Bets are one of the most popular games among mobile and digital nomads – and with good reason! They’re easy to learn, fun to play, and, best of all, easy to make money from. But what do the odds really mean when you’re making a bet? Let’s have a look…
All Black
When you place a bet on All Black, you’re placing a wager that the British pound will go up in value against the US dollar in the next 12 months. You’re not considering the outcome of any one particular match – you’re just guessing that the GBP/USD rate will rise. If you believe this ratio will decline, you’re playing the other way around – all you have to do is switch sides whenever you want to gamble.
Accumulator
An accumulator is when you combine several bets on the same sport into one wager. You can place a bet on the team you support (either individually or as a member of a club), the season, and the outcome of the game. The best part is: you don’t even have to worry about getting the odds wrong! For example, let’s say you’re a Leicester City fan and you want to bet the Foxes will win against Newcastle United – you make an accumulator by combining the following bets:
- Under 2.5 goals – Leicester City will win
- Over 2.5 goals – Newcastle United will win
- Under 2.5 goals – Leicester City will win
When you place these three bets, you’re making an accumulator – a wager on four different matches. If you think the Leicestershire side will score two or fewer goals, you’ll lose on all four bets – but at least you’ll know the reason why!
Back Or Lay Bet
These are pretty self-explanatory. If you place a lay bet on a team that you believe is going to lose, you’re backing them to win – and vice versa. The nice thing about lay bets is that, as the name would suggest, they don’t require you to bet on a specific result. So if you don’t want to bet on Leicester City to score two or fewer goals, you can place a lay bet on them to score three or more. It’s all about making the most of your wagering preferences.
While back bets usually have you betting on the opposition, you can also place a lay bet on a team you support. For example, imagine you’re a Tottenham Hotspur fan and you want to lay down a tenner (£10) that the Toffees will score three or more goals – you make the following wager:
- Over 3.5 goals – Tottenham Hotspur will win
- Over 3.5 goals – Everton will win
- Over 3.5 goals – Tottenham Hotspur will win
If you think the Merseyside side will score three or more goals, you’ll win the tenner – and if you think the game will end in a draw, you’ll pay back tenner.
Money Back
The money back option exists so that you can get your stake back if the outcome of the match doesn’t correspond to your expectations. It can be pretty handy if you’re betting on sports that you’ve never tried out before or are unfamiliar with – or if you just want to try something new. For example, if you’re a Liverpool fan and you read somewhere that Newcastle United is a very strong side this year, you might want to try their matches to see what they’re like. But if you think the rivalry between the two clubs will result in a heated game, you might want to avoid placing a wager on it – you could end up losing a lot of money as a result of unexpected results!
The nice thing about money back bets is that, if you win, you get your stake back with no questions asked – it really is that simple!
Tie Or No Decision
If you think there’s a chance of a draw or there are no clear-cut favorites in a match, you can choose to have the result ‘tied’ – meaning the betting exchange will award the prize (usually in the form of cash or points) to the winner of the head-to-head matchup. This is great if you want to try something new but don’t want to risk losing money – having the match ‘tied’ means you’ll get your stake back, no mater what the outcome is!
Odds Or Evens
Odds and evens are pretty self-explanatory – you’ll need to place your wagers accordingly. If you think a team is going to win, you’ll need to stake them as odds – for example, you’ll need to stake 4 against 1 in order to win the equivalent amount of money. Evens are used when you don’t know who’s going to win – for example, if you think it’s going to be a draw, you’ll have to stake evens on each team.
The advantage of evens over odds is that you don’t necessarily have to predict the winner upfront. If you think there’s a chance of a draw, you can take advantage of this by placing evens on both teams – if the game ends in a draw, you’ll be awarded the amount you staked on each team (plus an extra percentage for taking the bet).
There, now you know the basics of betting! As you may have guessed, there are a lot more ways to win or lose money from betting than these few examples – but being able to understand what each way means should make it simpler to take your wagering preferences into consideration and, hopefully, make your betting decisions more profitable!