Sports gambling is less about gambling and luck than one may think.

The mindset of most people is that it is harder to make money in sports betting than casino games like slot machines, blackjack, roulette and even poker.

Not for those who believe they are “pundits” though. Sports have straightforward outcomes and the law of averages is said to hold over the long term. Talent speaks and matches certainly provide fewer shocks than a river card in poker or busting in Blackjack.

Here are 3 sports that easy to bet on for betting amateurs.

1.      Football

(Photo: mynamepong, CC BY 3.0)

Football is not only the most popular sport around the world, it is also the most popular in Africa. Before you decide to bet on online football, it is important to select a reputable organizer to place your bet and none better than SportyBet.

Betting on football may be easy but it can be challenging to win as there are 3 results possible instead of the usual two, as a draw is also possible. Of course, even beginners will usually only bet on a sport that they have knowledge about even if they do not follow teams or players. Understanding the basic rules of the game are essential for success in sports betting. Before betting on a game, it is important to do a little research around the conditions, historical results, trends, and team strength. Form and fitness are the two biggest aspects that affect a football match and must be kept in mind going into betting.

Football betting does not only encompass the result. One can accumulate multiple straightforward bets in a single match itself by predicting which team will score first, the match score, the first goalscorer, how many red cards will be given in a game and many more options such as this.

2.      Basketball

Basketball is not only one of the most popular sports in the world but also straightforward as there are no ties or draws. One team must win and that is what adds to the charm of the sport. This also helps with betting on basketball. It is, therefore, by no surprises, one of the most popular sports to bet on.

The most popular league that attracts bettors is the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. Given the surge in NBA basketball players from Africa, Africans have started following the sport much more than ever before. From the times of the hall-of-famers Hakeem Olajuwon from Nigeria and Dikembe Mutombo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to now, the All-Star Cameroon’s very own Joel Embiid, Bismack Biyombo from Congo and Senegal’s Gorgui Dieng, Africa is a proud region when it comes to producing basketball players at the highest level.

This rise in popularity has led to an increase in basketball betting but that is not just on match results. Another popular betting tactic observed in basketball is the margin of victory. Bettors are known to predict whether a team will win by an x amount of points or not. This is known as line or spread betting.

Another common bet that is easy to place with a little research is to predict a range for the total combined points to be scored in the game by both teams. As with any sport, understanding betting odds is crucial to being successful in basketball betting.

3.      Tennis

Tennis is the most popular individual sport in the world. To be successful when betting on tennis, it is usually said that wagers need to be high as compared to a football or even a basketball. It is extremely easy to bet on tennis as the sport has some overwhelming favourites that are often, likely to succeed and progress into the latter stages of the major tournaments, particularly, the grand slams.

Placing bets on the likes of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Serena Williams are generally a no-brainer, however, the odds would be very low hence, the big wagers would be required for a good return on investment.

An additional benefit of tennis that makes it easier to bet on is just like basketball – There are no draws! A winner has to emerge out of every game so for novices, this is an appealing factor for tennis betting.