Betting Guide
This sure.bet guide will cover some of the easiest ways to get started betting, including finding the best betting sites for you, what some terms mean, and how to use the rest of our website.
We’ll review some of the best methods in choosing the right way to bet for you. On top of how to make the whole experience as positive as possible. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
How Do I Get Started Betting?
Although it changes a bit depending on the person, it’s usually easy to get started betting. Countless websites across the internet offer easy, safe, and in-depth betting options, including casinos, poker, card games, standard sports betting, and more.
There are thousands of licensed companies out there, and the sheer amount of competition has made it possible to create an account and get started instantly. So, it doesn’t matter whether you’re planning on sticking with an easy-to-use platform, exclusively for an online casino, or want to dive into the deep end with a complete service.
However, there are a few things that you want to look for. Make sure you understand before you get too deep into things. After all, betting is an incredibly regulated industry, meaning that one wrong step can lead you down a path of legal issues. Luckily though, that’s why sure.bet exists. We’re ready to guide you down the betting pathway, with explanations on the entire process, beginning with how to get started betting.
Details
With most sites, it’s effortless to begin. Many websites are fully secure and ready to go with just a few things, like:
- Your first name
- Your last name
- Password
- Country
- Zipcode
- Phone number
- Date of birth
Other times, if you’re in a particular area, like much of the United States, you’ll likely find yourself entering your Social Security number, some more personal information, and uploading your ID as a form of KYC (know your customer) assurance.
After you’ve signed up, then you’ll likely be greeted with one of two sights: a place to deposit your starting funds or a homepage. But, depending on what site or area you’re starting an account from, you’ll likely have a different sight. While some betting sites don’t require a deposit, others require at least $100.
How Do I Choose the Right Site?
Of course, none of the above steps matter unless you find the right betting site for you. So, for example, while some familiar first places to stop (like the top-rated BetOnline site or SportsBetting) are quick stops, they might not serve as the best fit for you.
On top of signing up being entirely dependent on your location and needs, the same thing applies to choosing the right website. For example, specific sites are banned in certain countries, while others are only available globally.
Additionally, there’s also the decision of what you want to bet on — i.e., whether you’re into slots, a casino, sportsbook, arbitrage platform, eSports, or even politics. After all, every site has its forte, which is precisely why there are so many to choose from.
So, while sure.bet offers a list of our recommended betting sites and casinos. You need to narrow down a few more things before choosing the right one for you. This guide has six significant factors, although there are countless other ones you can dive into. These six include:
- Location,
- Services,
- Verification,
- Deposits,
- Withdrawals,
- and Bonuses.
So, let’s start with the first one:
Location
For reference, a few dozen countries don’t allow betting, gambling, or gaming in general. In these countries, past using a VPN (a virtual private network), there’s no way to access betting sites.
This limits your opportunities, and frankly, there’s not much you can do about it. However, if you don’t live in those countries, the possibilities are much greater. Some offer limited services, some have specific websites banned, and others require essential licenses to operate.
Some of the most common licenses are:
- Curacao Gaming License,
- Kahnawake Gaming License,
- Malta Gaming License,
- And a few more.
However, the list continues to grow, with some significant opposition. Like New York State, planning to release their own sports betting licenses. There are regional boards too, which determine which sites are allowed and which ones are banned.
Alongside baseline regulations, though, many pieces of legislature give gaming and betting sites a specific age limit. Certain locations have it pegged at 18, while others might have a limit of 21 and older. Yet again, it’s all depending on local, regional, and national laws.
With that in mind, make sure to see which sites are available in your local area before you’re determined to access a specific one. On top of that, you might want to look into:
Services
Imagine that you want to bet on sports, play in an online casino, roll virtual slots, join a poker match, and bet on live games as they happen. Then you’ll need to make sure you find a site that offers all the above.
While there’s always the option to visit each site you’re interested in and check out their services from there, you can also see a betting guide (like sure.bet’s), which explore multiple sites and view everything they have to offer.
If you want to dive in by yourself, then you can visit a website and should be able to see all they have to offer in their top menu. For example, most betting sites provide an easy-to-view menu at the top, with all their services listed. For the others, services are viewable by pressing a button with three lines or another menu.
With the options laid out, you’ll likely see a few of these services:
- Sportsbook | a selection of games and statistics for you to bet on, usually across dozens of sports and days.
- Live Betting | a sportsbook, but with many more options to bet — you’ll see the odds for team plays, points, scoring, players, and more, all with constantly changing bets.
