How to Make A Futures Bet

How would you like to have one big bet that can make for a huge payout to you as it gives you daily action for several months? Sound to good to be true? How is that even possible? Futures betting makes for such perfect opportunities. With just one futures bet, you get action for as long as the season lasts and with the chance to make a fortune!

What is a Futures Bet?

A futures bet is one of the easiest and most common forms of sports betting that is offered by all online sportsbooks. With a futures bet, you are wagering on one final result for when a sports season ends.

In the NFL, NBA, NHL, college football, college basketball, or MLB you can make futures bets based on which team will win the league, conference, or division championship, and whether or not such teams will go over or under a certain number of wins. Soccer and other sports also have futures odds posted on a regular basis.

In addition to wagering on team futures you can also bet on individual player futures. Examples of those would include whether or not an individual player will hit over or under a certain home run total, score over or under a certain amount of goals or points, go over or under on total touchdown passes or yardage, etc.

How to Make a Futures Bet

Let’s say that you believe that the Kansas City Chiefs will win the Super Bowl. KC opened for the 2020 season as a 6/1 choice to win Super Bowl LV. With that in mind you would lay out $100 to win $600. And that is all there is to it. You are all done. You can then follow the bet all season without lifting a finger.

The Advantages of Making a Futures Bet

Many gamblers love futures bets because it is a one and done type of deal. They don’t have the time or want to make the effort at constantly coming back every week to make new bets.

In particular sports like baseball, basketball, and hockey make for popular futures bets. Baseball’s 162 game marathon schedule is a grind for everyone involved. It wears down players, managers, media and gamblers alike. Think of the difficulty and time required to handicap around 15 baseball games almost every day for six consecutive months. A futures bet relieves a gambler of such a monotony of work. And with hockey and basketball having schedules of over 80 games per team that same theory applies there as well.

Futures Fluctuate and Are Not Set in Stone

Although futures betting is initially quite simple you can make it much more sophisticated if you so desire. That is because the futures betting odds will fluctuate up and down based on the performance of the specific team that you bet on along with the performance of their rivals.

Also, gamblers that take a long shot futures bet on a Cinderella team that is doing surprisingly well may want to hedge and come back with a bet against that team in order to ensure a profit. This is done more frequently than many would expect.

Yet another dynamic is dumping a futures bet that was made on a favored team that is flopping badly. Many gamblers will change course during the season with new futures bets that can offset their original wagers that look like probable losers.

The Great Irony of Futures Betting

Although it is called “futures” betting and is based in predicting what will happen going forward the great irony of this form of betting is that so many gamblers base it on the past. Usually the champion of the previous season is the favorite on the futures board to repeat with another title. Conversely teams that struggled the season before are usually long shots on futures for the next season.

With that in mind the best futures players keep close tabs on changes that all of the teams make. Not just the team that they may bet on but the other teams as well as all of it is going to be related. Along the same lines its important to avoid media hype on certain teams. The Dallas Cowboys are the best example of a team that rarely meets expectations. The Cowboys are perpetually overvalued on the futures board.