Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basketball, baseball, hockey, track cycling, auto racing, mixed martial arts, and boxing at both the amateur and professional levels.

When betting a basketball game, the team you bet must “cover the spread.” In other words, they must win or lose by less than a stipulated margin of points. In this example, the Lakers are favored by 4 1/2 points. The Lakers must win by no less than 5 points to be counted as a winner for betting purposes.

At its core, sports betting is putting money behind an outcome of your choice and getting paid if that outcome is achieved. If a bet is on the winner of a game, that is called a moneyline bet. If you're betting that a team will win or lose by a certain amount of points, that is called a spread bet.

You're simply picking a player to win a specific tournament, event, season-long contest or award. If the player wins what you're betting that they'll win, you get paid based on the odds at which you bet that player, not the final betting odds when they close.