The most significant sporting events in the world attract a wealth of new bettors. The American Football showpiece fixture is no different, with existing NFL fans having a punt on the game for the first time and brand new fans coming along for a wager on the season’s highlight event. Before Super Bowl LIX, look at some of the sports betting terms you really need to know before you wager your own money.
Stake/Wager is the money you spend on the bet.
To win money, you need to put some money on the line. This is called the stake or the wager. If your bet is unsuccessful, the betting company can win these funds. If you put $5 on the selection, you have wagered $5, or you could say you have a $5 stake.
The Money Line: Results Business
One term you will probably see if looking at NFL markets is the ‘money line’. Despite the name not inferring much, this is picking the result, i.e., betting on the team you think will win. In this case, that means selecting either the Philadelphia Eagles or the Kansas City Chiefs. It is worth noting that this is an American term and not common in other key betting markets like the United Kingdom.
Parlay or Acca
Sometimes, you’ll want to bet on more than one specific result. If you make various selections based on results, i.e., you back the Eagles to win the Super Bowl, Leeds United to win their match the day after, and Maria Sakkari to win her tennis game, this would be considered a ‘parlay’ bet. However, this is known as an accumulator bet or acca for short in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Favourite
A very common phrase in sports betting is ‘favourite’, which refers to a participant or team involved in the fixture. The favorite tag is assigned to the one considered to be the most likely winner. As such, the favorite will often have poorer odds than the other team. In a game like the Super Bowl, where the teams are pretty equally matched, the favorite and underdog (see below) don’t have much difference in the odds.
However, in mismatched fixtures, let’s say Chelsea played Scunthorpe United in the FA Cup, and Chelsea would be considered massive favorites to win.
Underdog
If there’s a favorite, there has to be an underdog. This is the team or participant in which the sportsbook will lose the match. Betting on the underdog will typically yield profitable results, as the odds are favorable. The larger the underdog status, the larger the odds and potential winnings.
In sports and matches where there are multiple teams or participants, like horse racing, track and field events, etc., there can be degrees to the underdog. In the case of horse racing, one horse might be considered to be pretty slow and not good on the race terrain. They would be regarded as a ‘rank outsider’ among the rest of the field.
Over and Under Bets
Plenty of metrics in sports games can be wagered on; bettors can enjoy wagering on whether these values are over or under a specific value. In the case of the Super Bowl, the sportsbook will give a starting value on a key metric, i.e., the total points scored in the Super Bowl game.
This could be 40.5 points. Bettors can then bet whether the total points scored will be over or under this value. However, sportsbooks typically offer multiple markets with different odds.
Over-and-under bets are very popular in low-scoring sports like soccer. Punters like to bet on whether a match will have X number of goals, typically under or over 2.5 goals. This market can be expanded to other countable stats in a sports match, including knockdowns in boxing, touchdowns in American Football, or birdies in golf.
Player Props
Want to bet on a specific player? Then, you need to look for the ‘player prop’ selections. These are where you can bet on one particular player to do a specific action throughout the match. I.e., wagering on Patrick Mahomes to throw a touchdown. That is quite a high probability, so it would offer relatively low odds. However, it gets pretty interesting when diving into granular odds of players achieving unique goals throughout a fixture. These can be combined to make a player prop parlay when wagering on multiple markets, like betting on Harry Maguire to get booked and Georgino Rutter to score in the exact match.
