Learn about the different types of sports bets – How to wager with Pros/Cons

Online sports betting includes not only a wide variety of sports to wager on but a host of bet types as well. While most gamblers are at least familiar with the basics – including straight wagers, props, and parlays – there are plenty of other sports bets to be aware of.

From futures to handicap bets, teaser bets, reverse bets, and more, you can find tons of ways to wager on your favorite events at online sportsbooks. The odds setup varies depending on the sport and wager type, making each selection a unique opportunity. 

Today, we’ll be exploring the different types of sports bets that online bettors can take part in. Read along with us as we discuss how to understand and place goliath bets, if bets, totals, spreads, money lines, trixie bets, and so many more. Let’s get into the details!

Sports Betting Wager Types

types of sports bets

It’s difficult to determine an overall best type of sports bet when there are so many different choices out there. But there are some punter favorites that have stood the test of time for their straightforward nature, including money lines, player and team prop bets, and futures markets.

Some of the newer online sportsbooks are also adding in live (in-play) wagering to their lineups. Many of the bet types listed below can be wagered as pre-game or live bets, although live wagering is more common with straight wagers.

Below, take a look at how these different bet types work, how you can place them, and the potential pros and cons of each.

Futures Bets

Futures are wagers that punters place in advance of the final event of a tournament, series, or championship. Examples of futures would be:

  • Betting on the team that you think will win the March Madness tournament
  • Betting on the individual golfer that you think will win the Masters
  • Betting on the team that you think will win the Super Bowl

How to Wager

Many futures markets require bettors to wager long before the championship ends – sometimes months or even a year in advance. However, there are other markets – like golf – that don’t require you to wager then wait through the preseason and regular season events. Futures odds are set and locked at the time of wagering.

Pros and Cons

Futures carry the prospect of greater potential winnings, but unfortunately, they also come with a lower likelihood of winning. You also have to be more patient with your finances and your wager if you want to see them through.

Goliath Bets

Newbie sports bettors may not be familiar with goliath bets, which are some of the largest wagers you can place. Even larger than, say, a Super Yankee bet, goliaths include 8 selections and a total of 147 different bets:

  • 1 eight-fold
  • 8 seven-folds
  • 28 six-folds
  • 56 five-folds
  • 70 four-folds
  • 56 trebles
  • 28 doubles

How to Wager

In a goliath bet, you only have to be right about a minimum of 2 selections to get some winnings, although the wager does work similarly to a regular parlay. You can significantly increase your winnings if you start getting more than 2 winners in certain selections.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • You don’t immediately lose if one selection loses
  • It’s a “bulk” deal

Cons:

  • You need to win quite a bit to turn a profit
  • Each bet has equal stake
  • Even a small stake makes for a more expensive wager

Handicap Bets

The handicap bet is designed to even the chances for different bettors to win if the bookmakers feel that one team or player is a considerably better performer than the other.

How to Wager

You’ll wager on handicaps similar to the way you’d wager on point spreads. Choosing the underdog gives you an advantage via extra points.

Pros and Cons

While handicap betting gives bettors a perceived leg up, the odds can be difficult to understand without significant research. However, there is never a shortage of markets like this to choose from.

If Bets

An “if” bet is what it sounds like – a bet that is conditional on something else. In this case, it’s a parlay bet where the 1st bet on the wager must win before the next bet starts, and so on, and so on.

How to Wager

You select 2 or more bets to go on a single wager. Unlike a regular parlay, this one means you can only deal with one of the legs at a time.

You either choose “if win” (you can’t move to the next leg unless the previous wins) or “if win or push” (you can move on to the next leg whether the previous one wins or is pushed/canceled).

Pros and Cons

While exciting enough compared to other bet types, if bets are complicated, expensive, high-risk, and fairly hard to win.

Money Line Bets

Money lines are what most people think of when they imagine sports betting. This is the most basic type of straight wager, and it is an outcome-based bet.

How to Wager

To make a money line wager, you choose a team (or competitor) that you predict will win a sports event. There is an odds line set by the bookmaker with a (-) favorite and a (+) underdog. Betting on the underdog typically poses higher potential winnings.

The numbered odds indicate how much you need to wager to potentially win a certain amount.

Pros and Cons

Money line wagering is advantageous because it’s simple and typically fair game for most sportsbook bonuses. Sportsbooks have odds calculators to help players understand the odds, too.

However, it can be hard to find lines with good odds, and even harder to know which team is more likely to win on any given day.

Outright Bets

Now that you’re aware of what futures are, you’re also aware of what outrights are. This is the same type of bet – just with a different name (outright is common outside of the US).

