Sports betting has become increasingly popular over the past few years with the emergence of online betting. There are multiple websites for betting, with MGM, Fanduel and Draftkings being some of the biggest Sportsbooks today. Sports betting can also be done in-person in casinos.
“t’s not fun when eight people are yelling about a bet and you’re just sitting there,” Joseph Stout, junior, said. “It just makes the game itself more fun. Even if it’s a game you don’t care about you have something to like root for.”
Some sports betting sites require you to be 21 years of age, but there are also sites there that allow people to bet if they are 18 and over.
“I am under 21,” Darron Trevino, a student at Ferris, said. “I have to use a site called Prize Picks because the bigger sites require you to be 21, and I still want to bet because I enjoy betting on my favorite teams.”
Sports betting offers different options for betting across many sports. There are straight bets, which involve betting on one game at a time. Parlays involve betting on multiple games at a time in one single bet. In parlays, all games in the parlay must be correct in order to win the bet.
“I usually build my own parlays,” Trevino said. “Parlays give me the freedom to choose multiple games or multiple players’ stats, and I can win more money off parlays, so that’s what I choose to play.”
Bets can also be placed on individual players and the stats they might get in the game in a straight bet or bet on multiple players’ stats in a parlay. There are options to bet on what you think will happen in a game as well.
“If there’s a really good parlay out there, I will do a parlay but I really think I like to do player betting because I think it’s a tad bit easier to predict which players are going to do better depending on what defenses they’re going against,” Noah Bathrick, a senior studying Sports Communication, said.
In sports betting, the odds play a huge part because it indicates what games, players or stats to bet on. The higher the odds of a bet, the more money that can be made if the bet is won, but higher odds also decrease the likelihood of winning the bet. The lower the odds, the more likely the bet will win, but at a smaller payout.
Bathrick said he participates in betting “just to make more money.”
There are a wide range of sports to choose from when deciding where to place one’s bets, which gives betters multiple ways to bet and win.
“Parlays all the way. Go big or go home. It usually depends on if there’s a large event going on, like the Super Bowl or the NBA All Star game.” Stout said about what he bets on.
With sports betting continuing to grow and gain more popularity, more people may be more inclined to start participating in sports betting to win some extra cash.