At first glance it would seem that betting on favorites when wagering on sports online would be the perfect way to bet. There are certain factors to consider, as far as betting on favorites in sports is concerned. It all comes down to the mathematics and the probabilities. If you could bet on the favorite to win without any point spreads and without any money lines at sports betting websites but as a 1 to 1 wager, then betting on favorites in sports would be unquestionable profitable over the long run. The reason for this is that a favorite will win more than 50 % of the time and if there are no mitigating factors such as point spreads there to handicap the bet and the return is not altered from a 1 to 1 proposition, you would come out ahead on a very regular basis.
There is really only one flaw with this plan and that flaw is that it is going to be impossible to get any action on the other side of your wagers. Sure you can find someone at work to bet you $5.00 from time to time without odds or a point spread and he will take the underdog because it is his favorite team. You will not, however, be able to get a consistent enough stream of this sort of action to make it profitable.
Are Teams Still Favorites After The Point Spread?
There are two NBA basketball teams in the city of Los Angeles. The defending world champion Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. Now even if the Los Angeles Lakers do not win the Championship or even the Conference in any given year, they are always in the playoffs. The Los Angeles Clippers, on the other hand, have only made the playoffs once in the last 15 years.
In the last 10 times that these teams have played each other the Clippers have only won twice. In a match up between these two teams, the Los Angeles Lakers are the clear cut favorite to win. Now they will not win every single time that the two teams play each other but they are clearly and undeniable the favorite to win the game. Now say that we introduce a point spread and now the Los Angeles Lakers are -15. Are the Lakers still the favorite to win if you spot the other team 15 points? If you think that they still are then how about 20 points?
Using a Money line, if the Lakers are -600 that means that you would have to bet $600.00 to win $100.00. This means that the Lakers would have to win 1 out of every 6 times that they played in order for you to break even. That is translated to mean that betting on the Lakers with this kind of a money line you would need them to win 83 % of the time. Since the Lakers have only won 8 of the last 10 times that these two teams have played or 80 % of the time, the money line wager would be a losing proposition over time.
Favorites need to be evaluated after considering the point spread and money lines.So while a team or an individual athlete may be a favorite to win, the important questions when you are betting of favorites in sports is, are they still the favorite after the point spreads and money lines have been factored in?
