Live Betting

Live betting is the most interactive betting experience that can be achieved in the world of sports. As the name suggests, live betting allows the bettor the opportunity to place bets on in-contest outcomes as the event is happening live. Just as you can wager on the outcome, point spread, first team to score or other propositions before the game, bookmakers will introduce odds for these bets in-game and even offer different wagers that are not possible before the match. Some such examples would be next team to score, next player to score, etc.

All of the following sportsbooks have live betting on featured games:

Many of the top level online betting sites will offer live betting using a more advanced interface than used for pre-game wagers. It is worth checking different providers to find an interface you are comfortable using and one that allows you to make quick decisions. Also, and because often matches are happening simultaneously, it is good to find a site that will list a number of live betting options across different sports all on the same page. Some sites are beginning to offer live video streaming of their live betting events, otherwise it is useful to have a cable or satellite video feed of your own. At the very least you should chose a site that has a live feed of pertinent information for the wager you are considering.

The purpose of live betting is two-fold. First, the bookmaker can offer a broader product offering and, in turn, the bettor has more ways to customize their own gambling experience. The second purpose is to offer bets where greater information is available because you see the conditions of the contest as they unfold. Before the contest begins everyone is limited to betting options that can be clearly predicted by the format of the contest. Everyone knows there will be a final score that can be predicted and bet on it, what is not known before hand is the evolving strategies and decisions made within a contest. Injuries, weather conditions, player fouls, penalties and so on can affect the outcome. And on top of in-game specific propositions, the common pre-contest wagers are often updated with new odds.

Just as with pre-contest bets, the bookmakers have put a great deal of energy, research and mathematical expertise into their live betting odds. Their goal is to offer a bet at a competitive handicap and your job is to find their mistakes. For pre-contest wagers it can be very difficult to beat the odds makers as they know everything you know and that information is quite static leading up to start time. But during in-play betting the situation is much more fluid, an individual, knowledgeable and attentive to the sport in question, has perhaps a better opportunity to beat the bookmaker’s odds. Even with live betting the odds makers have poured of an incredible amount of historical and current data to project their live numbers.

However, as any sports fan knows, an athletic contest is more of an art than a science and the educated observer can spot things that quantitative analysis cannot. For example, say you are a huge fan of the Miami Heat, you watch all of their games and follow all the NBA news that you can get your eyes on. You can probably tell things about the tempo, performance and strategy of your favorite team during a live event that is very hard for an odds maker to quantify. And when the odds maker offers a live bet, it’s their opinion against yours, your judgement and experience could trump theirs. In this case, live betting provides you an advantage over the bookmakers.