Sports betting can be intimidating and confusing if you are new to the game. It has its own jargon that takes time to decode. Making sense of everything happening on a betting website can also be confusing.
Placing your first bets from that place of confusion is probably going to waste your money and take the fun out of the betting experience.
With that in mind we’ve put together this guide to sports betting for people who’re completely new to sports betting and looking to learn the basics.
You’ll find an overview of everything you need to get started, along with links and further reading to learn more about each betting topic.
With that said, let’s get started.
Before you get started with sports betting, you first need to find out the legal status of sports betting in your country.
Some countries prohibit any form of online sports betting, others allow a selection of licensed bookmakers to offer their services in the country. Some countries only allow betting at state-owned operators and a few countries have very liberal sports betting rules and allow most bookies to operate.
If you’re unsure whether or not sports betting is allowed in your country, you’re going to have to get started with doing some research on whether or not sports betting is legal, and which bookies are licensed to operate there.
Needless to say, betting while under the age of 18 is strictly prohibited by all bookmakers.
Before you place a sports bet you’ll need to decide which online bookmaker you want to use for your sports betting. To start with you want to choose a provider that has a good reputation and offers extra value to its customers when getting started.
Typically this will be one of the big name bookies, some of whom also run high street betting shops. These bookmakers have been in business for decades and tend to have strong customer support, website features and promotions that smaller providers struggle to match.
Recommended bookmakers to start with include:
This list is by no means complete, but gives you a good starting point in the world of sports betting without having to spend too much time researching and vetting bookies. Keep in mind that you can try out other providers once you have a solid handle on sports betting.
Once you have selected a bookie that is licensed to operate in your country and has a rock-solid reputation, you’re ready to get started.
Opening a betting account is straightforward, but also quite important. If you provide incorrect or fraudulent information while setting up your account this will probably lead to an account suspension at some time in the future.
With this mind you should have the following available when opening your betting account:
The sign-up process itself is simple. You will need to click on a ‘sign up’ or ‘open account’ link on the website and follow the information prompts for the registration process.
Be prepared to pass through an age and identity verification process when opening your account. Bookmakers put a lot of effort into preventing underage gambling and fraudulent activity.
Free bets, also called no risk bets or open account offers, are incentives bookmakers use to attract new customers. These can range in value from a few pounds to hundreds of pounds.
The principles behind every free bet are basically the same:
Depending on where you’re betting redeeming a free bet can be a simple, affordable process, or a lengthy process that requires you to play through your balance several times before your free bet is credited to your account. Often, the bigger the free bet, the more hoops you’ll need to jump through to claim it.
As with everything else you’ll face as a rookie punter, you’ll want to keep it simple to start with. Don’t focus on the big free bet offers from new bookies – instead go to established bookies and claim free bets that can be easily redeemed by placing just one qualifying bet.
During the account sign-up process you are likely to be prompted to register a payment method and make a deposit into your account.
Once again, this process is simple as you will be offered a selection of payment methods and then be prompted to submit your payment details and make a deposit.
There is one important thing to keep in mind during this part of the process, and that is the conditions of the open-account offer from the bookmaker you have chosen.
To qualify for the open account offer you will often need to meet a minimum deposit requirement for your account, as well as a minimum wagering requirement.
So make sure that you read through the terms and conditions of your open account offer and deposit the correct amount during this stage of the process.
Major bookmakers cover dozens of sports around the globe, and thousands of daily sports events. There is nothing wrong with browsing what’s available on the bookie’s home screen once you have registered and logged in, but if you randomly pick events to bet on you’re probably not going to benefit much.
Before choosing a sport and event to bet on, consider the following questions:
The more you know about a sport, the more educated your bets will be. While betting on horseracing might seem like fun, horse racing betting is the equivalent of playing the lottery if you know nothing about the sport.
A betting market is a specific category of bet type available for a sports event. Punters can select potential outcomes within that market – for example football match betting involves picking either team to win, or the draw, in a football match.
Betting markets are where the action happens in sports betting, and are usually ordered according to the following structure:
Many bookies display betting markets for high profile tournaments and fixtures prominently on their home pages or the landing page for a specific sport. If you are looking for something specific you will usually need to drill down to your event and available markets.
