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Tough Finish to Bet On | By HHA

When you bet on the total score of a game, combining both teams’ scores, this is called an Over-Under bet. You have to pick if the combined scores of both teams will go over or under a fixed number. This kind of bet is very common among Football games but is also used in baseball and soccer. The sportsbook will try to set a number that gets it an equal amount of bets in both sides of the over-under bet. Usually, sportsbooks use a universal system to set this number (based on average points per game, standings, previous games, injury reports, etc) but more than less the numbers change very little despite injuries, and they will make just minor adjustments before the start of the game.

When you begin to consider the over-under bet be mindful of certain aspects and behaviors that affect the outcomes in the sport you pick. Some, in fact, are similar in any sport; you could begin your study around the average score for the sport and for the games you pick, and set this average score as a baseline to make further decisions on, you can also check for the schedule of both teams in a game to see how the previous performance against other teams was and the immediacy between games. Also, check for situational factors, like the intensity of a previous game; if a basketball game goes to a triple overtime, this could affect the next game. Even the relevancy of a player in the injury list can diminish the teams overall performance.

Despite the fact that at simple glance this bet looks like it has 50/50 odds, the sportsbook always has the edge of the juice. The odds marker will usually fix the total score in a certain way, to take advantage of both sides of the wager and to maximize the number of wrong bets, particularly if there is be an imbalance in the distribution of players.

You have other options when you decide to wager on over-under bets; in basketball you can bet over-under for assists turnovers, steals, points for a player's or team's total; in football you can wager for attempts, rushing yards, completions and interceptions; and in baseball for home runs and RBI.