What are Win Totals? Win Totals Betting Guide
Win totals are season-long futures bets. The sportsbook will project the number of wins each team will have at the end of the season. As a bettor, you can wager on the over or the under.
How to Bet on Win Totals
If you want to bet on a win total, the first step is to open an account at an online sportsbook. You can explore your options if you read our betting site reviews, and this will allow you to compare all the different sign-up bonuses that are being offered.
Handicapping will come next, and you have to do your homework to make intelligent projections. It is a mistake to blindly bet on your favorite team unless you honestly feel as though you can apply unbiased insight.
Learn about personnel changes across every team in the league, and consider a key logistical factor. Teams that have national appeal, like the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the LA Dodgers, take a lot of action. The odds will reflect the public sentiment, and in this case, many people are betting on the franchise and the tradition.
The "over" will be driven up as the players bet an inordinate amount of money on these teams. This is something to keep in mind when evaluating win totals.
At the online sportsbooks, odds for win totals will appear on buttons (or even sliders where you can select your own odds), and your selection will be added to a bet slip. It will usually appear in the sidebar on the right, but site designs vary. You fill in the amount of your bet on the slip, and you click the button to enter it.
Win Totals Betting by Sport
On the handicapping front, each sport presents its own unique challenges when you are trying to identify strong plays in the win total market.
NFL Win Totals Betting
NFL betting is the biggest moneymaker for online sportsbooks, so NFL win total markets get a lot of attention.
When you are evaluating NFL win total odds, you should look for weaknesses in the line. There will always be some teams that provide great value because they are being overlooked. Sometimes the best bets are on a team that was one of the worst teams the previous year.
Envision a team with four wins the previous year. They had a brutal schedule that made their record misleading; they have a new head coach and a talented roster. This team may actually take a major step forward. The projected win total is based on skewed information, so there is value on the over.
NBA betting adds a layer of excitement to any game, and win totals bets give you season-long action.
Basketball is especially tough because there are so many games in the regular season. Compared to the NFL, which has 17 regular-season games, the NBA plays 82. You can look at the NFL schedule and circle games that you think a team is going to win, making projections much easier.
On the other hand, when you look at a basketball win total and the 82-game schedule, it becomes much harder to envision the exact outcome of the season and the team's win total. It may require a bit more handicapping work, but you will be able to find some attractive NBA win totals plays.
How to Bet on MLB Win Totals
Baseball trumps basketball for game volume because regular-season MLB win totals are based on a 162-game schedule. You can get some insight from the performances from last season, but you should go beyond the obvious.
Young talent will always emerge during the regular season, and you should take this into consideration. Veterans who have had down years can bounce back, and there are free-agent signings and offseason trades.
Successful MLB bettors can look into the crystal ball and predict what will happen in the future. The idea is to identify a team that could improve based on your research.
This works in the reverse direction as well. Sometimes everything comes together for a baseball team during a particular year. There are no injuries to key players, and key competitors are having tough years. They have a new manager who is changing the culture.
Last season was the perfect storm, but everything may not go as smoothly this time around. However, the regular-season win totals will be lofty because all teams expect to repeat their performances. You have to think long and hard about the under in these situations.
How to Bet on NCAAF Win Totals
Looking back at a larger sample size can be beneficial when analyzing potential win-total bets. With college football, you should not confine your analysis to the previous season. If you go back over the last eight seasons, you will see trends that can be beneficial when you are making choices.
A team may lose star players to the NFL draft or graduation. Obviously, a veteran quarterback is hard to replace, but young talent is always waiting in the wings. This is especially true for teams that consistently have good recruiting classes.
Once again, you have to see what other people are missing to get the best value.
How to Bet on NCAAB Win Totals
College basketball win totals are posted before the season begins and updated along the way to reflect changing circumstances. Since the top players move on to the NBA as soon as they can, you have to turn the page and make no assumptions based on last season.
If you want to place informed wagers, you should put in the effort to gain an understanding of the current rosters. There is an inherent challenge because some players who will have a major impact were still in high school last year, making comparisons harder.
Since win total betting is based on the entire season, you have an edge if you understand the landscape very early on. When you know the rosters and you have researched the impact-making freshmen, you have an advantage over the vast majority of bettors.
