There are fewer thrills that can rival watching your favorite team or fighter win. Getting paid for predicting that win is even sweeter.
With the global gambling market estimated to be worth almost $500 billion annually, there is no doubt that sports betting is bigger than ever. More and more sports fans are putting their money where their mouths are, with varying degrees of success. As with any form of betting, if you are making any profit worth talking about, you will invariably win some and lose some.
I was recently asked by a friend to explain the differences between sports betting and casino gaming. In short, I told that friend that sports betting tends to appeal more to sports fans. In other words, guys and girls grow up watching sports first and placing bets second, for the most part. Football fans typically bet on football where hockey or basketball fans will usually bet on their sport of choice.
The conversation between me and my friend then turned to the sports which were easier to be on. I explained a couple of factors in what makes a sport easier to understand, thus making a result more straightforward to predict. The variables you need to take into consideration before you bet on a soccer team, for example. Of course, it’s not that simple. If it were, we’d all be rich, and betting would not be a viable business.
It really makes you think, huh? So, the question is, “what are the five easiest sports to bet on?” Well, to work this out, we first need to take a few things into the equation. When predicting results, nothing is ever certain. Yes, a scenario can be likely, highly-likely, or extremely-likely, but never certain.
When you make a bet, you are essentially predicting the result of an event and wagering money. The person, agent, or betting company that takes your bet will offer you odds based on the probability of that result happening.
The higher the odds, the less of a chance you have of winning that bet. If the odds are stacked against you, you can safely say that your prediction is one perceived to be beyond realistic. That is not to say that it won’t happen, of course. Underdogs winning in dramatic fashion and freak results can always happen, although they are rare, naturally.
One of the easiest sports to bet on – but one that often comes with poor odds – is boxing. The sport known as the “Sweet Science” also witnessed one of the biggest shocks of all time, back in February 1990. Unbeaten and truly terrifying world heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, was defending his title against 42:1 underdog James “Buster” Douglas in Japan. Seen as another routine win for Tyson, the world was in for a shock.
While Tyson had dispatched of previous opponent Carl “The Truth” Williams in just 93-seconds, he would be knocked out by the unfancied Douglas in the 10th round of their bout in Tokyo. To say the world was stunned would be an understatement. Tyson was seen as unbeatable at the time, so as to generate more interest in betting markets, Douglas was given some pretty tasty odds by many in the betting industry.
Those who had taken advantage of Douglas’ sky-high odds would have been delighted with the result. While no one would have expected “Iron Mike” to be knocked out by the unfancied Douglas, there were a few factors which shrewd gamblers could have taken into consideration.
Tyson was heavily in the public eye due to his stormy relationship with Robin Givens. The heavyweight powerhouse also left long-time trainer Kevin Rooney, was in the middle of a massive contract dispute with Don King and his manager. Alongside what could have been perceived as significant distractions ahead of the bout, Tyson was also allegedly not training adequately.
What would all of this mean to a gambler? Put simply, these could have affected Mike Tyson’s performance (and they did). While hindsight is always 20/20, gamblers could have been justified in backing Douglas, especially given the odds. However, Douglas had a few distractions of his own: his mother passed away before the bout, the mother of his son was diagnosed with an illness, and he caught the flu a day before the fight.
For those of you wondering what this has to do with betting on easy sports, allow me to break it down for you. Nothing is certain in sports betting. Even the most unfancied underdogs can win. While boxing is a sport where there are simply two fighters inside the ropes, there are still variables such as fitness levels, problems in a fighter’s personal life, injuries, and psychology that can come into play.
As with the famous case of Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas, even the easiest and most logical choice can blow up in your face. Is boxing an easy sport to bet on, regardless of this example? I believe it is and here’s why:
There are fewer sports in the world that can lay claim to rival boxing as a spectacle.
While boxing has witnessed something of a decline in popularity over the past few decades, fans are still as crazy about the “Sweet Science.” At one point in the past, the heavyweight champion of the world was the man. Superstars such as Muhammad Ali and the aforementioned Mike Tyson were arguably the most famous men in the world, in their prime.
Other all-time greats such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Louis, Roberto Duran, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and many more, have brought great joy to boxing enthusiasts. They have also been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in winning bets. As long as boxing has been “a thing,” punters have been backing these modern-day gladiators in bets.
