How To Bet Futures

A future bet is exactly what it’s name says it is. Looking into the future and picking the winner of a sporting bet. This could include picking a World Series champion in February or a Stanley Cup winner in August. If you’re a pretty good psychic and have predicted world champions well in advance before you could be making a killing on futures.

By betting on futures you have the ability to possibly make a ton of cash if a team surprises and you’re lucky enough to pick them. There’s been a number of surprising champ in the last decade alone, including the 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins, the Super Bowl XXXIV winning St. Louis Rams and the 2006 Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. A preseason future bet on any of those teams would have paid off huge.

Even when the favorites do get the job done there’s still a few dollars to be made on futures. When the Yankees won the World Series last year you could still have gotten paid at anywhere from 5/1 or high throughout the season.

Smart futures bettors don’t take the first set of odds they come across. Just because you find a team listed at certain odds doesn’t mean every books will have the same offerings. Take this year’s Stanley Cup futures as an example. Over at Bodog the defending cup champion Penguins are listed at 6/1. If you peruse the same Stanley Cup futures at Sportsbetting.com the Pens are listed at 4/1. The same bet at Bodog would pay out higher, if Pittsburgh repeats.

The last thing you must remember when betting futures is your money may be tied up in the bet for quite a while. If you were to make a Stanley Cup futures wager during the preseason in September the outcome of that bet wouldn’t be determined for at least eight or nine months. Some bettors like to keep a few bucks aside for futures betting so they’ll still have plenty of cash available for everyday bets.