If you’d like to take your online betting experience further than small punts on your team winning their next match, the America BetsBetting School is here to help. Online betting offers literally hundreds of ways to capitalise on your knowledge of your favourite sport and convert it into top payouts. However, to take the step up from a casual punter to an educated sports betting enthusiast, you’ll need to come to grasps with the various betting options, strategies, and betting techniques that you’ll come across when you bet on sports events. Armed with this knowledge you’ll not only enjoy your online betting more, but will also be in a better position to capitalise on some of the exciting betting opportunities offered by the European’s top sportsbooks.
Betting Basics You’d love to get involved with sports betting, earn free bets and place money on your favourite sports, but aren’t sure where to start. The Sportbet01 Betting School covers betting basics ranging from:
Choosing a sportbook
Opening an account
Placing your first bet
Odds explained
Cashing in your free bet offers
Choosing a Sportsbook The explosion in popularity of online betting has seen a massive increase in the number of sportsbooks and betting exchanges available online. Choosing from these options can be a bewildering experience for novice punters unfamiliar with the gaming industry. As a rule of thumb, punters should limit their sportsbook selection to bookmakers with an established brand identity and terrestrial presence. Several of the European’s biggest bookmakers have ventured into cyberspace over the past decade, and can be relied on to provide a premium, safe betting experience. We list and review a selection of the European’s most reputable EU Bookmakers
What To Look For Once you’ve narrowed down your choice of sportsbooks, you still need to determine which sportsbook best suits your needs. Here are some of the things to look out for:
Free Bets: Look out for the best free bet offers. Matched deposit offers for new account holders range between £10 and £500.
Sports Focus: While most sportsbooks cover a broad range of sports, each has its own focus. Choosing a sportsbook that focuses on your favourite sport will give you access to a greater variety of betting markets.
Betting Specials: Free bet offers and money back specials should form an important part of a sound betting strategy – you’ll need to find a sportsbook that offers you additional ways to earn money and also to hedge your bets.
Odds: To maximise your revenue from sports betting you’ll need access to the highest odds on offer. Odds differ from sportsbook to sportsbook, and finding a sportsbook which consistently offers the highest odds will ensure you make the most from your bets.
Site Integration: Many online gamers participate in a range of risk-based entertainment activities. Finding a site that offers a number of gaming options is not uncommon, however, you should always look for sites which are fully integrated, allowing you to move your funds around your different gaming accounts
Multiple Accounts It is, of course, difficult to know what sort of experience a sportsbook offers until you use it. While our sportsbook reviews can help you evaluate the merits of the different bookmakers, the proof lies in the pudding, and you’ll need to sample several sportsbooks to find the one that best suits your needs. Fortunately, there is nothing to prevent you from opening multiple sportsbook accounts. Having a variety of accounts allows you to pick the best odds for any given sports event, and will also add to the payout you earn from free bets.
Opening a Sportsbook Account Once you’ve read through our sportsbook reviews, and found a few bookmakers that you’d like to sample, you’ll want to open an account. This is a simple process, and you’ll need the following to process your account application as quickly as possible:
Once you have these details at hand, use our sportsbook pages to click on the sportsbook of your choice. You will then find a registration tab located near the top of the sportsbook’s landing page, and you can click on this to open the registration form. Registration Registering a sportsbook account is fairly straightforward. You will be required to register your name, residential address, a phone number, a username and your date of birth. You will also be able to choose whether or not you would like to receive promotional material in future. If you’ve decided to open an account at a sportsbook it is generally a good idea to allow them to contact you with promotional material. Sportsbook newsletters often feature information that will help you extract maximum benefit from the site, and will alert you to any betting specials and free bet offers you may otherwise miss out on. Credit Cards Some sportsbooks will require you to register a credit card immediately upon registration, while others only require you to register your card when making your first deposit. Immediate card registration is used for age verification, and speeds up the process of making your first deposit at a later stage. Mastercard users should keep in mind that recent legislation passed in Europe has resulted in sportsbooks being unable to transfer money from sportsbook accounts into Mastercard accounts. While a Mastercard can be used to make a deposit, the use of a VISA card is preferable, as this facilitates easy withdrawals. Several sportsbooks also allow users to deposit funds using debit cards and online money booking accounts. Maestro, Solo and Switch cards are accepted by a number of sportsbooks, while PayPal and MoneyBooker accounts can also be used to deposit and withdraw funds. Registering a Username Many sportsbooks will allow you to register yourself on the site under an alias. When registering your alias, keep in mind that some sportsbooks do not allow you to change this alias once it has been selected, and that this alias can be carried over to the casino and poker tables of users who make use of these facilities.
