Hi and welcome to Compare Bookies! If you are new to the site, and have come across this guide you probably have limited knowledge on the world of betting. With this article, we aim to provide information on various key concepts of sports betting for beginners such as:
- Bookies and Exchanges
- Backing and Laying
- Odds
- Odds Comparison
- Betting Markets
- Picking Bets
Although there are many different types of betting like casino games, poker, bingo, and so on, this guide is primarily concerned with sports and horse betting. If you are looking for information on other areas of gambling then please take a look at the sports and betting guides section of the site.
Sports betting for beginners
A sports bet is different to many other types of gambling like roulette, bingo, and so on as there is a huge element of skill involved with picking that winning bet (selection). For this reason, it is important that you are clued up on the basics involved and are informed about the market you are betting on! Pretty much every sport is available for you to bet on whether you are into horse racing, football, snooker, tennis, or anything else.
Bookies, Exchanges and Spread Betting
There are three main categories of betting site that you can choose from: a bookmaker, a betting exchange, and spread betting facilitators. Each of these offers different ways in which you can bet and you can play around with each type of site to find your preferred style.
Bookies
A bookie (or bookmaker) is the traditional betting establishment that you will see on the high street. The bookie will offer a whole range of markets for you to choose from that extend from mainstream sports like football to more obscure games like Futsal. They will set the odds that they feel are most appropriate, and you simply accept the bet by choosing how much you want to wager. The odds on offer from bookies are fixed and not up for negotiation as with a betting exchange. Examples of bookies are Ladbrokes, Coral, William Hill, and Victor Chandler.
Betting Exchanges
If you are looking for more flexibility with your betting then a betting exchange might be right for you. The great thing about an exchange is that you are able, not just to back a horse or team to win, but you can bet that they will NOT win (laying). In essence you are taking the role of the bookie when laying by setting odds and waiting for punters to accept what you have put on the table (matching the bet). Another selling feature of the exchange is that the odds tend to be better as there are so many people betting at any given time. Most of these people know very little about setting odds (unline bookies) so there can be some huge discrepancies to take advantage of.
Spread betting
Spread betting is a type of betting that takes its roots from the world of finance. A spread betting company will give a spread and your job is to bet on the accuracy of the spread. For example say we were looking at how many corners there will be in a football match – say between Wigan and Hull. A spread of 7-9 (number of corners in the game) might be given by the facilitator, meaning if the total number of corners in the game fit into this spread, everyone would lose and the company would take all the money. You might bet that there will be fewer corners than 7-8 and if you were correct then the spread betting company would pay you a fixed amount for each corner under the spread. If you were wrong and there were more that 8 then you would have to pay a fixed sum for every corner over.
Spread betting is probably the most complicated type of mainstream sports betting and is not recommended for everyone. You might want to spend at least a couple of weeks getting used to the more user friendly bookmaker, and exchange sites before venturing into the world of spread betting.
Odds
Quite simply, odds are the chance given to an outcome happening. If the odds on Phil Taylor to win in the darts were 2-1, this means that according to the odds maker, he would win 1 out of every 2 attempt. The right hand side figure (1) of the two in the example 2-1 is how much you would need to wager to win the figure on the left (2). Put simply, if you placed £1 on this bet with odds of 2/1 you would have a return of £3 (£2 profit).
Many betting companies offer odds in the decimal format rather than the fraction example used above. Some people find it easier to read odds when they are shown this way. To carry on from the example above 2-1 is 3.0 in the decimal format.
If odds are ‘short’ it means the chances of a particular outcome are quite high. If they are long than, the chances are less likely and the larger return you would receive on a winning bet. For example, the odds on Watford winning the FA Cup next season are much longer than Manchester United’s.
Odds Comparison
Getting the best value for money you possibly can is imperative to maximise your sports betting winnings. It is so easy to do that you really should not miss out. There are many great sites offering odds comparison software, such as ourselves that you can use to find the bookie offering the best return for your money. Simply go to the odds comparison site, choose which sport, and which bet you want to place, and the best bookie for the bet will be generated.
Betting Markets
The more popular a sport is, the more betting opportunities, that bookies offer for it. The typical offering will be for an outright win of a team, player, or horse. With the most popular betting events, like the Barclays Premiership for example, you tend to find a much varied collection of bets on offer. You can find bet types like first scorer, first team to score, total number of goals scored, and correct score line. Check out one of the major bookies to see how betting opportunities change between markets.
Picking bets
The choice of bet you make is obviously the most important aspect to your success. The odds you receive, the bet type you go for, or even the bookmaker you choose does not matter if the selection you go for loses.
When choosing a bet, it is best to go for a market you have knowledge on. If you know lots about horseracing and nothing about cricket – then bet on the nags! Of course if you are thinking about placing a small bet to make it more exciting when you watch a game then go for it.
If you are struggling to find a bet your confident with then why not check out a betting forum or blog where you can find a lot of professionals who really know their stuff. The Racing post has some great tipsters writing for it and we have a number of seasoned pros write here at Compare Bookies!
If you have enjoyed this beginner’s guide to betting but are not sure about anything, just drop us an email and we will aim to get back to you within 24 hours. We have many other guides available on the site so be sure to check them out!
