At the heart of it, a sports wager is as simple as any gambling proposition can be: I think one team can beat the other team.  If you happen to know someone who likes the other team to win, great; you’ve got a bet.  If not, you need someone to “book” your action.  And that’s where a sports book comes in, be it online, at a casino (only in Las Vegas within the United States) or the guy sitting in the corner of your local tavern or pool hall.  To keep the action flowing, sports books have come up with a huge variety of betting options.

In every betting situation, the sports book attaches an extra price, where they make their profit for providing you with a service.  In normal commerce, this may be called a “processing fee”.  In betting, it’s called vigorish, “the vig”, “juice” or lots of other terms.  As long as the book can balance the action on both sides of the bet, the vig guarantees they will make money.  How the vig is applied depends on the type of bet you make.

Types of bets
Point Spread
Money Line
Totals
Parlay
Teaser
If-bet
Prop Bets
Futures Bets

Note that when you win a bet, you get the amount of your wager back in addition to what you won.  If you wager $110 to win $100, and win the bet, the sports book will hand you $210.  This may seem fairly obvious, but has caused confusion with sports betting novices before, so it will be mentioned now, and then assumed throughout the rest of this guide.

After following all of the above links, you’ll know the basics of sports betting.  I haven’t said anything about how to make smart wagers and make money betting on sports…that’s up to you, and the armies of guys with 900-numbers who offer this week’s 5-Star Lock Of The Year ABSOLUTELY FREE!!  But if you do it right and find what strategies work for you, sports betting can add excitement to watching a game, provide a tremendous “beat the house” challenge, and put a little extra cash in your pocket, all at the same time.