Over/under bets in sports wagering are the preferred wager for many professional, and recreational, handicappers. A sense of the different matchups on the board and the ability to project what the score will be during the course of a game is all it takes to be a successful over/under bettor. So, how what exactly makes up an over/under bet, and why has it become so popular in sports wagering?

The over/under bet is simply the combined number of points, runs, or goals that the two teams playing each other in a particular game will score. For example, let’s say the Los Angeles Lakers were playing the Boston Celtics. The posted total on the game is 200 points. What this means is that a bettor can take over 200 points if they believe that the combined score of the two teams will add up to more than 200 points. If they bet the under side, they believe that the combined score will be under 200 points. Hypothetically, you believe that the two teams are more likely to score 190 points than 210 points, so you would then place your money on the under bet.

Over/under bets are big in all sports, but they are especially popular in basketball and football, as the scores vary a great deal because of the high number of points being scored. Baseball over/under bets are considered to be the easiest to determine based on knowing who the starting pitchers are and how many runs, on average, they give up per game. With all of this information in mind, you should have a good base knowledge of the over/under bet in sports betting.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 2:31 am and is filed under Sports Betting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.