Placing Your 1st Bet Once you have opened your account and registered a credit card you are free to place your first bet. The majority of sportsbooks will require you to make a deposit in order to claim a free bet offer, so the size of your initial deposit is crucial in determining the size of your free bet. If a sportsbook is offering a £25 free bet, you will need to deposit at least £25 before placing your first bet. Some sportsbooks allow users to make several deposits to earn their free bets, which makes it advisable for you to read the fine-print before making your deposit. Once you have made your first deposit you can place a bet. Most sportsbooks feature the most important sports events on their landing page, with links to a variety of sporting codes on a left-hand menu bar. Simply click on the sport or event that interests you. Now that you have selected a sports event to bet on, you can choose which betting markets you would like place your money in. Depending on the event and sport there can be up to 20 different markets available at any given time, and you’ll need to pick the market that allows you to best apply your sports knowledge. Make Your Selection Once you have a list of markets and odds open in front of you, all you need to do is click on the odds that you’d like to invest in. This will open a betting window, and you can enter the amount you’d like to bet. Many betting windows display the projected payout as soon as you place your bet. If you are satisfied with the odds, your selection and the projected payout, click on the confirmation button to place your bet. Many betting windows will also give you the opportunity to bet each way – ignore this option until you have read our guide to each way betting. Once a bet has been placed it cannot be annulled and the stake refunded, so take time to make careful selections and ensure that you are betting the intended amount. Betting selections can be reviewed in the accounts section of your chosen sportsbook, and some sportsbooks also offer live betting slips that automatically trace your most recent betting activity. Earning a Payout Successful bets are paid out at the odds offered when the bet was placed. Payouts are not always immediate, and, depending on the sports event and the volume of betting, it can take several hours to register in your account. If you made use of a betting special, these payouts may take even longer to show on your account. Be patient during this time as it rarely takes more than 24 hours from the completion of the sport event for payouts to show in a user’s account.
Odds Explained Betting on sports is all about odds. The term odds is used in sports betting to describe the payout punters can earn on a successful bet. Odds are often referred to as prices, in reference to the value of a bet on a particular selection. Odds are offered in three different formats, with the majority of sportsbooks allowing users to select the odds format they prefer. The default odds format will often depend on the country in which the bet is being made. The three odds formats are:
Fractional Odds: Fractional odds is the default odds format offered by bookmakers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. These odds are represented as a fraction, and indicate the net payout earned relative to the amount staked. If a bet wins the initial stake is returned with the payout.
For example: A punter bets £10 on Kauto Star winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup at odds of 1/2. If Kauto Star wins the race, the bet will pay out: 1/2 x 10 = 5. The initial stake is then added to this figure for a total payout of £15.
Decimal Odds: Decimal odds are also known as Continental Odds or European Odds, and are popular in Europe, Canada and Australia. These odds reflect the payout on a successful bet in decimal form, and factor in the return of the stake.
For example: A punter bets £10 on Rafael Nadal winning the French Open at odds of 2. If Nadal claims the title the punter will be paid out: 2 x 10 = 10. The £20 payout reflects the fact that the punter has only earned £10 from the bet, as the stake was included in the payout. It is important to keep in mind the fact that the payout is factored into decimal odds, otherwise punters may choose decimal odds over fractional odds in the mistaken belief that this will generate a bigger payout.
Moneyline Odds: Moneyline odds are used primarily in the United States, but are offered by most online sportsbooks. These odds reflect the payout on a successful $100 bet, with the return of the stake not included in this figure.
When bets play better than even, the odds will be prefixed by a plus, for example, +100. Bets paying less than even are prefixed by a minus, for example, -100, and describes how much would have to be bet to earn a £100 payout. An example: A punter bets £10 on England defeating South Africa in a test match at odds of +300. If England wins, the bet will pay out 300 x 10/100 = 30. The stake will then be returned for a total payout of £40. Or: A sportsbook offers odds of -400 on Italy beating Ireland in a Six Nations match. This means that a punter would need to bet £400 to earn $100 from the bet. A £40 bet at this price would therefore pay out £10. The stake would then be added to this payout for a total return of £50.