Betting In-Play

Live betting markets won’t be listed alongside traditional markets but instead on a separate page with live betting software.

On most American-facing sportsbooks, this will almost always be listed as “Live Betting.”

On foreign bookmakers, it will be listed as “In-Play Betting.”

Other than the fact that you will be betting on events as they progress, placing bets in a live betting platform isn’t any different than placing regular bets on sides and totals. Bettors simply select their wager, enter the amount, and click “Confirm” or “Submit” on their bet slip.

The bets available to players when live betting will vary depending on the sport they’re interested in wagering on and the sportsbook they’ve chosen for in-play betting. Some sportsbooks offer a large list of markets for live betting, while others will simply have adjusted sides and totals.

Generally speaking, the more stoppages during a particular sport, the more betting markets available. For instance, baseball live betting allows players to bet on the outcome of each at bat, the score during each inning, and a host of other propositions. Football live betting has odds on the outcome of each drive and even the outcome of each play.

Of course, other sports, such as basketball, hockey, and more, may have expanded betting options aside from adjusted sides and totals. Live betting is available for every sport in the world at some sportsbooks. The betting options offered are only limited by the oddsmakers’ imagination and the betting software.

As mentioned above, live betting options are going to vary wildly. However, one area bettors need to carefully consider, aside from available markets, is the betting odds offered. Many sportsbooks will juice up their live betting markets much more than the standard -110 or the -115 odds offered on most proposition bets.

For this reason, it’s one of the markets where shopping around for the best odds is most vital. Line shopping is something that some forget about when live betting, but wagering with live betting odds that are considerably worse than what you might find at another sportsbook is going to cost you a lot of money in the long run.

Live betting can also be a tool used by bettors to grab a price that wasn’t available in traditional pre-match betting odds, giving bettors the ability to hedge pre-match wagers.

Take for example a moneyline wager on an NFL contest:

Say, New England was -170 to defeat Buffalo, but those odds were too rich to consider before the matchup started.

If the Bills rushed out to an early 7-0 lead but a bettor still felt the Patriots were going to win the game, that bettor might wager on the live moneyline after the Bills got an early score.

The price would be better than the pre-match -170, and bettors would likely save a few cents compared to if they wagered on New England before the game started.

As another example, let’s look at an NBA game. Say, we’ve taken the L.A. Clippers against the Golden State Warriors on the moneyline at +250, but after the first quarter, the Clippers are losing by double digits and look ragged. We can then take the Clippers via the point spread or moneyline to hedge our wager and reduce our losses.