Sports betting odds Arizona

All bets made on Arizona online sportsbooks have odds tied to them. They represent two things: a team’s or player’s chances of winning a game and your payout if your bet is successful.

Typically, odds are written in negative or positive numerals. A positive odd is attached to an underdog and a negative odd to the favorite.

Basic odds example

In an NBA game, the Phoenix Suns may have a -150 line as the favorite, and their opponent, the Cleveland Cavaliers, are the underdogs with a +180 line. The numbers are used to calculate your profit. For example, you would have to bet $150 on the Suns to earn an extra $100.

Alternatively, you would earn $180 for every $100 you bet on the Cavaliers to pull an upset.

Basic odds formula for payday

Here are two formulas to use if you’re wondering about your potential payout results. Many online sportsbooks can calculate and show your potential winnings when you’re considering bet amounts.

• For positive odds: Bet x (odds/100) + bet = your winnings
• For negative odds: Bet / (odds/-100) + bet = your winnings

This is also known as a moneyline bet or moneyline odds, the most straightforward and arguably the most popular type of sports betting. All sports use Moneyline bets, including every sport that has a professional team in Arizona — football, basketball, baseball, and hockey.

In baseball, it can be called a run line, and in hockey, a puck line. Moneyline bets are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sports betting odds in Arizona. Let’s take a closer look at other options to consider.

With Arizona sports betting, you’re primarily betting right before a game and sometimes during the game (which is called live betting). Futures betting means you can wager on something that will occur in the future.

Usually, futures betting is tied to a big event. For example, several sportsbooks are already promoting Super Bowl odds as futures bets on which team will win the championship.

Future odds can also apply to a player. For example, in golf, you can bet on someone placing in the Top 10 or 20 of an upcoming golf tournament. Futures bets are variable through a sport’s season, adjusted by the odds sportsbook operators to reflect changes in momentum tied to a team or an athlete.

Pros/cons of Futures

A big pro of future bets is that there’s a chance of a big payout if you bet on an underdog that has longshot odds, and the underdog ends up winning. For example, you can wager $100 on +5,000 futures bet at the beginning of an NFL season that the Arizona Cardinals will win the Super Bowl.

Your payout will reflect the odds at the same time you placed the wager, so you can potentially make an additional $6,000 on the bet. The biggest cons with futures betting are that your funds are tied into that bet until the event is over, and it’s always difficult to win on long odds so far in advance.

Also called “total” odds, over/unders are one of the most easy-to-understand odds. Instead of just betting on a team or player to win outright, totals wagers are based on whether the total points or runs from both teams together are above or below the final score.

Usually, the over/under number will be the same for both teams, and the odds are usually always -110, meaning to make $100, you need to bet $110. For example, over/under odds for an NCAA football game between the Arizona Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins are set at “45 (-110).” If the combined score of both teams is 46 or more or 45 or fewer, betters need to bet $110 to win $100.

Pros and cons of Point spreads

One of the pros of over/under odds is that, as in the above example, the point total of the football game is exactly 45, your bet is refunded.

Another pro is that you’re betting on a rather simple outcome — a win or a loss, and it doesn’t matter who actually wins or loses. A big con is since the oddsmaker has a good chance of losing, they usually run a high edge, the margin selected, so they have a greater chance to make some money.

Similar to moneyline and over/under bets, with point spread betting, the winner is picked with a final-score odds line set by a sportsbook and utilizes underdog and favorite designations

For example, let’s say there are point spread odds written as “Arizona Cardinals -16.5 (-110)” and “Denver Broncos +16.5 (-110).” The Cardinals need to win by 17 points, or more for a point spread bet to win.

If you bet on the Denver Broncos, in order to win, the Broncos need to win the game or lose by 16 points or less. In this case, both bets payout with -110 odds. As seen on the Hard Rock Sportsbook AZ.

Pros/cons of Point spreads

A strategic benefit of point spread odds is that you can always bet on a team you’re pretty sure will lose. One con is that sportsbooks are less inclined to reward point spread bettors with bonuses attached to the outcome.

