By Grant Tingley
Patience is a virtue. It’s a ubiquitous expression that most people have probably heard at some point. It can be applied to many different aspects of life. It can also be applied to sports betting.
People love instant gratification, especially when gambling. But sometimes, value can be found in making bets that won’t yield results for days, weeks, or months. Those kinds of bets are called futures bets (or “futures” for short).
What are Futures?
Futures are long term bets that are placed on the result of a season, series, tournament, etc. The most common kinds of futures bets are on a team to win a championship or a player to win an award.
For example, if somebody believes that Alabama will win the NCAA Championship in football, they can place a bet on that before or during the season. If somebody thinks a certain quarterback will win the Heisman, they can place a bet on that before or during the season.
Futures bets can also be placed on things like team win totals (will Rutgers win more or less than 4.5 games this season?) and player stat totals (will Tom Brady throw for more or less than 3000 yards this season?), as well as what team will win a particular conference/division and what player will lead a league in a particular statistical category.
Odds to WIN Super Bowl LVI👇 pic.twitter.com/NtxmjAzHfB
— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) January 4, 2022
The Cons of Futures
Obviously, betting on something to happen weeks or months in advance is much riskier than betting on something to happen that day. Alabama could lose two of its first five games, basically rendering the National Championship bet obsolete not even halfway through the season. A quarterback who was a preseason favorite to win the Heisman could be benched by midseason.
It’s incredibly hard to predict the future, especially the further away that the result will occur. So many unforeseen circumstances could pop up between the time the bet is placed and the time it is settled. That’s why it’s smart to use caution when betting on futures. In general, a person is less likely to win a futures bet than a “regular” bet.
The Pros of Futures
When a person does win a futures bet, however, the payout is usually pretty big. Since it is so hard to predict something that will happen weeks or months from now, futures typically have heftier odds. A $100 futures bet can turn into a nice little weekend getaway.
Instead of just betting on a team to win a game/match or a player to play well in that game/match, a future is an opportunity for a sports bettor to make a larger profit betting on a team and/or player they believe in.
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