LIVE BETTING

Live Betting at Sportsbooks

Many players enjoy live betting on sports. Also known as in-play betting, years ago online sportsbooks started offering this service to attract more players and generate more revenue by getting people to place more bets. Today, most sportsbooks offer wagers on plays that are about to happen in a specific game. These are bets that are made while the game is in progress.

Depending on the book, you can bet on which team will score next, the outcome of the period, quarter, or half, game totals, etc.  Often, the book will include a live feed of the games they’re offering live bets on, ensuring players are up to date on the game’s ebb and flow and each team’s status. If they do not offer such a feed, you’ll need to monitor the game through your sports provider or a website such as ESPN.

Live Betting – What to Expect

In-play wagering offers players hundreds of new betting opportunities on a single game. Every play is a potential winner. This feature keeps bettors actively engaged in the game. If you’re a smart and disciplined sports bettor, you can benefit from this feature.

Soccer, football, basketball, and just about every other sport are offered. However, there’s no standard format for in-play betting. Each sportsbook offers its own version. Some include just a few live lines, while others provide more chances to bet on various outcomes. One thing to note, with live action wagering odds change quickly and often.

In-Play Wagering – What Can Happen

When utilizing this feature, sports bettors need to be careful.  Remember that every bet can be either a winner or a loser. Unlike bets that you make prior to the start of the game where the action is frozen once the game starts, when you’re focused on in-play wagering, the game can take over. If the action is intense, a player can get caught up in the moment-to-moment changes in the contest and emotion can take over. This can result in you losing a chunk of cash by betting, losing, and betting again to make up for your losses with the result being you lose again.

The live betting experience can be a true rush, which means be wary and don’t let the action and emotion of the sport take over. Take a breath between wagers and take a break and learn to walk away. You could be a big winner utilizing live betting, but you could also be a big loser.

Live Betting – Set Limits

With any type of gambling, you want to set limits on how much you can afford to lose before you start wagering. With in-play sports betting, setting limits and sticking to them is imperative.  Prior to the start of the game, set aside your stake, which is the amount you’re going to bet on that contest. It should be no more than six percent of your total bankroll. Then divide that money into betting units. The smaller the units, the better.

At the start of the game, make single unit bets.  A unit should be no more than six percent of your stake. As an example, if you’ve set aside $100 for the entire game, a unit would be $6.00, and you’d have a total of 16.6 units. Once you win a few bets and build some equity, you can risk more cash per bet. Don’t do this until you’ve increased your stake by at least 25 percent ($125).

At this point, realign your units, keeping them at six percent of your bank.  In doing so, a unit would be worth $7.50 and not $6.00. If your bank is reduced to $100, then lower your unit’s worth to $6.00 or less. If you keep winning, slowly increase how much money a unit represents or wager more units while always maintaining a basic unit worth of six percent of your stake and never risking more than six percent of your cash on one bet.

Cutting Losses

If you lose the amount of money you’ve set aside for this particular venture, stop betting and watch the game.  Also, it’s a good idea to set a realistic winning goal for the event. As an example, prior to the start of the game, you commit to cashing out if you increase your stake from $100 to $150. Once you hit the $150 mark, you stop betting and collect your winnings. This is a good way to preserve your profit. One of the worst things any player can do is stay in the game too long, as this often results in diminishing returns when they lose all winnings and sometimes their entire stake.

Live Betting – Keep Your Perspective

In-play wagering is more like casino gambling than sports betting. It can easily lead to players risking large amounts of cash on outcomes that are hard to handicap. Plus, the emotions associated with the progression and ups and downs of the game combined with betting wins and losses can lead to bad decision making by sports bettors. Set limits, have fun, and know when to cash out and walk away.