What is the most common type of bet?

Sports betting has evolved beyond belief over the last three decades since gambling first went online. 

Firstly, in terms of the number of sports and competitions within those sports, and secondly as regards the increase in such features as livestreaming, in-play stats and the likes of Cash Out. 

But it’s also the case when it comes to the sheer variety of bets at the best sports betting sites, with endless types of accas, Bet Builders and other complex varieties of wager. Yet, despite all this, the most common type of bet is still the old-fashioned single. 

What is a single bet? 

It’s basically any bet that, as the name suggests, is solely reliant on a single outcome rather than several ones. Traditional accas, Bet Builders and special bets like Patent Bets or Lucky 15 bets all involve several selections; the single bet doesn’t. 

It’ s just one selection at fixed odds that either wins, loses, or in exceptional circumstances, dead-heats or is void. 

For the record, single bets are dead-heated when there are two or more winners that can’t be separated. For example, in rare cases where two horses finish the race in exactly the same time and can’t be split even with a Photo Finish, or where two batsmen in cricket score the same number of runs and tie as top batsmen. 

In the case of a two-way-dead-heat, you get paid out at half the odds. 

Void bets occur most frequently when a match is cancelled, or in the case of a footballer prop bet, for example, when that player plays no part in the match.  

Match Winner/Race Winner singles

Perhaps the most common type of single bet is to back a player, team, horse or greyhound to win a match or race. 

For example: 

•    Liverpool to beat Manchester United @ 2.5.
•    Carlos Alcaraz to beat Casper Ruud @ 1.6
•    Constitution Hill to win the 2025 Champion Hurdle @ 3.0.

Outright singles

Rather than just betting on an individual match that’s part of a bigger tournament or league, here you’re betting on the winner of the whole competition. In most cases this relates to a sports competition, but it can also relate to things like politics, or entertainment.

Outright singles work like any other single bet except that in most cases, you may have to wait quite a few months until the result is known. Which means that if you picked the winner, you’ll have to wait several months till you’re paid out. Here are some examples of outright singles. 

•    Manchester City to win the 2024-5 Premier League @ 2.5.
•    Iga Swiatek to win the 2024 Us Open @ 4.0.
•    Donald Trump to be the Next US President @ 1.9
•    Sweden to win the 2025 Eurovision @ 8.0