Favored by those with more betting experience, parlays are bets involving more than one game, usually groups of two or three. Parlays can be made using over/under, moneyline, and point spread odds. The catch: All of the bets within a parlay must win for the bettor to win outright. If one bet out of the three loses, you lose the parlay.

Pros/cons of Parlays

A pro is that the more complex the bet is, the larger the payout will be if you win. A con is that you’re typically risking a lot of money on what’s considered a risky overall betting approach.

Teaser betting is a form of parlay where the power to move the point spread or total is in the bettor’s hands as opposed to basing it on Moneyline odds. This is done to increase the chances of winning.

For example, if there’s a game where the Phoenix Suns are favored by 4.5 points, a teaser would be the bettor adjusting the line to 7.5 points, hoping for a better payout by betting on the underdog. The bettor can also move it the other way with point spreading. For example, if the Suns are favored by 7.5 points, you can move the spread down to 4.5 points.

Pros/cons of Teasers

By utilizing a teaser, bettors increase their chances of winning. However, teasers pay out less than a typical parlay would for a winner. And with teasers, all the lines in your individual parlay bets must be moved.

Some of the most fun you can have while betting is when you decide to wager using prop odds. These odds have nothing to do with the game’s outcome. Instead, you’re betting on a wide range of circumstances that could happen within a game.

For example, you could bet on how many home runs your favorite baseball player will make or place an over/under odds bet on the total yards a football will accumulate in one game.

Pros/cons of Props

Well, for one thing, they’re fun and exciting, especially when you’re betting live. It also rewards your general knowledge of certain teams and players. However, you should do a little homework first.

Some people do prop bets because they attempt to make up for losses from earlier bets. If you don’t have a great understanding of team or player statistics or haven’t been following a team during a season, placing a prop bet may not be worth it.

One thing that’s a safe bet: odds can and will change for a variety of reasons on Arizona online gambling sites. Here are some circumstances that would impact odds.

Heavy betting on one side

Oddsmakers would prefer both sides of a wager to get healthy bets. If there’s a lot of early betting on one side, sportsbooks may adjust the odds to make the overall line more equal and get people to make the previously less popular wager.

Injuries

When an important player is injured, it can greatly impact the odds associated with a match-up.

Bad weather

The performance of players and teams can be affected by extreme weather. So oddsmakers will take that into account if the weather is suddenly poised to be a factor in a game.

If a game’s odds are not attracting enough interest

Oddsmakers regularly move lines and odds to encourage more people to wager overall.

Best sportsbooks in Arizona for betting odds

Odds vary across sportsbooks, but the following have a reputation among bettors for fair and popular odds.

BetMGM odds

Basketball odds and football odds are extremely popular on BetMGM, run by MGM Resorts International. BetMGM features a wide variety of odds in the sports market, large and small, including moneylines and point spreads, but also odds on first- and second-half action and player props.

PointsBet odds

PointsBet, a relative newbie in the online sportsbook world, stands out for its large number of unique player prop bets (ex: how many yards a player will have against a certain team).

PointsBet also regularly offers bonuses tied to fixed-odds bets. For example, you could get a $500 refund in bonus bets if you lose your first fixed odds wager.

DraftKings odds

Football odds and lines are particularly well-organized and thought out on DraftKings’ sportsbook. At one glance, you can view the point spread, total points line, and Moneyline for every upcoming match.

The sportsbook also has daily odds boost specials covering a range of sports. For example, on a recent day, there were boosts tied to baseball, tennis, basketball, and golf’s PGA Tour.

FanDuel odds betting

Basketball odds are a strong suit of FanDuel’s, and that includes the NBA, Euro Basketball, and the WNBA (plus, your first bet on the NBA can be an insurance bonus bet of up to $1,000 if you’re a new user).

There are also a tremendous amount of live betting options. Its football odds are robust and fair as well, covering the NFL draft and the CFL, too.

William Hill odds and lines

A legendary sportsbook in Britain, William Hill offers a regular lineup of odds and futures tied to major events, especially hockey’s Stanley Cup. It groups other odds — basketball, football, baseball — into a news headline lineup with links to individual pages outlining the odds and trends of games.