Every year, thousands of sports enthusiasts flock to Las Vegas to place their bets and closely watch their teams with dollar signs in their eyes. No matter what casino you’re in, you’re bound to walk by a massive wall of television screens donning every imaginable sport from football to UFC to horse racing. Among the rows and rows of chairs, you’ll notice avid sports lovers studying the spread and analyzing brackets for some good ol’ Las Vegas sports book betting.
It’s an exciting scenario, especially during big rival games and matches, Vegas Golden Knights games, or during March Madness. Sports betting can be a lot of fun if you’re knowledgeable, but it might be a little intimidating if you’ve never done it before. Before placing those wagers, be sure you know your terms like “money line” and “over/under” or you’ll be using your losing parlay card to dry your tears!
Point Spread: The point spread represents the margin of points in which the favored team must win by to cover the spread. You’re wagering on a team winning or losing by a certain number of points set by the sports book.
Money Line: The money line is a bet on the odds of a team winning the game as opposed to a point spread that is based on the scoring outcome. Money Line is a simple wager on which team will win.
Parlay: A parlay is a single bet that links two or more wagers. To win the bet, the player must win all the wagers in the parlay. Parlays are very popular because you can take a wager as small as $2 or $5 and turn it into hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Futures: As the name implies, a futures bet is a wager placed on an event further into the future. For a futures bet, you may be wagering on who will go to the Super Bowl next year.
Propositions (Prop Bet): Prop bets are fun to wager on, especially if you’re not as experienced with sports betting. These are bets like “who will be the first to have and end zone celebration” or “what quarter will LeBron James cry”. Prop bets are just added wagers to keep the games entertaining.
Total (Over/Under): You’re betting on whether the total points, runs, or goals scored by both teams is over or under the total provided by the sports book.
One of the first things you should do is learn how betting odds work. It’s important because it allows you to understand the probability of an event happening along with your potential earnings.
Whenever you see two numbers separated by a trailing slash, you can calculate how likely a given event is to happen with. For example: a 4/1 represents that there is an 20% chance and event will happen while a 1/4 will tell you that there is an 80% chance of the event happening. Odds are dependent on each particular sports book so it may be beneficial to shop around for the best payouts.
When arriving to your favorite Las Vegas sports book, it will be helpful to pick up the daily sheets to find out their wagering options. These are available for every sport and are updating frequently. On each sheet, you’ll find numbers associated with the different teams or players that correlate with what is shown on the digital display board. Using the sheets are a great way to understand what is available for betting that day along with favorites and underdogs.
Professional sports teams may be new to Las Vegas, but there has never been a shortage of sporting enthusiasm in the valley. Whether you want to bet on college or professional football, soccer, baseball, or NHL hockey, the Circa | Sports sportsbook provides the best high-definition televisions and odds display boards for your betting experience. Make your way to Circa | Sports where you’ll be able place your parlays, money lines, point spreads, and more!