Boxing is a sport competed between individuals. In other words, two fighters get inside the ropes and battle for supremacy.
There are only three main ways a bout can go:
This means that a bet on a result will give you three options. However, there are more bets than just a prediction on who will win (or if it will end a draw). For those betting on how the fight will end (if it goes to points, ends in a KO/TKO) there are various markets. There are 10 rounds in a standard bout (12 in championship fights), giving bettors a number of opportunities to pick which round the bout ends in, too.
What makes boing such an easy sport to bet on is the fact that – if both fighters are well-matched and in good shape – you can almost flip a coin. Odds for bouts where fighters are matched should be pretty similar, too.
Unfortunately, the majority of boxing bouts are rarely even matches these days. This can lead to poor odds for the favorites. In this case, the best way to secure strong odds is on round betting. For example, if you believe the favorite will win by KO, choosing that result in the 2nd round can be a great way to secure a nice price.
If boxing is not your bag, why not take a look at a sport that I believe is even easier to bet on. That sport is MMA.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is the fastest growing sport in the world, for many reasons. One of the main reasons is that is such an incredible spectator sport. Fighters exhibit the cream of martial arts skills, demonstrating a number of techniques borrowed from the most effective disciplines in the world. Martial arts such as boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu jitsu, judo, wrestling, kickboxing, sambo, taekwondo and many more are exhibited y fighters who are essentially hard as coffin nails.
Anything can happen inside the cage. Over the past decade, the emphasis on fighters promoting themselves has seen a massive rise in interest. Loud-mouth provocateurs like Chael Sonnen set a bar which was further raised by Conor McGregor, who helped bring the sport into the mainstream. This increased interest has helped promotions like the UFC drive MMA into previously uncharted pay-per-view and promotional territories.
Like boxing, MMA is a sport competed between two fighters. Fights are typically three, 5-minute round bouts, or five for championship fights. The bouts are fought inside a cage – known as “The Octagon” in the UFC – in arenas.
Once again, like boxing, there are only three main ways a bout can go:
There are, however, more ways a fight can end before the natural end of a fight. As MMA is a sport fought both on the feet (striking) and on the floor (grappling), a fighter can win by way of KO/TKO, or submission. A submission involves performing a choke, lock, or hold, until the opponent either “taps out,” is rendered unconscious, or there is an intervention by the referee.
MMA is generally a better sport to bet on than boxing due to the fact that even matchups are more common. As the best tend to fight the best, odds on fighters are usually close to one another and represent a decent chance of winning at a good price.
There are so many potential bets to be placed in MMA. For the most part, choosing the method of victory can be the most exciting. Parlay bets are also fun, as if you are a true fan of MMA, you may have a number of predictions on any given card. You can get some good odds for choosing both the round of victory and the method of victory, such as Conor McGregor to win by KO in the 2nd round over Khabib Nurmagomedov.
As a spectacle, tennis will divide. It is certainly not a sport which seems to get the blood flowing for me and my friends.
In fact, I have never – and certainly don’t expect to – hear any of my friends invite me and the gang over to “watch the tennis with a few beers.” It’s not that kind of sport, in my opinion. We don’t have posh English accents and would prefer a cold beer rather than a tea and a bowl of strawberries. As a sport to bet on, however, it is very easy.
What I like about tennis when it comes to betting is the fact that there are no draws. For a novice gambler, this makes the sport an excellent choice. There are a number of different bets, too, which are not difficult at all to understand. Even those with the most limited idea of tennis can easily place bets which can be pretty sweet if they work out to be winners.
As I said above, the absence of the draw result makes tennis an excellent sport to bet on. There are only two potential results, which are:
If the game hits an impasse, deadlock, or whatever fancy name tennis fans like to substitute for a tie, there is a tie-breaker. This means that a bet on Serena Williams to beat Maria Sharapova will either be a winning or a losing bet. The betting company, oddsmakers, or bookmakers do not have the draw result to profit from in the case of most bets being placed on either player, which is nice.
I find that money line bets on matches, such as Rafael Nadal to beat Andy Murray, are often nice enough. For those who prefer to follow players through tournaments or competitions will tell you, backing outright tournament winners can be a good way to get in on the action. In tennis, games and sets are played, which also provides a number of cool bets.
