Favorite betting is where you place money on the team that the sportsbook thinks will win. However, is that always the right move? Join me as I show you the ropes and cover exactly what you need to know about this style of betting!
Favorite Betting Explained & Examples
The favorite is the team or athlete with the lowest odds who the market predicts will win. There is nothing complicated to get your head around this betting term. Favorite betting is following the herd and wagering on the team/player everyone expects to win. Here are a few examples:
Indiana Pacers (+115) vs New York Knicks (-140). Here, the Knicks are the favorite with the sportsbook predicting New York to win 58.33% of the time.
Minnesota Timberwolves (+155) vs Denver Nuggets (-190). The Nuggets are the favorite in this matchup, with sportsbooks giving them a 65.52% chance of winning.
Boston Bruins (+180) vs Florida Panthers (-225). The Panthers are a solid favorite in this clash and have a 69.23% shot at winning.
The quick way to identify the favorite is to look for the team with minus odds. The lower the number, the higher the chance they have of winning.
Pros and Cons of Favorite Betting
Favorite betting has a high win percentage as the favorite does win most of the time. This strategy also doesn’t require much analysis and is beginner-friendly; you just look for the team with minus odds and bet on them.
Even though favorite betting has a high win percentage, the low odds you receive and the commission sportsbooks charge make it an unprofitable strategy. If sports betting was as easy as backing the favorite in every game, we’d all be millionaires.
Another drawback is the low payout potential. For example, if you place a $100 bet on a favorite paying -400, you’ll only win $25. If the favorite suffers an upset, you’d have to win four bets in a row just to get even.
Pros
- High win percentage
- Simple strategy
Cons
- Unprofitable
- Low payouts
- Losses are hard to recover
How to Bet on the Favorite
Now you’ve wrapped your head around the concept of favorite betting, let’s put that knowledge into practice. To bet on the favorite, follow these steps:
- Sign up to a sportsbook, for example, DraftKings (use our link to get a welcome bonus)
- Share your basic personal information like name, mobile, address, and last 4 digits of your SSN
- Hit the deposit button and select your payment method
- Head to the betting markets and select a sport or league, eg. NBA
- Pick a game, eg. Cleveland Cavaliers (+875) vs Boston Celtics (-1600)
- Select the team with minus odds, eg. Boston Celtics (-1600)
- Enter your stake and confirm your bet
Is Favorite Betting Worth It?
Blindly betting on the favorite is a losing strategy and a sure way to rip through your bankroll, but so is always backing the underdog. Favorite betting is worth it when you analyze the markets and find events where the sportsbooks are underestimating the favorite’s chance of winning.
For example, if the Dallas Mavericks are paying -150 (implied probability of 60%) to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, but you think Dallas has a 70% chance of winning, then you should bet on them. Even though the sportsbooks have Dallas as a favorite, you think the betting site should only be paying -240 for a Mavericks win.
So there you have it, favorite betting is a simple concept of backing the team the market expects to win. However, in practice, it’s a little more complicated. If you want to successfully bet on the favorite, make sure you crunch the numbers and find spots where the sportsbooks are underestimating just how good the favorite is!
