Welcome to sports betting. Whether or not you want to make a profit or just make the games a little more exciting to watch, betting is for you. Bet with your friends, co-workers, family, Vegas or on the internet for as little as $10 to thousands. Winning a free lunch or dinner is also quite exhilarating as well as the bragging rights that come with it. This is an all inclusive guide to sports betting, regardless of the sport. Each sport may also have their unique differences but overall, they should all be the same. Of course mastering the rules of each sport is a whole another ballgame altogether.

First thing you’ll want to know is what team you think will win the game. For those who are new to the sport altogether, our authors will give you a general idea along with their thoughts on who will win and why. The difficult part comes when you have to bet the point spread.

Point Spread: Point spreads are used to even the odds against two unevenly matched teams. Each team is given a point total by the odds maker that can either be added or subtracted to the final score.

For example, if the Los Angeles Lakers were playing the Clippers, then point spread may be listed as follows:

Los Angeles Lakers (-7.5)

Los Angeles Clippers (+7.5)

This means that not only does Lakers have to win, in order to win the bet, they must beat the clippers by 8 points or higher. If they only beat the Clippers by 7 points, you lose the bet. If the point spread was just 7 instead of 7.5 and the Lakers defeat the Clippers by 7, then it is a draw. You neither lose nor win any money.

Second, you can actually just bet on who will win or lose the game. However there are bigger risks. For instance if you choose the team that is favored to win, you must bet more money then you can win and vice versa if you choose the underdog. This is called the money line and they are always based on $100.

Money Line: If the team or individual you are betting on is favored to win, then the number will be a negative. So, if you see a money line such as “-200″, this means you have to bet an additional $200 to win $100. But, if your bet is on an underdog, then you’ll probably see something like “+200″, in which case you would win an additional $200 on a $100 bet. On occasion, it’s possible you could see a negative or positive figure go into the 1000′s.

Third way to bet is to bet the total game score also known as Overs and Unders betting. This is predicting whether or not the total score (both teams combined) will be higher or lower then what the odd maker sets.

Total Game Score (O/U): The combined score of both teams for games wagered on, all totals lay $1.10 to win $1.00 unless it is otherwise indicated.

Example: The player lays $110.00 on the OVER in the NY Jets/Dallas game. The total for the game is 45. If both teams’ combined score is more than 45 than the player would win $100.00. If the combined score is equal 45 the game is considered “no action” and the money is returned. If the combined score is less than 45 then the wager is lost.

That is all there is to betting. Of course learning how to bet, and the rules behind it was technically the easy part. Predicting who will win is actually the difficult part, but with the help of our author’s analysis, we will make it as easy as possible. I will soon post up a list of trusted online betting websites so stay tuned!