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The Top Sports to Bet On

Be it football, soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, etc., each sport is enjoyable to watch in its own way. You can indulge yourself as you watch two teams battle it out, passing a ball back and forth while trying to take shots at a goal on the opposite side of the field, otherwise known as soccer.

You can cheer on your favorite team as they shoot the ball from one person to another while dribbling past their opponents to either take a shot or destroy the rim with a dunk, otherwise known as basketball.

There are a plethora of sports to enjoy but when it comes to betting, things get a bit more serious. Sports betting can either be extremely profitable or it can be extremely perilous. It all depends on two things: what sport you choose and how good you are at betting.

Sports betting takes time to master but it only takes a few minutes to know which sports are the best to bet on. And while the list may seem obvious, there are a few that you won’t consider. These are the ones that are hidden goldmines, ones that you want to capitalize on.

Nevertheless, these are the top sports to bet on right now.

5. Football

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Known as “America’s sport,” football is the flagship of American identity. Every American knows about the sport of football and when it’s football season, all of America sits down to watch. Sure, it may not encompass an international audience, but the engagement brought on by the American audience makes it something worthwhile.

Furthermore, the football season isn’t short. It lasts quite a while and during this time, you can choose on betting on either college football or professional football. Thus, the options are out there for you. The only difference is whether or not you’re going to act on it.

Right now, football is at one of its most prime stages. There are teams that are solid picks. For example, in college football, Clemson and Alabama are two of the top picks when it comes to winning their games and on the professional scene, teams like the Saints and the Rams are up there as high percentage picks.

At the same time, each team has a chance of winning. One of the best parts of the football scene is that the teams are beginning to level out to a stage where if the one seed team faces off against the four seed team, there’s still a chance that the four seed team can take them out.

It isn’t necessarily the fact that football is popular. In fact, football isn’t just popular. It’s a culture. Football has become ingrained in every single American’s life. Even the most average man can break down any strong football team and find their strengths and weaknesses.

The betting community is huge. It has a whole fantasy program backing it and it’s one of the biggest go-to sports in the betting community. The reason I’ve put it at five on the list is because football is only relative to North America.

Whenever you go international, other sports rule the world. But in America, football rules. If you learn the demographics of the community and the details behind the football teams, chances are you’re going to make a profit off of this sport.

This sport has too big of a following to not succeed when it comes to betting on it. Stakes are high on every game and during the post-season playoffs, they’re even bigger. There are so many different ways to bet when it comes to football.

You can go for a point spread or you can bet on a total. You can bet on different propositions or you can go for a straight moneyline. The opportunities are endless when it comes to this sport but that just goes to show how big of a community football has built.

While other sports might rule internationally, for America, football rules.

4. Basketball

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Like football, basketball is a pinnacle part of American sports life but unlike football, the game of basketball also encompasses a large scale of the international world. The reason being that basketball is such a good sport to bet on is that, like football, it’s easy to learn the betting system and it also has a large culture backing it.

Basketball started gaining notoriety in the 1970s and now, with over two hundred nations competing in the sport, you don’t want to miss out on the major events basketball has to offer. They average millions of viewers for the big-time events such as playoff matches and the championship games.

That being said, basketball never wavers when it comes to community. The game of basketball has become so intricate that players are able to break down the moves and dynamics of each player, finding their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, all the information you need in order to become a proficient bettor is at your fingertips.

Furthermore, with so many different betting options, the game of basketball is prime betting hunting grounds. Like football, you can go for a point spread betting option or you can switch it up and bet on the total.

These two options are much easier to predict because there’s a large variety of point scoring options unlike football’s restricted scoring option where you can only either score one, two, three, or six points. With basketball, this is different since you can have anywhere from a blowout win by twenty or have a close call by two.

Point spreading is probably the best option for the basketball betting scene but you can also go for a mainstream moneyline bet. Overall, the entire betting industry for basketball is huge and it’s still growing.

Basketball has spread to new parts of the world such as China and Spain and they’re slowly starting to get better and better. Thus, better players are coming onto the scene and the teams are becoming much better.

Games are much closer, meaning there’s more opportunity to bet on anyone from the Utah Jazz to the Milwaukee Bucks. Out of the five sports on here, basketball has the most potential to become the next big thing.

3. Tennis

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Tennis is one of the more unorthodox sports of the sporting world but that doesn’t make it any less exciting as the others on this list. In fact, out of these five sports, tennis is the only game that is individual, meaning no team.

That being said, tennis is a game highly mental, probably more mentally challenging than all of the others on this list. The physical demand of tennis players is also extremely high. Some matches can last more than three hours and the rest time is short for these players.

But that’s what makes this game so exciting. With over one billion people watching, the sport is an international wonder, attracting hundreds of thousands to travel to their favorite tournaments with millions watching on television every day.

Therefore, the betting scene is extremely prominent. The tennis schedule only has about two months of off-time and the rest is devoted to major tournaments. Thus, you’ll never find a shortage of matches to watch.

You can bet on a Grand Slam or you can go bet on a small-scale ATP 250 event. The choice is yours. There are over a hundred tournaments throughout the year and each tournament has its own tricks you have to navigate.

Like the two sports before it, tennis has a variety of different ways to be bet on. You can do a normal betting scheme of choosing the winner or you can go for a point spread though that may be a bit tougher to predict since it can vary on a variety of factors and with so many sets and games in play, the probability of winning a point spread compared to just picking the winner of a matchup is much lower.

