Moneyline betting odds types
The key element of moneyline betting is the given odds for each of the options in which a certain sporting event can finish. The betting odds or wagers vary depending on the perceived possibility a certain team or athlete will win a given sporting event.
When looking at potential betting options and the perceived possibility a certain team or athlete will win, there are three components of a moneyline odds or wagers: the favorite, the underdog and even.
The Favorite
A favorite is a team or an athlete who is most likely to win. The likeliness of the winning is based on quality, recent form, competition, home court advantage, injuries, head-to-head matchups, the importance of the game and many other factors that influence the odds.
For example, if you want to place a bet on a basketball game between the United States and China, the options for each team to win will have way different odds simply because the United States are widely considered as the best basketball team in the world for decades while China has a limited quality.
The odds for the favorites are most of the time starting with a minus (-).
The Underdog
The underdog is the team or the athlete who is less likely to win. Placing a bet on an underdog gives you an opportunity to win much more than what your bet is, which even is less likely, sometimes really pays off.
The best moneyline bettors know how to sense a possible upset and when those teams or athletes win, the amount they get from their bet is a couple of times bigger than the placed amount.
Each NCAA basketball tournament brings many upsets and whoever places the right bets would say that he has had a good season.
The odds for the underdogs are most of the time starting with plus (+).
The Even
An ‘even’ games are the ones where either team or player has similar chances to win. For example, if you want to place a bet on a game between France and Argentina in the FIFA World Cup, the odds for a win of each of the teams will be really close which makes the pick more difficult but the possible win much higher than when you bet on the favorite.