Once you find the betting markets you will notice that there can be dozens of them available for even a simple second division football match.
If you’re a beginner many of these won’t make sense to you right away, and you should avoid them and instead focus on the basic betting markets that make sense up front.
These markets will ask you to answer simple questions like:
If you have a good handle on your sport and the tournament you are following you should have no problem making educated guesses at what the outcomes of a fixture should be.
There is no shame in starting off in sports betting with simple bets like this. In fact, you’ll find that experienced punters often focus on a few simple markets rather than spreading their bets over a variety of different bet types.
As you learn more about sports betting you can read up and test out the other types of betting markets and expand your options when betting on any event.
Odds are the basic building block of betting. The odds are the ‘price’ a bookmaker is willing to pay if you place a winning bet.
You will find that most betting markets, with the exception of certain racing markets, offer numerical odds besides each option in the market.
If your bet wins, the bookmaker will multiply your stake (the amount you bet) by the odds you selected.
UK bookies offer odds in a couple of formats, including:
Odds are correlated with the probability of a given bet winning. If there are high odds on a bet, this means the bet is unlikely to win. If the odds are low, it means the bet is more likely to win.
Bookies have to perform a fine balancing act when they set odds. On the one hand their odds have to accurately represent the probability of a bet winning and attract bets.
On the other hand, the odds have to be high enough to create a profit margin for the bookie. This profit margin is known as the ‘overround’.
To begin with all you really need to know is that odds give a fair reflection of the probability of any bet winning.
When you select higher odds, you put yourself in a position where you can earn potentially larger payouts, but where your risk of losing is also bigger.
When you select lower odds, your chances of winning your bet improve. However, you’ll earn less when your bet does win.
In the old days placing a bet involved filling in your bets on a paper betting slip and handing it to the operator at a betting shop.
Today’s punters have access to sophisticated online betting slips that not only allow you to register your bets, but also calculate the potential winnings from your bets.
Betting slips are very user friendly and make it simple to place bets:
Placing a bet on a betting slip is about as hard as falling out of a tree. However, there are a couple of things on a betting slip that can trip a newbie punter up.
When you bet on any event that has a finishing order you will be given the option to back your selection each way – often abbreviated as e/w on the betting slip.
If you choose this option the stake you place on your selection will automatically be doubled, and half of it will be put on a place bet on your selection – i.e. a bet on your selection finishing as one of the runners-up in the event. The number of runners-up places paid by the bookie will depend on the event.
While each-way betting is not complicated, you can ignore this option until you are comfortable using a betting slip and placing regular bets on the winner of an event.
As soon as you add more than one selection to a betting slip, it will give you the option of tying your selections into a single bet. These bets are called accumulator bets, and give you the option of getting bigger payouts by potentially stringing together a series of wins in a single bet.
While basic accumulator betting is quite straightforward – for example placing a single bet on two different Premier League teams winning their matches – these bet types can become complex. Particularly when they are combined into combination bets.
So, to begin with you want to keep things simple and place one bet at a time, and leave accumulator and combination bets until you have a bit more experience betting.
While betting can be a great way to add spice to sports events and test your sporting knowledge, it can be very financially destructive if abused.
Getting the most out of betting involves sticking to some basic principles:
Not only do many strategies do little more than enrich the people flogging them, but some can even bankrupt you in a few hours.
Here are some betting strategies you want to steer clear of:
Generally avoid systems that promise to guarantee you a profit or consistent wins. What you may find is legitimate is expert punters who run subscription services where they provide tips to their audiences.
These services require the experts to deliver winning tips frequently because of the subscription model used, and can be used to help you improve the quality of your bets and win more often.
Ultimately there will be some trial and error involved in getting the hang of sports betting, and you’ll learn the most through experience.
With this in mind it doesn’t hurt to dive in once you have touched on the important points in this guide and refer to the more in-depth resources we offer when you get stuck or have a question.
If you have any questions about getting started with sports betting, or would like to see any topics covered in this guide, please feel free to get in touch.
Advertisement. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required.
Signup NowAbbreviated as OU, a bet that the total combined points, runs, or goals of both teams in a game will be either higher or lower than a specified combined score. In football, for example, over/under goals bets are popular.
