How to Bet Online – Guide to Online Sports Betting

People have been betting on sports in one way or another for centuries. In 1996, soccer teams Tottenham Hotspur and Hereford United played each other in an FA Cup replay. There was nothing unusual about the game at all, but it still had a significant impact on the history of sports betting. Why? Because the first ONLINE sports wager was placed on this game, at the first online betting site.

While the fundamentals of sports gambling have remained largely the same, how we place our bets has changed significantly.

The rise of online sports betting over the last couple of decades has been incredible, and it’s easier than ever to bet money on sports. Traditional sportsbooks and bookmakers still take a lot of action, but most people prefer using the many sports betting sites online these days.

If you’re new to betting online, we can help you get started. This includes showing you the best sites for betting on sports online.

How We Rate

Safety & Security

You should be able to gamble online without fear. So we only recommend licensed sites that use the latest security and encryption techniques.

Bonuses

Maximize your bankroll with fantastic bonuses. Our recommended sites offer valuable bonuses with fair terms and conditions, including manageable wagering requirements.

Games & Betting

The best sites have the best wagering options. That’s why you will find extensive games and betting opportunities on our recommended sites.

Banking

Getting your money to and from your account shouldn’t be a hassle. We only recommend sites with a variety of convenient banking methods, including cryptocurrency and e-wallets.

How does online sports betting work? How do I place bets online? Is it safe to bet online?

These are just some of the questions we hear from people who want to learn to bet on sports online.

We answer them all in this guide to betting on sports online.

We’ll begin with the basics of how to bet on sports online, from choosing which of the many sports betting sites to join right up to placing an online bet.

How to Bet Online – A Step-by-Step Guide

Let’s now dig a little deeper into each of these steps.

The following details will help you fully understand how online betting works and what’s involved in placing sports bets online.

The key to choosing which sports betting sites to use is to explore various factors that will ensure a safe and enjoyable online betting experience, and even improve your chances of making money.

You must consider at least these factors if you’re doing your own research into gambling websites and mobile betting apps.

Always remember that choosing which sports betting sites to use is an important decision and not one that should be rushed. You should check out the following page for more advice on this topic.

An easier way to ensure you use the best options for sports betting online is to follow our recommendations.

The sites we recommend for online sports gambling are all trusted and reputable, and each one offers an excellent overall service. We know this because we spent a lot of time testing and researching a wide range of online sportsbooks and bookmakers.

For more details on our recommended sites for betting on sports online, please see the following page.

A key step towards staying safe when betting online is simply to avoid the shady sites and stick with the sites we recommend. Now, we say “simply,” but how do you do that? How do you know which sites can definitely be trusted?

This is easier than you might think, if you’re prepared to do a little research. Before you join a betting site or online sportsbook, you should look into them and see if they meet the following criteria.

Here are some security tips that will help you to keep your details safe, and also prevent unauthorized access to your betting accounts. We strongly recommend you follow them.

Once you find a website for online betting that looks reliable, it’s time to register a new account.

The process only takes a few minutes, and you will be asked to fill in the following information.

That’s the bare minimum that all real money online betting sites request, and you may be asked for a few more details.

Some betting websites might require you to verify your account by emailing you a link you have to click, so be sure to use a real email address when you sign up.

You need to add money to your account before you can start placing wagers online.

Most online bookmakers offer at least a few banking options. Exactly what’s available will depend on the site you use and where you live.

Here are the most popular banking methods available for real money sports betting on the web.

Regardless of whether you want to deposit small or large sums, at least one of the options above should do the job.

Be careful with e-wallets, though, as not all betting sites online accept them when it comes to bonuses and promotions.

Since we mentioned that, don’t forget to claim your welcome bonus the first time you make a deposit. It’s also a good idea to keep your eyes open for other promotions every time you add cash to your account.

At this point, you will have an active account and be able to bet on sports online for real money. Just open the betting website, log in, and check what markets are available.

Here are the betting options you’ll find at most sportsbooks online.

Make sure that you carefully explore all of the opportunities at your disposal. The best online sports betting apps and websites offer a huge variety of markets.

They cover all kinds of wagers on all kinds of different sports, so you’ll always find something to bet on online.

If you make wise decisions, there’s every chance you’ll end up winning money from betting online. That leaves only one step – to withdraw your profits.

Usually, you can use the same payment method you deposited with. If that’s not possible, the sportsbook will offer you alternative options.

Here’s a quick look at the approximate waiting times for the most popular banking methods.

That’s what you should usually expect, but there might be exceptions based on your country of residence and the online betting site you joined.