- Casino | betting sites’ casinos usually provide access to slot machines, table games, and more, alongside more prominent names like poker.
- eSports | known as electronic sports, these are scheduled video game competitions, which you can bet on the outcome of.
- Others | sometimes, betting sites like to include fewer standard options with diehard fanbases. You might find the ability to bet on local elections, news, and more — all of which might not be the first betting thing to come to mind.
The Quality
These are very common to find on betting sites, although they each have their quality. Depending on the platform you use, there will be a different selection, with different sizes, locations, and options. There are quite a few possibilities, so it’s essential to decide what you’re looking forward to using the most before deciding the site to bet on.
Luckily, a wide variety of sites offer more than enough quality services, frequently letting you sign up for no more than one site if wanted. In addition, some top betting sites provide access to dozens of these services to those who create an account.
Verification
While the majority of betting sites are more than safe enough for you to, well, bet on, it’s understandable to want to be cautious. After all, your data is yours, and it’s not surprising to want to keep your information outside of others’ hands.
On top of that, it also provides a bit more assurance that you have control. These websites can gain quite sensitive information by requiring KYC protocols. It leads to the potential for intentional or unintentional spills of your data — this does happen to people who are required to go through with KYC, sometimes.
However, that’s not necessarily an issue for most people — if you can see a little lock at the search bar on the website and HTTPS, then your information is likely safe. As a general warning, though, we’d recommend you don’t use a website if it doesn’t have both. Even with the ability for near-perfect security, some companies still offer services “without KYC” or with “no verification.”
KYC
KYC, as mentioned previously, means “know your customer”. That gives a betting site enough data to report your earnings to a tax agency or hold you accountable for something. While this is likely the biggest in the United States with the IRS, it’s a global thing. With KYC, you’re often required to provide your personal information on top of sending in a photo of your driver’s license or other ID.
As for verification, that’s sometimes just a requirement for a Social Security number or another identification number. In most non-KYC or verification situations, these sites will let you use their services if you put down a deposit to ensure you won’t just disappear.
Some sites specifically brand themselves to you. They show that they’re non-KYC or exclude verification, as that’s a pretty big thing in the betting market. After all, it not only makes it easier to find them if you’re looking for a similar site, but it also helps them stand out. Nonetheless, sure.bet offers some of our top picks for non-KYC and verification sites.
Deposits
As expected, deposits are a substitute for KYC and verification. So they’re a pretty big aspect of choosing the best betting site. Sites without mandatory deposits are usually KYC-based sites, and those with deposits are generally non-KYC.
Since verification and KYC lets a betting site know who you are if you try to scam or run away from the company, they don’t need a deposit. Those without either require a deposit since it makes you less likely to try to scam the company and prevents them from losing out on everything if you do.
However, having no deposit doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a good thing. Different sites have different policies. So we recommend you look closely while signing up to ensure that you’re not putting yourself at risk. At the same time, you’ll also be able to see whether you’re required to place a deposit.
Withdrawals
However, the essential factor to many comes in the withdrawal options. After all, what’s the point of betting and winning if you can’t gain access to your winnings?
Before doing anything, it’s worth checking out the withdrawal methods for a site. Sure.bet’s site reviews include deposits and withdrawal methods, covering the amount, type, time, and more. However, all of these same factors are worth investigating on your own, if you do, as they’ll give you an idea as to your options.
After all, sites offer cryptocurrency withdrawals, instant transfers, dozens of payment methods, tracking, and more. We’d recommend viewing guaranteed withdrawal times while looking into sites’ withdrawal methods, as they show how long it should take to get money.
Bonuses
Lastly, there are the bonuses — while they’re not mandatory by any means, there are some benefits to using a betting site with bonuses. Not only do they get you a bit of extra money and frequently prevent you from losing as much, but they also work to make you a more valuable customer to a site.
As they make money, betting sites will offer more bonuses to keep you returning to their site. These can range from a few cents with every deposit to the entire Bitcoin with bets. There’s a wide variety, and that’s why it’s crucial to check out beforehand.
Some sites offer loyalty programs. Others give you points, simple cash back, or unexpected benefits. If you’re interested in exploring further, most betting sites have a tab dedicated to “promotions” or “bonuses,” and sure.bet reviews virtually all the bonuses that come with each option.
How Do I Bet?
