How to Compute Sports Gambling Odds

Watching sports on television is one of the many usual pastimes. People love to watch athletes running around after balls and pucks. It's thrilling to watch a team score points, and more so to have your favorite team win. Many people like to heighten the sports-watching enjoyment by gambling on the game's outcome.

Instructions

    • 1

      Shop around for a good bookkeeper. It's crucial to bet on sports using a sports book you like. Sports books are what gamblers use to find out the odds for each team in any given game. These odds are made up by the bookkeeper. He decides who the better team is, and how good the odds for each team to win are. You then place your money on these odds, which change from game to game.

    • 2

      Know the score. Odds are shown as negative numbers and positive numbers. Using a base of $100, the negative number shows how much money you need to bet to win $100, and positive numbers show how much you'll win if you bet $100. For instance, if a team has a -235 odds, that means you need to bet $235 to win $100. If they had +235 odds, then winning with a bet of $100 would win you $235. The more favorite the team is to win, the higher their + number.

    • 3

      Decide how to bet. You can bet on many aspects of any game, including money line (who will win), spread (exact points each team will have and who wins), run line (how many points the winning team will win by, but don't need exact scores), and totals (what the grand total is with all points added up).

    • 4

      Bet on stronger teams. The stronger team always has better odds of winning, so you may want to bet on them if you want to have a better shot at winning. Or, if you would rather be risky and go for more money, bet on the underdog team with the lower odds, but higher payouts.

    • 5

      Determine how much money you want to bet. Look at how much money your budget allows you to bet with, and place your bet based on your pocketbook and the odds you computed.