Bet on the Super Bowl: How and where to bet on the Super Bowl 2010

Bet on the Super Bowl: How and where to bet on the Super Bowl 2010 The Super Bowl 2010 is here folks and despite the tough economic times, the common agreement is that over 1/3 of the American people will bet on the Super Bowl. A great majority of the people who will bet on the 2010 Super Bowl have never wagered on sports before or have done so very rarely and on special occasions. And those "newbies" are right to ask the important questions - where to bet on the Super Bowl and how to bet on the Super Bowl. Below we have put together a quick guide to answer those questions and make the betting much more enjoyable for everyone (no matter the country you live in).

First, let's start with how to bet on the Super Bowl. It's understandable that placing sports bets in general could seem as a very complicated thing for those who have never done it - all those numbers, signs, options etc., but the truth is - sports betting is very simple, once you grasp the main concepts and betting on the Super Bowl is just as easy. Let's begin by looking at the options you have to bet on the Super Bowl. You can bet the money line (commonly referred to as "odds"), you can bet on which Super Bowl contender will cover the point spread and finally you can place a wager on the "total". Sounds complicated but the simplicity of it may surprise you. Let's look at all of them and your betting options:

The Super Bowl money line is very straight-forward, you bet on which team will win the Super Bowl and if you win, you get paid by the sportsbook according to the odds posted on the Super Bowl game. For example, the latest Super Bowl 2010 odds at the popular online sportsbook Bookmaker are as follows: the Saints have odds +180 to win and the Colts have -210 to win the Super Bowl. To bet on who will win the game, you simple chose your favorite team, if the Saints win you will get paid $180 for every $100 you bet on them and if the Colts win, you will get $100 for every $210 you bet on Indianapolis. Of course, you can bet any amount and you don't even need to know how to calculate the odds, the sportsbook will automatically do this for you before you complete your bet and you can make final adjustments. The most important thing to remember is that the "minus sign" in front of the Super Bowl odds means that the team is the favorite to win and you will get paid less if you bet the favorite and they win, vice versa with the "plus" sign in front of the odds.

The Super Bowl point spread is where the things will get the most complicated, yet still quite simple. The point spread is number of points given to the underdog team as handicap before the game, in the case with the 2010 Super Bowl, the point spread is at +5.5 points on the Saints at Bookmaker, which in essence means that the Saints are given 5.5 points in the beginning of the game by the sportsbook and you still have to guess which team will win the game, but take into account that the bookie has given 5.5 points to the underdog team, in this case the New Orleans Saints. So if the game ends Saints 20pts - Colts 23pts and you bet on the Saints to cover the spread (i.e. win with the handicap given), you are still a winner, since 20+5.5=25.5 total points for the Saints and just 23 points for the Colts. The payout for this bet is given by a number in parenthesis after the point spread and it's usually -110, which means that if you bet $100 you will get $90 in winnings.

And finally the Super Bowl total bet - the sportsbook posts a number which is the projected sum of the game's score and you have to guess if the actual total of the game will be more or less than the one posted by the sportsbook. To use the above example, the total of the Saints Colts Super Bowl game would be 43 points (20+23) and with the current total expected by Bookmaker at 56.5 points, if you did bet "under" your bet is a winner. Here you have it, how to bet on the Super Bowl. As promised it was quite easy.

As for the second part of our Super Bowl betting guide - where to bet on the Super Bowl, thing get a bit hairy. Most people new to sports betting will simply do a search on Google typing "where to bet on the Super Bowl" and pick the first online sportsbook that pops up. Wrong! There are shady online sportsbooks to begin with, but come Super Bowl time the number of the scammers increase by the throngs, knowing that there will be millions of inexperienced bettors to take advantage of. The most important things to look for in an online sportsbook is honesty, reliability and fairness. And unfortunately when you are new to sports betting there is no way you can personally confirm which of the hundreds of online sportsbooks will exhibit those traits.

But no worries - that's why we are here. If you are looking for an online sportsbook to bet on the Super Bowl this year, we have two top recommendations for you: the Bookmaker site and Bodog Sports. You can see by the limited number of sports betting websites we recommend that you are only getting the cream of the crop, but with our reputation of recommending only the best gambling establishments on the Internet we are confident in just those 2 sportsbooks. Both of them are honest and respected in the online gambling industry and you cannot go wrong with either one, so de deciding factor for you should be which one has the best Super Bowl odds and this question is answered for you by following the link above. Good luck to all betting on the Super Bowl, both pros and newbies!

Published on 02/06/2010