Apr 15, 2019 Betting Strategies for the 'Over/Under' Just like any betting option, you will come across a totals opportunity every once in a while, that is just screaming out at you to bet it. A sports betting OVER/UNDER is a bet where you have to correctly predict the combined score of both teams. You have to pick if the total score will be lower or higher than the number set by oddsmakers – the people at betting sites who set the lines and odds.

• Betting Over Under
• How Does Betting Over Under Work
• Betting Over Under Football
• Soccer Betting Over 2.5 3 What Does Mean
• Betting Over Under College Basketball

Betting Against the Public

In many cases, the general public is clueless when it comes to betting the point spread or over/unders. There are a few reasons for that. First off, most people are too biased for sports betting. And others are far too influenced by ESPN and Fox Sports pundits that really don’t know what they’re talking about.

You’ll often notice that the public favors teams the mainstream media adores. In 2018, for example, Wisconsin (4-9), Michigan State (4-9), and USC (4-8) were among the teams with the worst records in college football against the spread. That’s because they were overhyped and, thus, were bet on heavily.

When it comes to betting football totals, you should look to bet against the public, and that means mostly betting unders. Not always, but more often than not. The reason for that is most bettors like betting the over. Why? Because watching teams score a lot of points is more entertaining than a 14-13 defensive slugfest.

When the public is hammering the over, the totals will eventually rise to a point that makes the under profitable.

An over–under or over/under (O/U) bet is a wager in which a sportsbook will predict a number for a statistic in a given game^[1] (usually the combined score of the two teams), and bettors wager that the actual number in the game will be either higher or lower than that number.^[2][3] For example, in Super Bowl XXXIX, most Las Vegascasinos set the over–under for the score of the game at 46.0. A bettor could wager that the combined score of the two teams would be either more than or less than that number. Since the combined score of that game was 45, anyone who had bet on 'under' won.

Initial and final value[edit]

The goal of a sportsbook is to have an equal value of bets on both sides of the over–under. In theory, this means that the manager could set the value at zero and then re-adjust based on either the number of incoming bets and/or events that influence the potential outcome. In practice, the initial value is based on both quantitative (e.g. win–loss record, average points per game, etc.) and anecdotal information (e.g. media reports, injury status of players, etc.).

As with other types of bets where the odds of either outcome are meant to be even, the vigorish (or 'vig') is typically set at or about 5% of the total wager. Using American odds, this will result in both outcomes initially being quoted at -110 (i.e. bettors must risk $110 to win $100). If the amount bet on both outcomes is exactly even, using such odds would result in the sportsbook earning $5 in gross profit for every $110 wagered.

Of course, bettors will not necessarily risk the same amount of money on both outcomes every time. In such circumstances, there are two ways a sportsbook can mitigate the risk. The first is to adjust the O/U while keeping the odds of both at -110. For example, if the O/U for a football game is set at 45.5 and the action heavily favors the 'over' then the O/U could be adjusted to 46.5 to encourage bettors to take the 'under.' The risk here is that the sportsbook could lose a lot of money by being 'middled' - using the aforementioned example, if the final combined score is 46 then the sportsbook would be obligated to pay both the initial bettors who bet 'over' and the later bettors who bet 'under.'

The other method to mitigate risk is to adjust the odds on the initial O/U, which is slightly more complicated but eliminates the risk of being 'middled.' In the aforementioned example, the 'under' could be adjusted to -105 while the 'over' is changed to -115 (meaning bettors would have to risk $105 and $115 respectively to win $100) in order to make the original 'under' proposition more attractive (and the 'over' less so) to bettors. In actual scenarios, even adjustments of -100 (i.e. 'even money') and -120 are common place as sportsbooks typically endeavor to maintain steady margins and minimize risk.

Statistics[edit]

Though this bet is most commonly made with the combined score of the two teams, many other statistics can be used, including:

• In American football, a player's or team's total rushingyards or attempts, down conversions (first or third), interceptions, completions, field goal percentage, etc.
• In basketball, a player's or team's total assists, blocks, turnovers, steals, etc.
• In baseball, a player's or team's total number of home runs, RBIs, etc.

Betting Over Under

Dice[edit]

A variant of overunder betting, known as Under Over, is a dice game played at various festivals. The object of the game is to predict whether the dice will roll to a total of under 7, over 7, or at 7. The game is typically played with 2 dice.

A player typically places a wager on one of three spaces. These spaces are:

How Does Betting Over Under Work

• Under 7 (usually pays 1–1)
• Over 7 (usually pays 1–1)
• 7 (usually pays 4–1)

For instance if one bets one dollar on under and the dealer rolls under, they gain a dollar as well as get their dollar back. If the dealer rolls a seven and one bets on it, they make four dollars. Once all the bets have been placed the attendant closes the betting board with a screen and then puts the dice through the chute. Players then get paid accordingly.

Betting Over Under Football

One variation of Under Over involves foam dice, two of which are thrown in the middle of the players; in another variation, two balls are thrown into a giant wheel consisting of twelve spaces of numbers ranging from 1–6. No wire fence is used to block the bets in that case.

Soccer Betting Over 2.5 3 What Does Mean

Betting Over Under College Basketball

References[edit]

1. ^Kochan, M. (2013). Secrets of Professional Sports Betting. Cardoza Publishing. p. 12. ISBN978-1-58042-438-7. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
2. ^Williams, L.V.; Siegel, D.S. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Gambling. Oxford Handbooks in Economics Series. OUP USA. p. 205. ISBN978-0-19-979791-2.
3. ^Fodor's Las Vegas 2015. Full-color Travel Guide. Fodor's Travel Publications. 2014. ISBN978-0-8041-4300-4.