Now that you know how online sports betting works, where to bet on sports, and how to get started, you might want to expand your knowledge a little further.

Here’s some more useful information for beginners to betting online.

Knowing how to bet on sports online is important, of course. But before you get started, you might want to think about whether online sports betting is right for you.

The answer is likely yes, as it’s the best way to bet on sports for most people. Here’s a quick overview of the main advantages of sports gambling online to demonstrate why that is.

Check out the following page for more information on the advantages of online sports wagering.

We mentioned that one of the big benefits of online betting for real money is the bonuses and promotions available.

Here are some of the main types of offers you’ll find when betting on the internet.

Learning how to take full advantage of all these offers should be part of your online betting strategy. The following pages explain things in more detail.

The main details regarding how online sports websites utilize loyalty bonuses to reward their best customers are pretty straightforward.

The best benefits go to the patrons that bet the most often and/or make the most massive bets.

Websites will approach how they incentivize loyalty differently. One fundamental system that you will see on many sites is prizes based on points.

Each site has its own method of calculating points, but they are typically based on the number of bets made, the amount of money bet, and the type of wagers being made.

Once the points are accumulated, the various betting sites differ in what they are used for as well. A majority of gambling operations will have a tier-based system in which each tier requires an arbitrary amount of points to be earned to reach them.

Each level will have its own rewards for the customers with enough points. One level may offer a higher percentage of places on losses than the tiers beneath it, or others will qualify their members for material prizes like vacations, clothes, or really anything.

You will notice that some operations avoid the tier system altogether and utilize the points in different ways. Lots of websites will let you use the points like currency to exchange for a number of free bets, merchandise, cash or gift cards, and even vacations!

The exceptional prizes are most commonly reserved for a gambling site’s highest rollers which are most important to the overall health of the company.

The majority of gambling sites that you will come across will have some form of a points system. What actions earn a point can deviate significantly across sites, however.

Points can be obtained from any number of measures including frequency of play, amount of money wagered, amount of losses, and the average amount wagered per bet. Often you will find that different types of bets are worth different amounts of points, and it’s common for bets with higher odds to be worth more.

Many sports betting websites organize their various rewards programs by tier. The more frequently a customer bets, and the more money that they gamble, the higher the level for which they’ll qualify.

The minimum requirements for a tier can be based on points, or the amount of money bet weekly or monthly.

Higher levels will be privy to better prizes. If cashback bonuses are available, the that more top tiers will usually get the larger percentages back on losses.

Sites will also give merchandise, free meals, gift cards, trips, or a wide variety of things, depending on how much they value a given tier of gamblers.

Some loyalty rewards programs that you will find choose to gift their consumers bonuses based on their activity. There may be a points exchange program in which a customer may trade their points for whatever merchandise or reward is available.

You will also see websites enter their most loyal customers in raffles or tournaments in which they can receive prizes ranging from shirts to vacation packages to cars.

One very common loyalty reward that you will encounter is the cashback bonus. Money back on all losses is a reward that you can find most commonly in tier-based rewards programs.

There are also instances that cashback is only offered for set amounts of time. As always, the worth of this reward is entirely dependent on how much you bet.

Occasionally acquiring a set amount of points will earn a sports bettor prizes such as enhanced odds. These in-game rewards allow the player to move the odds for a contest in a favorable direction for a single bet, for example.

Sometimes sites will let you drastically change a line, shifting something like a two-to-one odds wager all the way to twenty-five-to-one. When sites allow this, there is always a low maximum bet limit.

The most common loyalty bonus that you will find online comes in the form of free bets.

These bets may be rewarded at random, when a gambler reaches a certain tier, for holidays, or account anniversaries, but most commonly they are given out when bettors hit previously determined amounts of total money lost.

If you have any doubts about whether online sports betting is the best way to wager, you might be interested in the alternatives.

Depending on where you live, some or all of the following may be available to you.

There are certain merits to each of these, but none of them match the convenience of betting online. None of them offer the same kind of value, either.

We have no hesitation in recommending that you at least TRY placing bets online, but we wouldn’t talk you out of also exploring other options.

Now it’s time to focus on how to make the most out of betting on sports online.

Here are some great tips for gambling on sports on the internet. Follow them all, and they’ll really help you get the best possible experience.

It’s important to keep your discipline when betting on sports online. You should be careful not to lose control and gamble too much money. It can be easier to do that on the web when you’re not handling physical cash.

The best way to avoid any issues with this is to set a budget and stick to it. Determine a fixed amount you are willing to risk and apply a reasonable staking plan.

Proper budgeting will allow you to have fun for longer if that’s your main goal. It’s also vital if your ultimate aim is to make money by betting online.

