HOW TO BET ON SPORTS

So, you love to watch sports and you want to bet on the action too, but you’re not sure how to bet on sports. Let us help.

A sports bet is when you try to predict the outcome of a match or event. This could be the score of a football match, the winner of a horse race or which player will triumph at a tennis tournament. You can also make bets within each event too, such as the total number of goals at half-time during a Champions League football match.

At Grosvenor Casinos, our sports betting gives you the chance to bet on different sports events taking place at home or across the world. You can bet on the outcome of matches and tournaments as well as choose from a range of sports betting markets.

Let’s dive a little more into sports betting with our helpful sports betting guide and sports betting tips.

How to Get Started

When it comes to UK sports betting, you should first look out for trusted sites that are licensed and regulated by The UK Gambling Commission – like Grosvenor Casinos. Secondly, see if there are any promotional offers for new members such as a free bet if you deposit a certain amount.

Once you’ve chosen your site, pick your favourite sport and chosen event. It helps to have prior knowledge of the sport, the teams playing and the players, to inform your betting. The next step is to review the available bets and the betting odds – this will tell you how much you will potentially win. You can also use handy tools like bet calculators to calculate your potential winnings quickly and simply.

Choose your bet, select your stake (that’s how much you want to bet) and place your bet. Then it’s time to watch the action of your chosen event unfold and cross your fingers for your bet to come in.

Popular Sports to Bet On

Whatever your favourite sport is, it’s likely that you’ll be able to bet on it. Football and horse racing have traditionally been the most popular sports to bet on in the UK, and you’ll find plenty of betting markets and specials for when you want to bet on these two sports.

But they’re not the only games in town. If you fancy betting on The Ashes and more, cricket betting has you covered. You can bet on basketball at home, in the USA and across Europe, whilst Golf betting covers all the Majors, the Ryder Cup and every possible event in the golfing calendar.

Boxing betting is available for all the big fights and world title bouts. With tennis betting you can bet on all the big Grand Slams, and with snooker betting you can place a bet on any event in the UK and across the world.

You’ll also find sports betting for a whole range of other sports including greyhound racing, wrestling, UFC, motorsports, rugby union and much more.

Types of Sports Bet Wagers

The simplest of bets you can make on any sport is an outright bet. This is a bet on the winner of a particular event or match. For example, in football an outright bet on the Premier League or Champions League would be a bet on which team you think will take the trophy at the end of the season. An outright bet in boxing would be which player you think will win the fight, and in cricket it would be either Australia or England to win the Ashes.

Whilst an outright bet is always a good option, sports betting encompasses thousands of different potential bets. Let’s take the example of football. In the Premier League, you can bet on all of the 380 matches across the season, with popular bets including first goal scorer, the full-time score, the half-time score, the total goals (and whether this will be over or under a certain amount).

In horse racing, you can bet on a horse to win, but you can also back a horse each way. This is in fact two bets. The first is on the horse to win and the second is on the horse to finish in the top places (to place). If your horse wins, both bets will come in and if it finishes second only the bet to place will win. You can also make an ante-post bet in horse racing which is where you place a bet before the runners have been announced. If your horse doesn’t run the race, you’ll lose your money, but this is often offset by the better odds on offer.

In boxing, you can bet on whether there will be a knockout or a technical knockout as well as how many rounds the fight will go to. Tennis betting includes betting on whether there will be a tie-break or how many sets the match will go to.

Popular sports bets also include multiple bets and accumulators. These are bets on multiple outcomes, which are harder to win but carry bigger payouts if you do. Learn more about accumulators further on.

How Do Sport Betting Odds Work

When you come to make sports bet on whatever sport, you’ll see the odds displayed next to your chosen bet. In most cases these will be shown as fractional odds as that’s the norm in the UK, compared to decimal odds across the pond in the USA.

Let’s have a look at how fractional odds work.

Say you want to make an outright bet on Arsenal to win the FA Cup. You might see it displayed as 4/1. This means that there is a 20% chance that this will happen in terms of probability.

But what does it mean for your winnings? With odds of 4/1 it means that every £1 you bet, you’ll receive 4x your stake. You’ll also get your original stake back. So, if you bet £100 on Arsenal to win the FA Cup with odds of 4/1 you could win £400 and get your original £100 bet back.

Odds of 4/1 is of course a simple example and an easy one to work out. Things can get more complicated when you see odds of 2/9 for example. If you need a little help working out your potential winnings from sports betting, simply head to our helpful bet calculator.

Live and In-Play Sports Betting

With all sports events, you can bet before the event happens. This is referred to as pre-game or pre-match betting, and has always been the traditional way of betting on sports. But with the onset of online betting, a new option has emerged in recent years – Live In-Play betting.

So, how does it work?

It does exactly what it says on the tin. With live betting, you can bet live as the action unfolds. You’ll see the various In-Play betting markets available online, with odds that continually change throughout the match or event. It gives you the opportunity to use your knowledge and insight of the sport to take advantage of changes in the contest as it happens.

Let’s say you’re watching a Premier League match and the dominant team has a player sent off. This can have a dramatic impact on the outcome of the contest and it could easily swing the other way. In-Play betting lets you take advantage of this. In boxing, a fighter hitting the canvas could come out of nowhere and completely change the flow of the fight. Live betting caters to the ebbs and flows of the contest.

Live In-Play betting also covers a range of betting markets. In football for example, you can bet on the next player to score, a player to get sent off or the number of corners.

Guide to Placing Accumulators

Accumulator bets are popular sports bets and involve betting on four or more outcomes. In football, this could be four teams to win over a weekend or in horse racing it could be four or more horses to win across the Cheltenham Festival or the Grand National weekend.

So, how do you place an accumulator bet?

First you need to sign into your Grosvenor Sport account and select your chosen sport. You can then start making your bets.

Say you’re betting on four different winners in the first round of Wimbledon, you’ll need to click on the odds for each outcome and add it to your bet slip. Once you’ve made all your selections, you’ll see the option to select accumulator. Click this and you’ll see the accumulative odds – these are the odds of all your selections coming in. Remember to hit the button to place your bet and then watch the action to see if all your bets come in.

Just remember that the potential winnings are higher on accumulators due to the decreased probability of all your selections coming in. Also, don’t forget that you need all your selections to happen to win on an accumulator bet. If one fails to win, all bets are off.

Cash Outs

Cash out means that you can get your money back on your bet at any time during the event, not just when the event is over. You might not get the full amount, and how much you get back will depend on how far along the event is. It’s typically offered as a feature of In-Play betting, with the nature of the offers varying from bookmaker to bookmaker.

Let’s take the example of betting on Novak Djokovic to beat Rafael Nadal in the final of the French Open. Going into the final set, with the Serbian looking on course to win, you may be offered a cash out option. It means you can either cash out now and take the money on offer or wait to see if he does in fact win.

The first option means you will win something (depending on the cash out option), but it won’t be as much as you would win at the end of the contest. If you wait until the end of the contest, you run the risk of Nadal actually taking the win and you losing out completely on your bet.

Bonuses and Promotions

If you’re ready to bet on sports with Grosvenor Casinos, you’ll find a range of promotions, bonuses and offers to set you on your way.

Comments

comments