How to Bet on Sports at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports
How to Bet on Sports at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports
Sports fans have been wagering on matches and competitions for thousands of years. It's one of the oldest traditions in sport.
And if you're starting from scratch or sharpening up, this guide covers how sports betting works, how to read odds and the markets worth knowing. Everything you need to go in with your eyes open.
Sports Betting 101: What Is It?
Think of sports betting as stepping onto the board: you place your piece, make your call and see where the action takes you.
At its core, sports betting means putting down a stake (an amount of money you’re comfortable with) on the outcome of a sporting event. Simple as that.
Take a football match, for example. You can back a team to win, both teams to score or even pick who you think the first goalscorer will be. These options are called ‘markets’, and within each market you’ll find specific bets to place.
If your prediction is correct, you’ll get a ‘return’ made up of your original stake and your winnings, based on the odds offered when you placed your bet.
We default to fractional odds here, but you can switch to decimal if that’s more your style.
Any winnings land straight in your account wallet, where you can decide what happens next. Use them for more bets or withdraw to your bank account, the choice is yours.
And that’s the lie of the land for sports betting. Now, let’s look at how odds and markets work in more detail, so you know exactly what moves are on the board.
How Do Betting Odds Work?
To know how to bet on sports, you need to know how to read betting odds. We’ll start with the default format of odds for UK sports betting pages: fractional.
Fractional odds show you how much you’ll return with its numerator (first number) if you bet the denominator (second number), not including the stake. Now, this doesn’t mean that you’re limited to betting £5 on 6/5 odds to win £6 plus the bet. The fractional odds simply show you the scale of returns.
Evens, which returns you the same amount that you wager as well as your stake, is shown as EVS or 1/1. Going below evens, which is shown by the numerator being lower than the denominator, returns your stake and winnings smaller than that stake’s value on top. Odds below evens denote a more likely outcome or favourite.
The wider apart the two numbers of the fraction are, the more likely a below evens bet will come in and the less likely an above evens bet will win. For example, a 1/12 bet is more likely than a 1/9 bet to land. On the flip side, a 13/1 bet is less likely than a 4/1 bet to win.
When you advance to the markets at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports, you might see odds such as Manchester United 4/9 to win, draw at 2/1, and Liverpool at 11/10 to win. This shows Manchester United as the favourites and Liverpool as the underdogs, while a draw is seen as the least likely of the three outcomes, but not too distant at only 2/1.
For your quick reference and to sum up:
Below even: Any fractional odds where the first number is smaller than the second shows an outcome the oddsmakers think is more likely to happen. A winning bet on 4/7 with a £5 stake, for example, will return the £5 stake and £2.86 in winnings for a £7.86 payout.
Evens: The fraction will be shown as 1/1 or EVS. A win at evens on a £5 stake will return the £5 stake as well as a £5 win for a £10 payout.
Above evens: Fractional odds with a larger first number to the second show a more unlikely outcome, per the estimates of the oddsmakers. Taking odds of 4/1 with a £5 stake and winning will net you your £5 stake and £20 on top for a £25 payout.
As you might find decimal odds easier to read, let’s explore how to convert fractional to decimal odds. The easiest way is to switch the odds format from your account preferences. Alternatively, you can convert fractional to decimal odds by doing the following:
Divide the numerator (first number) by the denominator (second number) of the fractional odds.
Add 1.00 to the decimal from the above equation to get your decimal odds.
For example, 9/4 odds would see 9 divided by 4 for 2.25, then add 1.00 for converted odds of 3.25.
Here’s a quick conversion chart of the two odds formats and their returns from a £1 winning bet.
Fractional to Decimal Odds Conversion and Returns | ||
Fractional Odds | £1 Winning Bet Returns | Decimal Odds |
4/11 | £1.36 | 1.364 |
1/3 | £1.33 | 1.333 |
1/2 | £1.50 | 1.50 |
10/11 | £1.91 | 1.909 |
1/1 (Evens) | £2.00 | 2.00 |
11/10 | £2.10 | 2.10 |
5/4 | £2.25 | 2.25 |
2/1 | £3.00 | 3.00 |
9/4 | £3.25 | 3.25 |
5/1 | £6.00 | 6.00 |
A Portfolio of Betting Markets (Explained)
You might be disappointed if your favourite playing piece gets taken in a game of MONOPOLY, but, with us, there’s so much sports betting variety here that everyone can find something they enjoy, no matter what others are doing.
There’s room for all kinds of players here!
Get straight to it with a match winner bet
With a match winner bet, you’re simply backing the player or team you think will win.
You can place a bet on the result being a draw too, which is why these bets suit football and cricket nicely. Other sports like tennis, horse racing and darts only have a two-way option: win or lose.
Call your shot with a correct score bet
Feel strongly about a game’s exact result?
Look out for correct score markets, which may reward you nicely for your precise predictions.
These can work particularly well on lower-scoring sports, like football and hockey, where there’s - typically - not so much chaos.
Level the playing field with handicap betting
With a handicap bet, you can give the underdogs a virtual head start or make the favourites work harder by giving them a virtual deficit to overcome.
If, for a football match, you added a two-goal deficit to the favourites, they’d have to win the game by a margin of at least three goals. If you added a two-goal lead to the underdogs, they’d have to win, draw or lose by no more than one goal.
Keep the score with an over/under bet
If you think a game will be a goal fest or something of a stalemate, you can back it with a bet that the total number of goals or points exceeds or falls short of the line that’s been set.
Choose from a list of possible pre-set outcomes, like over 2.5 goals in a football match or under 156 points in a basketball game, and if there are at least three goals in the match or no more than 155 points in the game, your bet wins.
