team sports like soccer, baseball and hockey (the scoring nature of which renders point spreads impractical) as well as 2-man contests, like boxing. For these sports, bookmakers in Europe and Asia generally use straight-up odds, which are quoted based on a payout for a single-unit bet (like 2-1 or 4-1 odds). In basketball or American football, betting on the point spread is more popular, although straight-up bets are usually offered as well.
A point-spread bet requires a bettor to risk a bit more to make a bit less, the extra portion being the bookmaker's interest. However, bettors backing the favorite (depending on the odds) collect only if their team wins by more than a specific margin, which is set at the time of the bet. This is called "covering the spread." Similarly, underdog bettors can collect even when their team loses, as long as they lose by fewer points than were quoted by the bookmaker.
Online Sports Betting
Sports betting is available online and in mobile casinos, as well. With new technology, you can bet any time of the day or night on just about any sport. You can look at the odds and place a bet all in a matter of seconds. These days, nothing is easier than betting on major sporting events like the World Series, World Cup or Triple Crown horse races. When you bet online, you can get up-to-date news and statistics on your computer, which puts you in the position to make the most informed bets possible. Online sports betting means reading about it, betting on it, and then seeing the results, all through one medium – your computer.
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