Underdog Betting – The Benefits of Valor
Introduction: Should You Bet On The Underdog?
Whether you’re a full-time professional sports bettor or a weekend warrior placing the odd punt on a game, the basic principles behind sports betting remain the same. You have to choose between winning consistently or winning on bigger bets with more risk attached to them. You can’t have it both ways. If you want to find any success with sports betting, then you’ll need to win well over half of your wagers, as the sportsbook will be taking its Vig, whatever the result. Unless you’re a high roller, then this means feeding your bets with relatively small sums of cash. But small bets equal small results.
Reaching these small but consistent profits requires that you can out-think the bookies at their own game, especially if you want to increase your jackpot winning chances. That’s a tough call. So the real question is how can you increase your earnings without utilising all your bankroll. Maybe you need a different approach to sports betting. To that end, let’s have a look at betting on underdogs as a means of finding better value and increasing your winnings.
What Is An Underdog?
In all competitive sports, there are usually clear winners and clear losers. All betting markets revolve around the possibility of being one or the other. An underdog is a team/player that is expected to lose. There can be any number of reasoning’s for this conclusion, but the bottom line is that most people would consider that particular team/player to have less chance of winning. If you look at the numbers, they are statistically more likely to lose.
Spread and Money Lines
When you’re betting online, then you might wonder how on earth can you spot the underdog. No worries, all the hard work is already done for you by the sportsbook itself. If you look at the spread or money lines, then the underdog is the team or player with an (+) sign before their numbers. The points spread is more commonly used with sports that feature points for scoring. So rather than just being able to bet on the outcomes, you can also bet on the winning margins. When we bet online, we always head over to 22bet Sportsbook for its huge number of games and great odds.
Let’s take a football match as an example. Both teams have a spread of -5 and +5. The second team is the underdog. So let us say that you want to bet on the underdog to win the football jackpot. So, for you to win your bet, then the underdog must either win outright or lose by no less than 5 goals. Keep in mind that there’s also the Vig rate, so you’ll more likely see a number like 110, which would denote a $10 Vig on a $100 bet. With games that are close match-up, then the Vig will become the most important issue with the bet.
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How To Read Moneylines
Bookies will use money lines to gauge the likelihood of winning and the odds, as opposed to predicting a score. So you’ll find the use of money lines in sports such as cricket, baseball and hockey to name a few. Let’s have a look at how you should read money lines. So, if there’s a side that’s a clear favourite, then the money lines will show a big difference between the teams. For example, -190 and +220. A +220 on a money line bet means that you stand to win $220 for every $100 wagered.
If the match or game appears to be tight, and will little between the teams, then you’ll see that the Vig becomes a bigger factor. In these cases, the team with the lower Vig is considered to be the underdog.
Evaluating Betting On Underdogs
So, now you know the over-arching concepts of underdogs. The great thing about underdog betting is that, every once in a while, the weaker team will prevail. For whatever reason, an underdog can outperform the favourite and emerge victoriously. This is what makes many sports so exciting. The possibility of the favourite being de-throned makes for a great spectator sport. So, what jackpot winning strategies should you be looking out for when deciding to bet on underdogs?
There are a huge number of factors, but the prime ones are: is the team playing at home or away? This is because home teams have what’s called a “home advantage” and statistically they are more likely to succeed. Away teamsare at a disadvantage thanks to such factors as familiarity, crown support and tiredness from travel.
Betting On Underdogs: The Main Takeaway
There’s a little trick that professional punters make to evaluate whether their total wins cover their losses. The idea is that you see how many games out of 100 the underdog would win with the same team match-up. Once you’ve made this evaluation, then imagine you’ve bet on all 100 games. So, at the current line odds you’re looking at today, would the total winnings cover your losses? Whatever the answer is to that, then there’s the key to how you should bet on underdogs.
When Should You Bet On The Underdog?
You want games where tied scores are a rarity. Or where the possibility of having a tie is highly unlikely. Keep in mind that when you are betting on an underdog spread, you have two bets with conditions and none of them covers a tie or draw. A great tool you now have at your disposal is live betting. Because underdog betting is inherently risky, then by using live betting you can offset some of that risk by being able to take another position the moment things start to go pear-shaped. Look upon it as a form of damage control. For a great live betting experience, we recommend 22Bet Sportsbook.
One method that works well is to back the favourites the second you have your odds going high enough to cover your initial wager. But you need to be paying attention, bet fast, and be on the run. Of all the jackpot winning tips and tricks, we suggest that you always have one eye on live betting when wagering on the underdog. At the end of the day, betting on the underdog is simply a matter of risk vs reward.
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