Futures Betting Involves Betting on Events That Will Be Decided in Distant Future

Published on July 21st, 2019 4:01 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


The King explains the meaning of the term Futures Betting when it comes to sports.  Illustration. Some professional sports bettors do nothing but futures bets.

While the outcome of a single game can be decided almost purely by luck (the team that you bet on could hit five goal posts in a single game, despite the fact that they were the much better team on the day), futures bets can, at least somewhat, take the element of luck out of the equation. Or, at least minimize it.

A futures bet is a bet that will be decided sometime in the not-so-immediate future. Futures bets differ from traditional bets which are decided as soon as a game concludes (or, even sooner if you are betting on something like which team will score first).

For instance, here are examples of futures bets:

1. Who Will Win the World Series?
2. Who Will Be Voted MVP of the NFL's Regular Season?
3. Who Will Win the NBA Championship?
4. Who Will Be Voted Rookie of the Year in the NHL?

These are all events that will be decided a great distance into the future.

If you feel as though you have an edge, futures bets can produce fantastic payoffs, though you will need to be patient.

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Some of the biggest bettors in Las Vegas and other gambling locales focus almost exclusively on futures bets.

The reason? The potentially large payoffs.

Sure, you might have to wait an entire season to find out if you are going to win your wager, though if you feel as though the Dallas Cowboys are being significantly underrated and could easily win the Super Bowl, waiting 4-5 months for a 15/1 payoff could be worth it for you.

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Futures betting is like traditional long-term investing compared to day-trading.

You are betting on a horse and willing to be patient as the season plays out. You are investing your capital in this horse in the hopes that there is a big payoff for you down the road.

The benefits of futures betting are clear - if you end up being correct, you stand to make a bundle on your bet. There are examples of futures bets paying out at 10,000/1 or more.

With futures betting, you will be wrong more often than not, though your winners will be much, much bigger.

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