There’s also set betting, where you can bet on who wins and by how many sets. For example, if Federer and Novak played at the U.S. Open, you could bet in Novak’s favor with a win of three sets to one. If this happened, you would win the payout.

But the thing that separates tennis from the others is that tennis is purely individual. Therefore, you don’t have to memorize the different team players such as you would in basketball or football. It’s much easier to understand which players are better.

Of course, you also need to know court types—hard, clay, and grass—and which players are proficient on each court but in time, everyone naturally becomes an expert on this. Tennis is one of the best when it comes to being an underdog sport.

Not many would consider betting on tennis due to the class and sophistication behind it. However, if you play your cards right and know the field, this is a major money-maker for you.

2. Cricket

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Cricket is another dark horse when it comes to betting, but with over two billion people watching the sport, it’s wrong to not consider this as a prime betting option for your portfolio. After all, not many people outside of India, Australia, England, and Pakistan watch the sport.

However, you can still bet on it and you won’t be facing your typical competition. Cricket has a prime audience of Indians, Pakistani, Australians, and Brits as shown from the countries above and they don’t have much of a present in the Western countries.

That being said, if you’re from the West, you’re going to have to brush up and learn the game of cricket before you can start betting on the sport. There are two different types of cricket, test cricket and one-day cricket.

Test cricket is the main form which takes place over a span of five days while one-day cricket is a shortened format that is only watched if test cricket isn’t available. However, both can be betted on if needed.

Furthermore, of the five sports, cricket probably has the most betting options for its bettors. You can do a straight match bet on which team will win or whether it will end in a draw or not. Or you can bet on if the match completes on that day (this is only applicable to the test cricket format).

You can also bet on the number of runs scored in each inning or you can bet on which bowler will nag the most wickets. Likewise, you can also pick the player which will score the most in that match. While these are extremely specific and hard to say, the reward is extremely well-paid if you guess right.

You can also compare batsman and bowlers and bet which one will have better numbers. Heck, you can even bet on which team wins the coin toss. The opportunities are endless for cricket. It’s a gold mine that’s yet to be discovered in the West.

Sure, tennis may be a dark horse sport like cricket but it doesn’t have the amount of potential that cricket does when it comes to betting. Cricket has a much larger audience and a much wider range of betting options for you to pick from.

Thus, not only does this keep things fresh, you’re always ready to rebound on something else. And the payouts aren’t bad either. This may be a sport you haven’t heard of yet and if you have, then good for you. But if you haven’t, I highly suggest you buy your ticket and get on the train to where cricket dominates because that’s where the money is.

1. Soccer

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It would be a crime for me to not put soccer on this list. Known as football around the world, we’ll have to go by soccer in this article so as to not confuse it with the American version. Soccer has been around for hundreds of years and during this time, its popularity has never faded.

The game of soccer is quite easy to understand. Each team will have eleven players and the job is to score in the other team’s goal before ninety minutes are up. If, by ninety minutes, the score is tied, the game goes into overtime and eventually penalty kicks if the game doesn’t end there.

Currently, soccer is the most-watched sport around the world. While it may not dominate in places like Canada and America where different sports like hockey and football remain king, around the world, soccer is considered the grail of sports.

Whenever major soccer events such as the World Cup, Champions League, and UEFA Euro are in play, hundreds of millions of people tune in to watch the events and they can get hectic. Brazil went into riot-mode after they were severely beaten by Germany at the 2014 World Cup and Mexico made the ground shake after upsetting Germany in 2018.

Thus, quite a bit of passion goes into each match and the same passion can be transferred over onto the betting scene. So many people watch this game and likewise, they bet on it as well. There are different ways you can bet.

Like all the other sports here, you can pull a moneyline bet with three outcomes. One of the two teams win or they produce a draw. You can also go for betting on goal lines which basically bets on how many games a specific team has to lose or win by.

You can also go for betting on what the score will be between two teams—two to zero, three to one, etc.—as a betting option. Of course, this is extremely specific and can sometimes yield little result but if you know the game and the stats of the team, this is a good payout option.

Furthermore, you can also bet on the total number of scores throughout the game and who’s winning at halftime or if it’s a draw. The opportunities for this game are endless. I said before that basketball and football have engrained themselves into the culture of America.

But it’s different for soccer. For soccer, it’s the world sport and it’s a part of every country’s culture.

Conclusion

There are many different ways you can bet when it comes to making money but the best one when it comes down to it is betting on sports. Sports is a big piece of nearly every person’s life and it’s something that people can watch religiously.

The competitive scene of sports happens around the clock and never stops, just like New York City’s streets. Thus, you always have the option to put a little more in your pocket whenever you feel like it. In the end, it all depends on your knowledge of the betting scene and the sports you’re betting on.

Some sports are better to bet on than others and the ones we’ve provided you with are the best of the best. Both football and basketball are the obelisks of the American sports community while tennis’s unique individuality makes it much easier to study up on and learn.

Cricket is the dark horse that’s a waiting gold mine and soccer is the sport that has dominated since day one. All of these are great picks to choose from and in the end, it comes down to your decision on which one you want to place your bets with.

Be sure of this, though. All five of these sports are going to bring you return but in order to do so, you need to understand the game and the players that make it such a big deal. Once you learn the ins and outs of the sport, then you’ll realize that making money is the easiest part of the game.

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