Staying smart from a financial standpoint is always sensible, and it’s definitely the case when gambling on sports or anything else.

We already explained how sports gambling online offers plenty of opportunities for extra cash. You can start with a huge welcome bonus and find ways to earn more value later on.

One of our top online betting tips is to keep up to date with all the latest bonuses and promotions at your disposal.

Don’t go out of your way for a promotion if it’s not worth it, though, as that could hurt your bankroll.

BetNow Bonuses

BetUS Bonuses

Bovada Bonuses

MyBookie Bonuses

Most experienced bettors use multiple sites for betting online, and we recommend you do the same.

Here are some of the biggest advantages of using multiple online gambling sites.

Simply put, you get higher value for your money. That’s essential when sports betting online.

If you want some tips on how best to organize this approach, check out the following post by one of our gambling experts.

One of the best parts about online sports betting is that you can place a wager at any given moment. All of the modern bookmakers offer mobile betting via apps or websites that work on phones and tablets.

You can bet with devices such as iPhones, iPads, Android, Windows Phone, and several others.

Mobile sports betting means you can scan the odds for a good wager any time you want.

You can also often find exclusive promotions for betting with your mobile device.

The online sports betting industry has brought us many innovations that improve the experience immensely.

Some of the modern features can really help your online sports betting strategy. You should take full advantage of them.

Here are a few examples.

If you want to learn more about these online wagering features, check out the following post.

We already pointed out that having an account limited or closed can cause a great deal of frustration. This frustration will often cause affected bettors to complain that they’ve been treated unfairly. We understand why they feel this way, and as we already stated, we think it’s harsh that recreational bettors suffer. However, we also have to remember an important point.

Bookmakers are in business to make money.

Bookmaking isn’t a public service. All bookmakers, whether online or offline, are commercial operations. They do provide a service, yes, but they ultimately take wagers for their own benefit and not for the benefit of their customers. And while the bookmaking industry has always been competitive, it’s become even more so since the advent of online betting. There are a lot of operators that make a LOT of money, but their margins are usually very tight. They simply have to manage their businesses as efficiently as they possibly can, which means imposing limits or restrictions when necessary.

Consistent winning is the most obvious, and common, reason for a betting site to limit customer accounts. Bookmakers don’t prefer to take wagers from anyone who wins too often. Consistent winners are bad for their bottom line, so it makes sense financially to restrict them. As aggravating as this can be, we do understand and fully accept that a bookmaker or betting site has the right to either refuse our business or limit the amount we can wager if they’re concerned about us taking too much money from them. And, to be fair, not all sites restrict someone the moment they start winning.

There are a couple of other acceptable reasons for sites to limit their customers too.

Arbing is the act of arbitrage betting, which bookmakers hate. It involves placing different wagers on different outcomes with more than one bookmaker to make a guaranteed profit regardless of what the actual outcome is.

The competitiveness of odds offered by online betting sites, combined with the rise of betting exchanges, has led to an increase in the availability of arbitrage betting opportunities. Arbing is effectively taking advantage of bookmakers’ services without assuming any risk, so it’s understandable why they don’t like the practice. It’s not against the rules, it’s just not considered a legitimate way to bet.

When a betting site suspects a customer of arbing, it will only be a matter of time before they restrict their account. They may go as far as account closure, although limiting the amounts that can be staked is a more common response. We’d prefer that arbing wasn’t an “offense” in the eyes of bookmakers, but we can’t really complain that it is.

Virtually all betting sites offer a signup bonus to new customers, and most of them also offer additional bonuses to their regular customers. Many of them run other promotions and special offers too. These bonuses, promotions and special offers are sometimes open to what the industry terms as abuse.

For example, a customer may receive $100 worth of free bets and promptly stake $50 on each of the two players in a tennis match. This ensures that they’re guaranteed a return from their free bets. Betting sites don’t appreciate this kind of behavior, so they will often limit or even close the accounts of people who engage in it. They’re happy to give away the extra value in the form of bonuses, but they’re not so happy when people choose to take advantage of them.

We certainly don’t have a problem with customers being limited or restricted because of bonus abuse. As we mentioned in the very first paragraph of this article, bonuses and rewards represent one of the major advantages of betting online. The people who abuse them are potentially risking this advantage being taken away (or reduced) for all of us.

Another advantage of betting online is the fact that it’s very easy to compare the odds at a number of different sites. By spending a little time doing this before placing every wager, you can make sure that you’re always betting at the best possible price. This is something we recommend to all of our readers.

