Live Betting: Are the odds worth the risk?
Live betting has been around since 2002.
The year Ben Affleck was People’s sexiest man alive. Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” hit no. 3 on the billboard. And Rudy Giuliani received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
A lot has changed since 2002. And that includes live betting. While this type of high-octane betting has technically been around for two decades, it’s come a long way in the past 20 years.
What is live betting?
Live betting is betting that happens during a live sporting event.
Instead of placing a bet before the event begins or a futures bet (that is placed long before the actual event), you get to place bets on aspects of the game as the event unfolds.
Is live betting the future of betting or is it simply a fad?
Until sports betting was legalized in 2019 (the U.S. Supreme Court decided to reverse the federal ban on sports betting that year), it wasn’t easy to place sports bets.
While not all sports betting was illegal (pari-mutuel betting, such as horse race betting, was legal in many U.S. states before the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2019), these bets weren’t as exciting as live sports betting.
Now, you can make a wide variety of bets on sports, including moneyline bets (betting on one aspect of an event, such as whether a team will win or lose), parlay bets (betting on more than one event on a ticket), and much more.
It’s impossible (as with any prediction) to guess whether live betting will be a fad or not. Though, we can’t imagine that this high-octane style of betting won’t be popular for years to come. Not only does live betting offer seemingly unlimited betting choices during an event, but it also raises the stakes and makes sports betting even more interesting and exciting.
What are some of the advantages of live betting?
Live betting offers myriad advantages for gamblers.
Also, live betting is just more exciting. The number of bets you can make during a live event seems limitless. Plus, the game is constantly changing when an event is taking place. A surprise play or penalty can really make things interesting — and totally change the outcome of your bets.
Make Better Betting Choices
Futures bets are notoriously difficult to make. Trying to guess the outcome of an event days, weeks, or months before the actual event isn’t an exact science.
But once the event starts, you suddenly have more information at your fingertips. While no one can guess the outcome of an event with 100% accuracy every time, it’s often easier to predict what may happen once the event has started.
Numerous factors can influence the way you bet during sporting events. Live betting experts can even help you make in-game betting choices. We’re here to analyze and assess all these factors, delivering the most reliable picks.
Every Sunday, OddsSeeker Live’s expert betting strategists are available to provide valuable insight into live in-game bets — so you don’t have to go it alone.
Have a question about an in-game market? Message our live betting experts during the game for expert advice to get the extra edge the sportsbooks don’t want you to have.
Mitigate Your Losses
There’s only so much information you can glean before an event starts. Making pre-game predictions aren’t as exciting as making predictions during a live event because there’s so much pertinent information you just don’t know about until the game starts.
While you may be able to make a simple moneyline bet on whether a team will win or lose based on information such as previous wins and losses, injuries, you probably won’t be able to predict which players will run the most yards, who will get penalties, or who will score the most goals.
Plus, there are some aspects of an event you simply can’t predict at all. Once the event has begun, bets can change in an instant.
Hedge Your Bets
We know that pretty much anything can happen — and will — during a sporting event.
We’ve seen LeBron James just walk off the court in the middle of a game. Players have thrown or lost games on purpose. Defensive ends have caught touchdown passes. Goalies have been pulled with more than minutes left of a game.
The only thing you can expect during a sporting event is that you should expect the unexpected.
If you made a moneyline bet on LeBron James scoring a certain number of points during a game — only to watch him walk off the court — you might start freaking out if he’s just one point shy of your bet.
Live betting allows you to hedge your bets. You may not win your original bet, but you can mitigate your losses by making bets during the event.
Make Betting More Exciting
Sure, we can all make seemingly educated guesses before an event.
But pre-game betting is kind of a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. Place your bet, and wait to see what happens. Kinda like playing the lottery, right?
If you’re all about the excitement of high-octane live sports betting, you’ll love live betting. Make educated predictions on what will happen throughout a sporting event. Place your bets and watch the events unfold right in front of you.
The best part about live betting is that you don’t need to accept defeat (or stop at a single win). Simply continue making bets throughout the event to keep up the excitement.
What makes live betting harder than other types of betting?
One of the biggest benefits of pre-game betting is that you’re probably not going to be as emotional about your bets as the ones you make during a live event — especially if you’re emotionally invested in any of the teams you’re betting on or against.
Think about how excited, angry, frustrated, elated, and depressed sports can make you feel during and after an event. Now add money to this equation.
It’s easy to understand how emotions can get in the way of making solid bets, right?
We know for a fact that we make better decisions when we’re not emotionally invested in something. When our cortisol and adrenaline levels are spiked, we’re more like to make “bad” decisions. This means that there’s a huge population of gamblers that are placing short-sighted bets.
The good news is that you don’t need to be one of those bettors.
While it isn’t always easy to manage your emotions during a sporting event, doing so will make you a better gambler.
Our team of experts can help you make the most educated bets every Sunday. Don’t be like every other bettor out there. Instead of placing bets out of fear or hope, place bets that are more likely to win — based on patience and waiting for the right opportunities.
Even if your team loses, you may still be a winner.
Live Betting Tips
If you’re as excited as we are to learn some live betting strategies, check out our live betting tips.
Use Sports Betting Calculators
Want to know how much money you could make off a bet? Or, how much you could lose?
Use a sports betting calculator to determine your payout or losses. Our sports betting parlay calculator helps you make parlay bets (two bets on one ticket).
Learn From the Pros
Sports players have coaches. Gamblers have teachers.
Don’t go it alone during live betting. While we’re all about DIY when it comes to fixing a leaky sink, we don’t recommend hacking your own live bets.
You can read live betting blogs or books on the topic. But you won’t glean as much information as you would while watching a professional break down bets during a live event.
Watch OddsSeeker Live, our show that airs Sundays during NFL games. Our betting experts teach people in-game betting strategies, you can see the bets they make, and learn how to bet like a pro.
Understand Different Betting Types
There are so many types of bets — it’s not just about moneyline bets these days!
You can watch hours upon hours of live commentary and betting tips, but you’ll never truly understand what’s happening if you don’t understand betting types and sports definitions.
What’s the difference between spread betting and middle bets? What’s a round-robin bet? What’s fading the public?
If you don’t know the language, you won’t be able to speak it. While we don’t recommend whipping out your three-by-five index cards to memorize these terms, it helps to keep our betting sports definitions open and ready in case you don’t understand a term.
Our ultimate sports betting guide will help you understand the important terms so you can follow along during our live strategy series.
Are you ready to try live betting for yourself? Join us on Sundays during NFL season, and start learning how to bet like a pro.
