The sports betting industry has taken off since the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban in 2018 and states have started to legalize it. The landscape is highly competitive, with a number of large, publicly traded companies competing for bettors. For example, the Walt Disney Company (DIS), which owns ESPN and has a stake in fantasy sports, has launched its own app and is building a sportsbook. Caesars Entertainment (CZR), which owns a sportsbook on the Las Vegas Strip, is also in the game.
Straight bets are the simplest form of wager, with bettors placing money on a single outcome. If a team wins by the margin of victory that’s set by the sportsbook, they’ve “covered” or won the bet and you win your money. Spread bets are a bit more complex, and require a deeper understanding of the sport and betting dynamics. These bets are designed to level the playing field between a favorite and an underdog, and can offer much larger payouts.
Other types of bets include props, or player/team-specific odds. Some are based on projections, which use data from the field to estimate the probability that an event will occur. These models can be easier for beginning bettors to understand than market-based ones, which incorporate data unrelated to the sport like the price of certain stock options or how bets are placed at different books.