Different Types of Bets Explained

Never has there been a better time to be a sports punter. Not only are there more sports to bet on than ever before, including emerging ones like eSports and 10-over cricket, but there are more competitions within those sports than previously and a far greater choice of betting markets and bet types than we’ve seen in the past.

Navigate the best sites for bets and you’ll be amazed at just how many types of bets you’ll find. And that’s precisely what we’re going to tell you about right now. 

Simple Bets 

Single (to win)

Let’s start with the most obvious bet of all. Whether you’re betting on a football team to win a game, placing a darts bet on a player to win a match, or a horse to win a race, it doesn’t get any simpler than this: your selection either wins or it doesn’t, at fixed odds. When betting on US Sports such as NFL or basketball, it’s known as the moneyline.

To Place 

It’s not all about the win. Placing a bet on a horse to Place means you’re betting on it to finish in the Top 3 or Top 4 in the race; it doesn’t matter in which exact position as the payout will be the same.

The same goes for golfers. Betting Top 6, 7 or 8 means you just need your player to finish within that range. It goes without saying that betting on a golfer for a Top 6 finish would be at higher odds than a Top 7.

Futures/Winner market 

Here you’re betting on a team or player to win a tournament rather than an individual match. So Rory McIlroy to win the British Open, England to win Euro 2024 or the Miami Dolphins to win the Super Bowl, are all future bets.

Live Betting

Live betting doesn’t refer to a type of bet as such but rather to any bet placed after the event is in progress.

Multi-leg Bets 

Doubles/trebles/Four-folds

With these acca/multiple bets, you’re putting together two (double), three (treble), four (four-fold) or more selections in the same bet. The odds on each selection are multiplied by each other to get the odds for the acca as a whole. So if your selections were Everton (odds of 2.0), Liverpool (2.5) and Chelsea (3.0) all to win, the odds on the treble would be: 2.0 x 2.5 x 3.0 = 15.

The problem with acca bets is that you need all selections to win for the acca to win though some Sportsbooks these days offer acca betting insurance, which means that if just one selection lets you down, you can get your stake back as a free bet.

Bet Builders 

Other bet types include Bet Builders, also known as a same-game parlay. A Bet Builder works the same way as a normal acca but rather than the bets being from different events, they all apply to the same one. Like a football, NFL or basketball match. So you could have Chelsea to win, for there to be over 2.5 goals and under 11.5 corners in the match. 

Other Common Bets 

Each-Way Bets 

These are a sort of mix between win and place bets. Half of your stake goes on a selection to win, the other half on the selection to place.

Say you back golfer Rory McIlroy each-way at odds of 15/1, where each-way place terms are 1/5 of the odds for a Top 6 finish. You bet it each-way for 5 Units, which means 5 units are placed on him to win, and 5 units on him to place, for a total of 10 units. 

Handicaps 

Also known as point spreads when betting on US Sports, an example of handicap betting would be an NFL team being given a +5.5 point start on the handicap, a tennis player who isn’t the favourite being given a 1.5 set start on the handicap or a football team being given a +0.5 goal handicap as outsiders, which when it comes to football, is known as an Asian Handicap.

Of course, in any sport, you don’t have to bet on the outsider to win with the help of a handicap. If you prefer, you can instead bet on the favourite to overcome the handicap.

Over/Under bets

Here you’re betting on whether the total goals or points for a particular team or across both teams will be over or under a certain amount. For example: over/under 2.5 goals in a football match or whether the LA Lakers will score more or less than 120.5 points in the basketball match.

Prop Bets

Also known as player bets, these revolve around the performance of particular players within the match. For example, that Phil Foden will score a goal, that Kylian Mbappe will provide an assist, that Harry Maguire will get a yellow or red card or that Cole Palmer will have two or more shots on target. 
In a sport like (NBA) basketball the prop bets could revolve around a particular player scoring a certain number of points, providing a number of assists or even securing a certain amount of rebounds. 

Specials 

Specials generally means betting on non-sporting events like political elections, Miss World, X-Factor or the Oscars though occasionally it can also refer to sports-related markets. Like who will be the Next Manager of a named football team or which club a named player will move to next. 

Exotic Single Bets

Mostly used on horseracing, this involves betting on different horses finishing in a specific position  in a race, as a single bet.