Online Sports Betting Question?

[jetsmets150]

I am very new to the betting thing. I have yet to place a bet online, and have a few questions. I live in Maryland.
1. Is it legal first of all?
2. If it is legal, what are the best places online to place bets (I would mainly be doing it on college sports, occasionally NFL)?
3. What are payouts like (as I said, I am brand new to sports betting.... so say the line on a game was -2.5 and I picked the favored team and they won by 7.... what determines how much money you receive... sorry if this is a stupid question, I am brand new and just looking for some help)?
4. What is the minimum betting amounts on the best websites?

Please let me know. Thanks so much feel free to PM me if you would like.

I will send out some free cards of your choice or paypal to anyone who can help me the most and whoever lets me know first of the site I eventually choose. Thanks!

 

[prospectorgems]

I am curious about this as well. I used to bet on bodog, but then when the government stepped in and shut down most online gambling sites I figured they also took down most of the betting sites as well. Bodog.com is now bodog.eu

 

[tramers]

football bet 100 win 100 - lose 110 . baseball has different bets .
not legal most states

 

[rymflaherty]

I swear I'm not trying to be a dick......but after reading question 3 - my only advice can be, even if you can find a site that will accept a deposit, don't waste your money.

To try and be helpful beyond that - no. Such betting, like online poker, is not technically legal in most states.
After all the poker nonsense - I'm not sure if you can deposit money on most sites...or even register as an American. Payouts could also be a bitch because of this.
I recently was making some bets on Sportsbook - but that's only because they gave me a free $50 at the start of the season (I used to play poker there years ago)....so not sure if I would have been able to deposit or even withdraw.....on that site you can bet as low as $5.

 

[rum151man]

all sites I used to bet you pay $5 juice for every $50 bet. So you would have to bet $55 to win $50 and if you lose you lose the $55
$110 to win $100 ect.
most sites charge a fee just to withdraw your money though thats what i always hated, I found a few with 1 monthly free withdraw
most sites min $5 bet
point spreads have nothing to do with the actual payout, you bet on a team that is -3 and they win by 7 you win your bet.
you can bet what is called the moneyline as well which would either be plus money or less money on a winning wager.
for instance if you bet on a big favorite and they are -330 you would have to bet $330 to win $100
if you bet on the underdog who is +330 and bet $100 you would win $330
Parlays are what I like best lower risk high reward but extremly difficult to win
parlay is when you pick multiple games and put them all together but you must win all to win the wager.
I just put in a 4 team moneyline parlay for week 1 $5 to win 1240.00 cause i picked 4 big underdogs to win
Car,Sea,Minn,Ind they all lost ....lol 3 were really close though

my favorite site was Superbook.com

 

[pigskincardboard]

I use Bodog, but I haven't bet this year.

Bodog has flexible lines and the crappiest odds on the internet, but I'm not going to bicker over 1%. The money lines are downright atrocious in a lot of cases, but it's what it's easy to use and i'm comfortable with it.

Anyways: The line will start like Pit (-14) v. Sea where both start at -110. ie. you bet 110 dollars, it comes out of your account and if you win, you get 210 back total (your 110 + 100 winnings). If all the money is moving to Pittsburgh, you'll see the line go to Pitts(-14) (-120 ie. bet 120 to win 100) v. Seattle (+105 ie. bet 100 to receive 105)

If money keeps going to Pittsburgh, the point spread rather than the pay out will move. You'll get Pit (-15) (-110) v. Seattle (-110).. yadda yadda. The lines basically go to -135/-140 before the actual point spread moves.

On Bodog, you can bet as little as a buck or two.

When it comes to Deposit Bonuses (ie. You deposit 100 and get $50 free) you have to cycle through your original investment X amount of times to be able to withdraw the free $50. The $50 shows up in your account and you can bet with it, but you can't remove it until you've bet like 1, 2, or 3 times your original investment. If you're just bad at betting but not a complete moron, you won't lose more than 5 or 6% per week AVERAGED over the season.

I haven't needed to do anything in a while, but VISA gift cards worked fine for me. Just keep the card around. I may have read something that VISA stopped allowing it. $100 and 2 or 3 dollar bets will keep you going over the entire season pretty much.

Parlays will keep the payouts relatively decent sized if you're just looking for a reason to make the games fun and have rooting interests.

Basically just deposit whatever you'd spend on a nice date or bar weekend and call it a day.

 

[aric]

If you're just starting out you should try a site like freesportsbet.com. Its free, legal and you can when real money although extremely low stakes.

 

[gt2590]

If you're just starting out you should try a site like freesportsbet.com. Its free, legal and you can when real money although extremely low stakes.

Exactly what I was thinking too. That way you'll get a feel for the betting world, the terms, rules, etc. without losing some $$$ in the process...

 

[lawhs89]

I hope the news today about Full Tilt Poker discourages people from online gambling. How much can you really trust these sites?