Once you’ve determined where and how you can bet, the next option is to start betting. Betting successfully is a little too complex to explain in this betting guide. We’ll more than cover the basics, starting with getting money into a site to bet.
Luckily, it’s not that hard — many sites have a banking or deposit page, which lets you quickly deposit money. Often, it’s even as simple as connecting a credit or debit card and hitting “deposit.” While the initial amount you need depends on the site, we recommend you to start with something you can stomach losing. After all, it’s rare to be excellent at a new thing right upfront.
Once you make your deposit, visit the service you want to access on the site you plan to use, and you’ll be able to bet. We’ll use a sportsbook in this example, one of the most common ways to gamble online.
With most sportsbooks, you’ll be greeted with a list of sports alongside a list of future games. Most games will also show the spread, money line, and total, which let you know how much you’ll be able to win $100.
What are Spreads?
Spreads, simply put, are the amount that a team is expected to win or lose by. For example, if a game has Team A’s spread at -10 and Team B’s at +10, Team A is expected to win by 10 points. The negative means they’re the likely bet, as they’re expected to need to drop that many points to break even.
If a team is positive, it’s expected to lose by that many points. In Team B’s situation, that means they’ll need +10 points to break even with Team A. At +10, placing a bet shows that you’re expecting Team B to win the game or lose by 1-10 points.
At -10, you expect Team A to win by ten or more points, in which case you’ll be able to claim your bet. The easiest way to remember this is that +10 means ten or more ahead, while -10 means 10 points or less. So if the team fits into that point slot, you’ll be able to win your bet or the money line.
What is the Money Line?
If we return to the Team A and B example, Team A has a money line of -200, while Team B has a money line of +200. While these have the same + and – signs, they’re different from spreads.
A -200 money line means a wager of $200 is needed to win $100 on top of your $200 bet. Positive 200 provides you the chance to win $200 in profit on $100 in bets. Positive is the amount of money you’ll win on $100 as a wager in every situation. Negative is how much is needed to win $100 in profit.
While the money line is instrumental in ensuring that you know just how likely you are to win a game, it’s not the only stat. On top of everything, it’s best to remember that the money line isn’t the same as the likelihood for a time to win. It’s simply how current odds are falling. Many bets are beaten against the money line through nothing but reviewing the underdog team’s secret strengths.
How Do I Profit Betting?
Well, it depends. There’s always the easier way of betting on the expected winner with the favorable odds. It would let you profit even if the payout’s not too high. You can also bet on the underdog. It would pay out much more if they do best while not expected to win.
Neither of these is guaranteed, though, which is why a method called sure betting exists. In sure bets, you’re guaranteed a little profit by betting on favorable odds with two different bookmakers. Bookmakers are the people who provide the odds and take stakes, although their odds sometimes vary from others’.
It’s the same process, that sure.bet’s named after, and you can view our top sites for. It’s not the only way to make money betting, though, which is why it’s essential to be educated and think about which site looks the most beneficial to you.
Once you’re on that site, though, the possibilities are endless. Although betting starts out relatively simple, it can get very complex — as they say, easy to learn, hard to master. Plus, with dozens of unique products and hundreds of websites, there’s quite a lot to master along the way.
How Can I Use Sure.bet?
This betting guide is beneficial in finding the right betting site for you. It’s not our only collection of tips and tricks to choose the best place for you.
Most of our reviews cover betting sites’
- Backgrounds,
- Products,
- Services,
- Games,
- Software,
- Layouts,
- Customer Services,
- Bonuses,
- Deposit and Withdrawal Methods,
- Safety and Security,
- And more!
It’s straightforward to use the website and learn much about the top betting sites out there. Sure.bet offers recommendations on the best picks for top betting sites, most recommended services, explanations on how betting works, other guides on betting and beyond, and much more.
There’s a lot of information available on the website. And it’s past just standard betting. While we’re constantly expanding our selection and offerings, there’s always a solid selection of information to help you get started or continue to grow along with your betting career.
Our guide, like this page, is always in the works so that you can gain up-to-date information on some of the top players in the game, alongside some more easily missed competitors. Sure.bet prides us on our variety and quality, which you’ll be able to gain from, no matter how familiar you are with the intricacies of the betting world.
That’s why, on top of guides like this and reviews of popular sites, we also offer explanatory articles on different platforms. So, whether it’s comparing arbitrage and sure betting, providing the top non-KYC sites, or more, there’s a wide variety of content beneath this guide and beyond.