The potential drawback of always comparing odds is that it increases the chances of having your accounts limited. If you only ever bet with the best odds, then a betting site will probably notice that most of your activity is at particularly good prices. They’ll label you as a price-sensitive bettor, and they might even limit your account as a result.

This doesn’t seem fair to us. It’s something that most betting sites do, but that doesn’t make it right. A customer should be able to take advantage of the best odds without fear of punishment. After all, many of these sites regularly advertise their competitive odds as an incentive to use them. Where’s the incentive if we’re going to be penalized for actually betting at those odds?

Let’s be realistic. The limiting and restricting of online betting accounts isn’t going to stop any time soon. So if you’re a price-sensitive bettor, an arber or a consistent winner, you just have to accept the fact that any one of your betting accounts might be limited or closed at any point. All you can do is take a few precautions to reduce the chances of that happening. We’ve got some advice on that later, but first let’s look at the different ways in which sites restrict accounts.

Betting sites limit accounts in a number of different ways. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever know their exact criteria for deciding what type of restriction to apply to a customer, as this isn’t something they’ll want to be made public. It’s safe to assume that the criteria would vary from one site to the next anyways, so knowing it wouldn’t be particularly helpful.

What is helpful is learning about the different methods they use to restrict accounts. Here’s a list of the most common limits and restrictions they apply.

The first two methods are essentially the same thing, and they’re probably the most common these days. Basically, what happens here is that limits are applied to certain types of wagers. These limits will either be in the form of a maximum stake, or a maximum potential win.

As an example, let’s say that there’s a guy who’s particularly successful when betting on the total number of goals in soccer games. He might find that he has limits applied to every total goals wager he places. He wouldn’t necessarily get formally notified of this, but would instead receive a pop-up message anytime he tried to stake an amount over that limit. It would look something like this.

Restricting access to specific betting markets is going just one step further than the two methods described above. Rather than limiting the amount that can be staked on certain types of wagers, customers are blocked from placing them at all. In some circumstances, they may be blocked from placing any wagers on specific sports. Again, they wouldn’t necessarily get a formal notification. They’d just receive a message similar to this when trying to place a wager on a restricted market.

Betting sites don’t typically apply a maximum stake on all wagers, and it’s even rarer for them to actually close a customer’s account. Still, we must be aware that these things CAN happen. They often only happen to people who consistently win in several different sports or markets.

Offering “dual lines” is an unusual approach to restricting customers. To the best of our knowledge, there are just a couple of sites that use this method. These sites offer a different (and less favorable) set of odds and lines to any customer that they think might be a sharp bettor.

A lot of people have a real problem with this approach, but we don’t think it’s too bad. Of course, it all comes down to how drastically the odds have been changed. If the difference is so extreme that there’s never any chance of finding value, we might as well just have our account closed. If it’s just a small difference, however, then we can live with that.

Some sites may use other methods to limit or restrict accounts. We’re not aware of them though. The ones we’ve discussed are the only ones we’ve ever encountered or heard about, so it’s safe to say that they’re the most common.

Want to avoid having your accounts limited? Then follow this advice!

We must embrace it; today’s online bettors are at risk of having their betting accounts closed or limited in some way. It’s a real possibility for anyone one who regularly places bets. It’s more likely to happen to those who win consistently, but even those who lose more than they win face the prospect of being limited. Especially if they engage in bonus abuse or arbing. As we’ve covered in this article, restrictions aren’t based solely on how much you win or lose.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to completely avoid being exposed to such restrictions. If you’re a successful bettor, it’s simply something you’ll have to accept at some point.

With that being said, there are a few things you can do to reduce the chances of having your accounts limited or closed. We’ve listed these below. At the very least, these should increase the length of time it takes to have your accounts restricted.

Don’t abuse bonuses or promotions.

You can get plenty of extra value from these without taking unfair advantage of them.

Don’t place strange bet sizes.

Staking amounts such as $25.47 or $112.42 will instantly get you flagged as a potential arber.

Use multiple sites.

Spreading your wagers across multiple betting sites means you’re less likely to attract attention at a single site.

We hope that you found the answers to your questions here. Hopefully, you’re comfortable that you know how to bet on sports online and everything it entails.

Here are a couple of other pages in our online betting guide that may interest you.

There are also plenty of other sports betting resources on our website. Our goal is to provide you with everything you need to gamble real money on sports and be successful.

You can visit our main guide to sports betting to discover all that we have to offer.

One particularly useful part of our site is our blog. We cover a wide range of gambling topics, including sports betting.

Our resident betting experts provide all kinds of analysis and insight into various sports leagues and sporting events, along with general betting advice.

Here’s a selection of our latest posts.