The United States betting market is one of the largest in the world. It makes sense, as sports betting is one of the few ways that gambling is legal throughout the entire country. More so, Americans simply love sports. Baseball, football, basketball, and even soccer get a lot of attention, and bettors from all over the country are excited about the odds placed on these sports. Seeing how big the US betting market is, we’d like to offer a few tips and points regarding it just to give newbies an idea of where to start.
Online vs. Land-based
It is worth taking into consideration that both the online and land-based betting markets are quite a hit in the US of A. Land-based bookies are quite easy to come by. Every major city has at least a couple, and you will certainly find one in even the smaller residential areas. However, if there isn’t a land-based sportsbook near you, you can always give online betting a shot.
As you can probably guess, online sportsbooks are websites that cover odds regarding the biggest sports worldwide.
These sites provide information on upcoming football matches, as well as basketball, soccer, hockey, and baseball. If you want to try Novibet betting online, you will also discover that the site covers some sports you might not have been interested in before, such as cricket.
The Big Sports
When discussing the US betting market, it is always a good idea to bring up the sports that create the most “splash.” Some might think that the four big ones, in this case, would be the four major league sports. In this situation, they would be correct. Basketball, baseball, ice hockey, and football are, indeed, the big draws at American bookies. However, that is not the end of it.
Recently, soccer has become a lot more popular in the USA, likely thanks to the 2024 World Cup, where Lionel Messi established himself as one of the greatest, if not the absolute GOAT, of modern soccer. The event was so big that soccer saw a drastic boost in fandom in the USA. Another popular sport that doesn’t get enough attention is cricket.
While not nearly as popular in the USA, cricket is actually the 3rd most watched sport worldwide, having over 2 billion fans. Recently, cricket betting has grown in popularity in the USA, which is why many US bookies cover the sport now.
The Moneyline Odds
Primarily, when you are betting, you will be faced with three kinds of odds: fractional, decimal, and money line. Moneyline odds are also known as American or USA odds because they are most popular at American bookies. So, let’s see how they work:
Team A: +430
Team B: -210
As you can see, both teams are marked by numbers in the hundreds. The one difference is that one of them is a positive, and the other a negative. That is because the negative number denotes the favorite, whereas the positive is the underdog.
Those numbers show the amount of cash you have to wager in order to win $100, in the case of the favorite, or the amount of cash you will win if you wager $100 in the case of the underdog.