After the Supreme Court struck down PASPA, sports betting is booming in states that have legalized it. This is good for the gambling industry, it’s good for consumers and, of course, it generates tax revenue for states. It’s also been a boon for professional sports leagues, which now have lucrative marketing deals with sportsbooks.
But there are a few things you should know before you place a bet. First, you need to understand how sports betting odds work. The simplest way to think of them is that the positive number (or odds) indicates how likely a team is to win, and the negative number (or odds) indicate how likely a team is to lose.
The higher the negative number, the more unlikely a bet is to hit. For example, a -110 line would mean that you’re laying money on the underdog to win by six points or more. Conversely, a +110 line means that you’re taking the favorite to win by five points or more.
While many people believe that they can be consistently profitable at sports betting, it’s actually quite difficult to do. That’s because the majority of people who bet on sports lose money. Those that do win, however, typically do so by using sound betting strategies.
A key to successful sports betting is to separate yourself from your fandom and do your homework. This involves learning everything you can about both teams, including injuries and other factors that might affect the game. It’s also important to study the history of both teams and their opponents, as well as any past matchups between them.
Another important tip is to keep near-obsessive records of your bets. This will help you see patterns and test your theories, such as whether a certain team can’t hit left-handed pitching. It will also help you identify situations where the lines are mispriced, which can give you an edge over the sportsbooks.
As the legal sports betting market continues to expand, we’re seeing some interesting turf wars emerge. For example, FanDuel inked a deal with WarnerMedia to become the official sportsbook partner for NBA programming on Turner Sports and Bleacher Report. William Hill and CBS Digital have similar partnerships, while Yahoo! Sports has a robust integration with BetMGM. These types of relationships will only increase as more states legalize sports betting. Ultimately, this will lead to healthy competition and more choice for the consumer, which is always a good thing.