Sport betting is the general term for forecasting the results of some sports events such as football (also known as soccer), American football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, horse racing, etc. As a rule, supporters of authorized bookmarking think that it is like a hobby for some people. It adds the interest in sports competitions and in this way sports betting is beneficial for teams and individual players. In contrast, opponents are afraid that due to big money involved gambling can blur the boarders between real and fixed games and the true quality of sports games will be affected.OddsThere are several formats for presenting odds:o Decimal odds format (is also know as the European format) which is popular in Europe, Canada and Australia represent the ratio of complete pay-off to the stake. The even bet in this format is 2.00.o Fractional odds format (some professionals call it the UK format) which is preferred in Great Britain represent the ratio of the sum which was won to the stake. The even bet in this format is 1/1.o Money line odds format (most of US based sites name it “the American format”) which is popular in the USA. Money line odds are the sum won a hundred stake if positive and the stake has to win one hundred if negative. The even bet in this format is 100.Types of Betso Propositional bets are placed on predicting the specific result of the match. For example, a bettor tries to predict the number of scored goals by a football team or some individual player.o Parlays bets are a combinational bet which usually consists of several bets and in case of success the bettor get a big pay-off. Let’s look at the example. If you want to bet for the outcomes of five different football matches, you can include five different wagers in a five-team parlay. If you fail to predict even one outcome correctly, you lose your bet. But if you manage to predict correctly all the results you’ll get a large pay-off.o With teasers you can combine your bets on two or more games. You can customize the point spreads for two different games, but in this case you’ll get a lower return on your bets in case of winning.o Goal line, puck line or run line bets are alternatives to money line prices in football, hockey and baseball, correspondingly. For example, let’s analyse the baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies. The run line may look like this: Kansas City Royals -1.5 (+100), Colorado Rockies +1.5 (-120). If you are taking Royals on the run line, you can avoid risking $200 to win $100 on the moneyline, but will collect only if the Royals win by 2 runs or more. Similar to this, a run line wager on the Rockies will pay if Rockies loses by no more than a run, but it requires the bettor to risk $120 to win $100.o Future wagers (according to the name) are your bets on future events. For example, you are sure that Team A will definitely win the championship in the next season. You have to place this bet before the beginning of the season. You won’t get your money (if you win) before the end of the season. As a rule, odds for such bets are calculated as a ratio of paid units to wagered units.o In head-to-head bets you try to forecast competitors results against each other. You don’t bet on the general result of the competition. These types of bets are mainly used in Formula One races when you try to predict the position of drivers among the others (as a rule, you bet on 2 or 3 drivers).o In totalizators your odds vary in real-time depending on the percent of total exchange that every possible result received. The return rate of the bookmaker is also taking into consideration. For instance, if the return rate of the bookmaker is 90%, 90% of the total money placed on the winning outcome will return to bettors and 10% will go to the bookmaker.