Sports betting has become incredibly popular in the UK and other places around the world, so it’s definitely got a lasting appeal. There’s a good reason for that, too; if you’ve ever placed a wager on a sport yourself, you’ll know how exciting it can be watching the match and wondering whether the outcome you’re after will happen or not. Sports betting is very similar to online casino play; finding sites like OnlineCasinoHEX is just as important in the world of online gambling as it is in sports betting, so you know your money is going to the right place.
With that said, there are some sports that are more friendly for beginners to bet on than others. This will, of course, depend entirely on where you are in the world. You’re likely to have absorbed some sports via cultural osmosis. For example, in England and Ireland in particular, football reigns supreme. If you go to New Zealand, you’ll find that rugby is all the rage there and that football is practically an unknown quantity. It should be clear, then, that you’ll have an advantage betting on some sports over others depending on where you are in the world, but still, there are sports which are simply more friendly to beginners overall. Here are the 8 best sports to bet on as a beginner.
1. Tennis
Tennis is a fairly straightforward sport to understand. It’s played in games, sets, and matches, with each match containing a certain number of sets and each set containing a certain number of games. There are some slightly obscure rules to learn – the advantage rule springs to mind – but for the most part, it’s just watching who’s winning and understanding which players have good late-game energy bursts and which ones are more early-game focused. You can’t go far wrong with betting on tennis as a sports betting beginner.
2. Football
There aren’t many countries in the world in which football isn’t at least one of the dominant sporting disciplines. Everyone knows the basic rules here; eleven people per side (we’re talking about English football here, not American football), one goalkeeper on each team, the team with the most goals wins. Again, a certain amount of strategy is needed to understand what each team brings to the table, but for the most part, the way in which football matches play themselves out is pretty straightforward.
3. Esports
The nascent world of esports is quickly picking up in popularity throughout the sports betting world and is being taken more and more seriously as a real sporting discipline everywhere. Understanding video games can be a pretty tricky time, but as a beginner to sports betting, you can find plenty of games – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, for example, or Overwatch – which have reasonably simple rules for you to bet on. Plus, watching these games is incredibly magnetic and thrilling.
4. Horse racing
There’s a rich and storied tradition to horse race betting that likely goes all the way back to the Circus Maximus in the Roman Empire. Nowadays, of course, horse racing is a lot more tame, and you may not even consider it a sport depending on your personal definition of the word. Still, horse racing is classed as a sport by many, and it’s one of the most popular ways to place bets when you’re a sporting bettor. Again, things are fairly easy to understand here; it’s all about the stock of the horse that’s racing.
5. Basketball
The UK doesn’t quite have the rabid adoration for basketball that the USA has, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had betting on basketball here. It’s a rich, well-liked sport that has plenty of rules to get to know, as well as lots of teams to understand in detail, but in the end, basketball comes down to who gets the most points, and that’s what makes it so easy to understand for beginners. The main pro showing for basketball in the UK is the British Basketball League.
6. Golf
Again, there are those who consider golf to be more of a game than a sport, but there is a very healthy golf betting scene out there if you know where to look. Golf can still be exciting, despite the fact that it’s a lot more slow-paced and sedate than many of the other sports on this list. It’s all about strategy, angling the shot, and making sure to complete the course in as few strokes as possible, so there are lots of ways you can bet on the outcome of a golf game outside of just victory or defeat for a player.
7. Boxing
In the end, boxing is an incredibly simple sport which is easy to follow and to bet on. The outcomes for boxing are simple to predict: either one fighter wins, the other fighter wins, or neither of them wins, in which case it’s a draw. Those are really the only solid outcomes you can bet on, although of course you can also place bets on how many rounds the fight will take or other variables. If you like your sports a little more hands-on, boxing may be the one for you to bet on.
8. MMA
Once again, MMA offers a straightforward experience that sees either one fighter taking home the win or the other one triumphing, unless a draw happens. Betting on an MMA match means you’ll know exactly what’s happening at any given time throughout the fight, so you’ll never get confused or fail to follow the action. MMA betting has the added advantage of getting to know some of the most explosive personalities in the sporting world, since MMA mixes the realism of boxing with the drama of pro wrestling.
