A Beginner's Guide to Niche Sports Betting: Understanding the Odds System
If you are a sports fan and you live in the UK, it’s almost impossible that you have never thought about putting your money on a game, fight, or race. If for any reason you had held back until now, or in case you suffered a loss bad enough on your first bet to keep you away from the whole online sports betting scene, that’s about to change. Read on as we go through the basics of online sports betting.
Choosing Your Niche
To be actually profitable in your bets, you need to choose your sports niche quite carefully, based on the following criterion.
- You must have a clear and astute understanding of the sport, along with genuine interest in the game
- It must be a sport or a niche of sports that you have at least some degree of personal experience with
- You should have a good history of accurately predicting various outcomes in that niche
The more familiar you are with the sport, the more likely are you to take advantage of everything that the online sports betting scene has to offer. Just in case you cannot find the sports, gaming, or gambling niche which would be the most ideal entry point for you, pay a visit to Roger.com first. Not only does Roger offer players the choice to choose between slot games, casual games, card games, sports betting, Bingo, live casino, crypto trading, forex and a long list of other gambling options, Roger.Com is also an excellent database of knowledge for new players to learn online sports betting.
Betting Mechanics
There are three primary aspects of the betting mechanics that every punter needs to be familiar with, even before they place their first bet. These would be the selections, the stakes, and the odds. While selections and stakes are quite easy to understand, the odds system can be confusing to get used to.
Selections
Selection or selections refer to the team/player or teams/players that someone selects to place their bet/bets on. It can also get a bit more specific if you choose to bet in favour of a precise outcome. An example of which would be when a punter chooses Barcelona to win their Derby match against Espanyol, 2 goals to 1. Such specific selections usually have a lower pay out rate, but a much higher prize.
Stake
The stake would be the amount a gambler has decided to put on a specific bet, and it’s just as simple as that! There are a few terms you will hear often though, so get familiar with them as well.
- High-Stakes – When the minimum betting amount or stake is high
- Low-Stake – When the minimum betting amount either has no specific limit or is set very low
- Total Stakes – The monetary summation of all the bets a gambler has placed in total
Odds
By definition, odds mean chances, and in online sports betting, odds signify the chances of a specific event occurring and the betting party’s bet: win ratio. For example, the if the odds of a team winning the upcoming football tournament, or the odds of a boxer winning against his/her opponent in the coming match are 4/1, it would signify the following:
- Chances or odds of the team/boxer winning are 4 to 1, which means that they are not very likely to win (20% in this case)
- If you place a bet of £1 on that football team/boxer, and they do indeed win, you will be winning £4
Similarly, those that placed £150 on that winning bet, will be winning £150 x 4 = £600. On the other hand, if they lose, the whole amount would be forfeited, be it £1 or £150.
The situation is completely reversed if you see the odds 1/4 beside the name of your favourite football team/boxer. This would signify that their chances of losing the tournament or the match are 20%, while their chances of winning are as high as 80%.
Although that’s a relatively safe bet to place, the outcomes are pretty underwhelming, and losses can be quite devastating. This is because in order to win £1 by betting on that player or team, you will have to bet £4. Therefore, if you want to win £1,000 from that bet, you will have to bet £4,000. Keep in mind that in case the 20% chance of losing comes through, your entire bet is lost in this case as well.
Confusion is common around the odds board for newcomers because in different parts of the world, as well as depending on the specific online sports betting site or sports niche we are discussing, different systems are used to represent the odds. However, as far as the UK is concerned, the fraction system is usually followed on most online sports betting websites.
