Sports Betting Rules: General rules of online sports betting

If you are new to sports betting, here you will be able to learn the general sports betting rules. As sports betting is limited to the Las Vegas sportsbooks offline in the United States, most of the rules here will apply mainly to the online bookmakers, although generally the same (or similar) rules will also be in effect with the Las Vegas sportsbooks. But before we look at the sports betting rules, here is the right spot to mention that specific betting rules will indeed apply from sportsbook to sportsbook, which is one of the many factors we consider when listing the best online sportsbooks you can see by following this link.

Sports Betting Rules: First and foremost, the main rule of sports betting, often misunderstood by many, is that you don't necessary compete against the odds makers, i.e. the people employed by a sportsbook or a betting website to set the odds on a particular event. You only compete with the sportsbook in a few occasions, for example, if you bet on a boxing fight or a money line on a football game. In other instances, let's say if you are betting on a football game's point spread, you are not actually betting against the bookmaker, but against other bettors who will wager on the opposite outcome. The bookie always makes money on such bets through the "juice" or a small amount of the bet. You can read what is juice in sports betting here. So one of the major sports betting rules is never to approach a wager with the mindset that you are betting against the odds makers. Following this rule will allow you to clearly see the sporting event you are betting on and not jump on the favorite right away.

Sports betting rule #2 - always know what you are betting, i.e. the type of bet your are placing. This may seem silly to an experienced bettor, but there are thousands of people all over the world who are just entering the sports betting arena and knowing the types of sports bets is the most crucial part of the "initiation". There are many differences between Asian Handicaps and point spread betting, for example, and until you have mastered the rules for these sports bets, don't try any of them as the chance of loosing is much greater when you have no idea what you are doing. You can read more about the types of sports bets here, another small betting guide to help you succeed. The basic of this sports betting rule - if you are unsure about a type of bet, never wager on it. The simplest bet you can make is the "win or lose" bet, stick with it until you really know what you are doing.

Game-specific sports betting rules: Our final general sports betting rule covers the game-specifics. Unfortunately, these betting rules will be different, depending on which sports betting website you visit. For example, some sportsbooks do count overtime in a football game for all bets, while others will honor the bet for regular-time scores only. For those sports betting rules you will have to check with your favorite sportsbook and make sure you know where its sports betting rules are located. Depending on your betting style, you may have to often reference those game-specific betting rules.

Published on 02/26/2009