Play the long game with outrights
For the more patient among us, outrights make it possible to bet on season-end outcomes like league winner and top scorer.
It’s a longer wait for the results, but depending on the odds you get early on in the season, it may also be worth the wait.
Build your collection with multiple bets
Don’t get us wrong, we’re all for some single bet fun. In fact, they’re usually the best way to get started.
But for those looking to add a bit more variety to their slip, multiple bets might be an avenue worth exploring. With them, you can combine a number of selections and wagers into one.
What’s the benefit of combining them, you ask? Multiple bets offer the chance of enhanced returns on your stake. But be sure to choose wisely, as all selections need to land for the bet to win. Any single loss means the whole bet loses.
Here’s a list of the most popular sorts of multiple bets, and how they work.
A full set with accumulators
The classic acca. Fuse two or more selections – from different events, like two separate football matches – into one bet.
Curate your experience with a bet builder
Like an acca, but with one major difference. With a bet builder, you can mix and match markets from a single game.
For a football match, this might look like a bet on both teams scoring, a certain player providing an assist and the total number of cards a team receives – whatever takes your fancy.
You'll need at least two selections, but there's plenty of room for creativity.
Three’s company with a Trixie bet
An offshoot of the acca where you build four bets (three doubles and one treble) on three different selections.
Popular in horse racing, you’d make three doubles by:
Betting on horse A and horse B to win
Betting on horse A and horse C to win
Betting on horse B and horse C to win
And then the treble:
Betting on horse A, horse B and horse C to win
Creating a successful Trixie can lead to greater payouts than individual single bets, but they’re also a little safer than a traditional acca bet because you’ll get a payout even if one selection loses.
Cross the pond with a Yankee bet
Turning up the complexity even more, a Yankee bet is a wager with four selections, consisting of 11 individual bets.
Six doubles, four triples and one fourfold acca make up those 11 bets.
Where a letter represents a certain team or horse, the doubles cover six possible arrangements: AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD.
In a similar fashion, the trebles cover the four arrangements: ABC, ABD, ACD, BCD.
You’d then round things off with the acca: A, B, C and D.
As with a Trixie bet, here you have the chance to land a greater payout than if you’d placed the bets as singles, and you get a bit of a safety net as not all your selections need to land for you to receive some kind of return.
What Betting Terminology Should I Know?
Knowing how to bet on sports means that you need to get familiar with some common betting terminology. These are the terms you can expect to see across the world of online betting.
Each-way betting: Depending on the race, your each-way bet will let you get a return if your pick wins or comes second, third, or fourth. Before betting, you’ll also be told the cut to the odds to expect if your each-way pick comes second, third, or fourth – usually between half to one-fifth.
Stake: Your stake is the amount of money you’ve committed to betting on an outcome.
Returns: How much your bet will pay out in total if it wins. This value will include both the winnings and your returning stake.
Cash out: When using mobile betting and online platforms, some bet types let you cash out before the final outcome.
In play: The in-play betting markets and odds are for contests that are currently live or ‘in-play.’ It’s a way for you to bet on outcomes after the start and get updated odds based on the action so far.
Permutation bet: These are more advanced forms of accumulator bets that have been made easy to place online. From multiple selections, you bet on several accumulators of different combinations to different amounts. A Lucky 15 bet, for example, creates 15 individual bets from four selections, covering the four single bets, six doubles, four trebles, and a four-fold. You bet on all the individual bets, but you don’t need every single selection to succeed to get a return as a result.
Handicap: When you place a handicap bet with a minus value, you need your team to win by enough to factor in the deduction to their score. With a plus value, you have a bracket for your pick to lose by and also win if they draw or win. For example, Arsenal may be at -1.5 to beat Chelsea If you take the bet, you’d need Arsenal to win by at least a two-goal margin to cover the handicap. A positive handicap, such as +2.5, means that the team can’t lose by more than that amount, and the bet wins if they win or draw, too.
How to Bet on Sports for Beginners
The best sports betting tips that will serve you well, regardless of your favourite sport or market, are to be well-informed and measured in your approach. Sticking to these rules will guarantee you the best possible experience, even if your big punts don’t come through:
Measured decisions: Never being afraid of taking a chance doesn’t mean you just throw everything down. Weigh the risk shown in the odds by how much you’re willing to stake.
Budgeting: You’re never guaranteed to win a bet, regardless of the odds. So, be sure to manage your dedicated betting budget so that you’re in with a shot across all the bets you want to place.
Research the event: Bet smart and play cool by finding out everything you need to know before betting. This includes delving into the stats, news, and checking out any underlying narratives.
For entertainment: Don’t chase that next cha-ching. It’s all a game to offer a bit of extra fun alongside your favourite sports. Always bet responsibly and never bet beyond your means.
With this in mind, what is the best sports betting for beginners? This will entirely come down to how much you know about a sport and your understanding of odds and bet types.
Find Out More in Each Specific Sports Betting Guide
Now that you have a core understanding from this sports betting guide, you can refer to our other pages for popular sports to get more specific sports betting tips:
The online sports betting scene is now a grand offering, with each sport having a tailor-made collection of markets and odds for its more minor and most prestigious events. So, we’ve published individual sports betting guides for each, delving into the markets, odds, and key events.
Football, for example, has a focus on weekend action and the major summer competitions, like the World Cup. In horse racing, meets across the UK and Europe can be bet on daily, but major events like the Cheltenham Festival get the most attention. Similarly, almost daily tennis odds for ATP and WTA matches can be found, but the Grand Slams highlight the tennis betting calendar.
How Does Sports Betting Work at MONOPOLY Casino & Sports?
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