How to Wager

It’s simple – place your wager on an outright winner in advance of the culminating event of a championship.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Bigger payouts on the line
  • Exciting opportunities to watch the events unfold

Cons:

  • Can be more costly
  • Riskier and longer time to have your wager in limbo
  • Hard to win

Parlay Bets

Parlays – also known as combo or combination bets – are chances to wager on several different scenarios at once (same-game, same-sport, cross-sport). These high-stakes wagers are sometimes accompanied by parlay promos and parlay builder features at betting sites.

How to Wager

Place a wager with two or more sports bets, according to the eligibility rules of the sportsbook. If you are correct about all bets involved, you win. Otherwise, it’s a losing bet.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Lots of relevant bonus opportunities
  • They’re fun to watch unfold
  • High potential winnings

Cons:

  • Can be hard to win
  • High-risk

Point Spread Bets

Point spreads require bettors to try their luck at accurately guessing the points of a sports event, within a certain projected margin. You can bet on the favorite (-) or underdog (+).

How to Wager

If you choose to bet on the favorite, that team needs to both win AND win by at least as many points as the spread indicates. But to win by betting on the underdog, the underdog team merely has to win or lose by no more than the number of points that the spread indicates.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Betting on the underdog gives more ways to win
  • Typically good odds
  • Lots of markets at most sites

Cons:

  • Requires some research

Prop Bets

Props – also called specials – are non-outcome based sports bets. Instead of wagering on the predicted winner, you wager on scenarios and things that might unfold during the event. There are both player and team props at most betting sites.

How to Wager

Choose a prop market and place your wager. If you’re right, you win (pretty simple).

Examples include:

  • Will there be a goal in the first half? (football)
  • Will there be overtime? (American football)
  • Will the first round end in knockout, decision, or submission? (UFC)

Pros and Cons

Many online bettors enjoy props because they are unique, profitable, and arguably more fun than, say, money lines. There are tons of possibilities, meaning a greater market selection. However, there isn’t any really good strategy for prop betting, and sportsbooks sometimes put more restrictions on these markets when you start winning.

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Reverse Bets

Sometimes called “action reverse” bets, reverse bets are where you make a wager involving 2-8 sports bets. It’s basically an “if bet” in reverse order.

How to Wager

Let’s say you reverse wager on 3 different NBA games, for example. The third bet you place needs to win before you can even try the 2nd, and the same goes for the 2nd before you can try the 1st. You won’t get any winnings unless you win all legs.

Pros and Cons

Reverse bets are interesting, but they’re also fairly complicated and require more bettor patience. The high-risk nature of them makes them less affordable or worthwhile for newbie bettors.

Super Yankee Bets

Super Yankee bets have many moving parts, including a total of 26 bets on one wager that uses 5 different selections. You have 10 double bets, 10 treble bets, 5 four-fold bets, and 1 five-fold bet.

How to Wager

You place all of the above 26 bets on a single wager, and if you lose even one

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Higher potential payout
  • You only need a minimum of 2 correct selections to get some winnings

Cons:

  • Not super beginner friendly
  • High risk
  • Expensive
  • Not as popular as the each-way version
  • Won’t pay out if you only have one winner

Teaser Bets

Also a type of parlay bet, teasers allow players to increase their chances of winning at the expense of lowering the potential payout.

How to Wager

You place a parlay bet as you normally would, and you can only win if all bets are correct. However, you have the opportunity to adjust the point spread in your favor.

Pros and Cons

The pros of teasers are obvious – better chances of winning and an exciting parlay type bet with many moving parts. However, the cons are very similar to parlay downsides – high risk, high cost, difficulty – in addition to the downside of lowering your potential winnings.

Totals Bets

A type of over/under betting, totals are highly popular within the Internet betting world.

How to Wager

The sportsbook will set a “total” – this is the predicted number of combined points they expect between both teams at the end of the sports event.

The punter’s job is to wager whether they think the actual total will fall above or below that number. The same type of wagering might also apply to a halftime total or first quarter total.

Pros and Cons

While totals bets are fun, and a lot of bettors feel confident in trying them out, they also require you to understand the odds. The totals lines also decrease in odds value as time passes.

Trixie Bets

Trixie bets are similar to parlay bets, but they differ in what sports they’re used for (horse racing) and how “right” the bettor has to be to win.

How to Wager

This wager involves four equally valued bets on three different selections from different events. The four bets include:

  • Three doubles
  • One triple

In order to win, you merely have to be right about two or more selections – not all of them.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Easier to win compared to parlays
  • Winnings increase with every correct bet

Cons:

  • Not available for all sports

Summary – Types of Sports Bets

Of the various types of sports bets players can make at online sportsbooks, the ones that stand out include parlays, props, trixies, totals, teasers, Super Yankees, reverse bets, point spreads, and others we’ve mentioned in this guide.

Remember that most sports betting opportunities require a bit of research and forethought in order to understand the odds, and certain types of bets are riskier than others.