Betting on a player to win a tournament is the easiest bet to place. When doing so, seasoned gamblers will study that player’s form leading up to the event, how they fare on a particular surface (clay or grass), and if they tend to play better earlier or later in the season.
Tennis is undoubtedly one of the easiest games to bet on. It is similar to another game, albeit one I prefer to watch more, which is golf.
One of the first sports I ever placed money on was golf. It is also worth noting that it is one of the most popular sports to bet on across the globe.
Before Tiger Woods mania in the late-1990’s and early 2000’s, golf was a difficult sport to market to younger players. Well, younger players who didn’t grow up close enough to a golf club or be born into a “golfing family,” that is. Woods certainly changed that and made the sport cool, in many people’s eyes. There was certainly a spike in popularity as a result, which led to more sports fans betting on golf.
Given that there are a plethora of events and markets almost always available, you can always find a bet on golf.
With numerous tournaments around the world every year, there is always an opportunity to bet on a golf event. Events such as The Masters, The US Open, and the PGA Tour all see millions staked on numerous bets annually.
There are a large number of players contesting tournaments, with most of the events played in a stroke by stroke format. Golf is effectively a race, with one or a handful of players starting off well, with everyone else playing catchup. There are no complex rules or regulations any gambler will really need to learn beyond the basics, which makes it an ideal sport to bet on.
When choosing a tournament winner, you may be tempted to back Rory McIlroy, for example, and take short odds. I personally prefer to identify who I think are a couple of wildcards and shop around for the best odds available. Within the first couple of rounds, things start to get pretty exciting and this is where I’ll reassess my bets. Watching the tournament unfold, you can get a better grasp of who looks in form and who to avoid.
I truly believe soccer is one of the easiest sports to bet on. While not as popular in North America as it is in South America, Europe and pretty much everywhere else, it is such a straightforward game.
There are two teams of 11 players. The object of the game is to score more goals than the other team. Simple, right? Absolutely. Well, in theory, anyway. As a goal is essentially one point, the accumulation of building points is more difficult than in other team sports like basketball or rugby, where there are at least two different ways to score. Basketball has both two and three-point awards and rugby has tries, penalties, and drop goals.
The reason I believe soccer to be so easy to bet on – aside from what I have covered above – is that the strongest team usually wins. Of course, this means that there will be shorter odds for that team heading into the game, but handicap bets help to even things out.
One of the best bets in sports, hands down, can also be found in soccer. Known as “Asian handicap” betting, players can remove the draw result from bets which is nothing less than awesome.
There are three ways a game of soccer can end. These are:
For example, if you believe that Manchester City will beat Arsenal, you can simply place that bet. While there are two potential results that can play against you (a draw, or a win for Arsenal), it is really that simple.
With the immense popularity soccer betting enjoys all over the world, there are numerous bets you can place. Gamblers have the option to bet on handicaps, score casts (how many goals will be scored), parlays, special bets and much more.
Personally, I believe that soccer parlay bets – otherwise known as accumulators – are the most enjoyable bet types in soccer. You can choose a number of different games to bet on, usually selecting the winners of each match. Those who have an interest in soccer will definitely enjoy these bets as they add a little excitement to each game, especially in tournaments like the FIFA World Cup.
However, the best bet in soccer is, without doubt, Asian handicap betting. As I mentioned above, this is an excellent way to make a soccer match almost 50/50, giving you a better chance of success.
So, there you have it. Five sports which are sure to be among the easiest in the world to bet on. All for different reasons, it must be said.
Take boxing, for example. Given that there are two opponents inside the ropes and only three potential results, it truly is a case of backing your man/woman to win. Draws are rare, and the cream usually rises to the top. What makes boxing such an exciting sport to bet on is also the fact that it such a pulsating sport to watch. Those with an interest in the “Sweet Science” will surely relish a little more excitement by placing a wager.
Other sports competed by individuals rather than teams – like MMA, tennis, and golf – are also very easy to bet on. Novice gamblers can simply choose their preferred athlete to win and sick back and enjoy the show. That is not to say team sports are not easy to bet on. Soccer, as I covered above, is one of the most straightforward games to watch, making it very easy to bet on.
While all of the sports above are far from difficult to bet on, there are always markets which will be more complex. Once you have the grasp of the basics, you may one day consider delving into the more exotic bets. It’s all up to you.
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