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Future Betting Strategy: Our Futures Betting Guide for Bettors Online

Future betting strategy is something that many sports bettors could benefit from getting to know better and improving on. Future bets are considered some of the most risky wagers that you can make, but they’re also some of the most exciting to win. Gamblers that want to come away with massive prize payouts should take the time to learn how future betting works and how they can make the most of it as well. Getting familiar with future betting is a good first step, and learning how to make it more effective is the next step to take for success.

Future Betting Strategy Key Facts

  • There is no way to predict the results of a future bet
  • A future bet can take many months to resolve itself
  • Hedging is an important strategy to use
  • Looking at house edge is important

What is a Future Bet?

In simple terms, a future bet is a bet that you place in something that won’t finalize for many months. For instance, betting for the Super Bowl at the beginning of an NFL season would be considered great future betting. This betting practice is considered risky and not something that is often recommended for gamblers trying to play it safe. Many professional bettors avoid future bets because they take money from their bankroll for many months at a time. Either way, some players really love this type of wagering, while others avoid it as much as they can when placing wagers and picking out betting opportunities.

The Benefits of Future Bets

Future bets are often looked at negatively, but they do offer some very real benefits to gamblers that make use of them and should definitely not form part of a guide on "betting for dummies". The most obvious benefit is the huge potential for prize payouts when using these wagers. Future bets can return huge prize payouts for the lucky players that manage to choose the right option out of all the potential options available. They also give players something to look forward to all throughout the season. For gamblers that just want to place a single wager that will carry them through the season, this is the perfect type of wager to go with.

The Downsides of Future Bets

There are some very real downsides to these types of wagers as well, and they’re something that players need to know about before they place one of these wagers. The most obvious downside is that there is a very low probability of a futures bet being successful. The bet relies the outcome of many different matches and it’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen with any level of accuracy. This is the main reason that pro gamblers avoid these wagers.

Future bets also tie up your money for an extended period, and even if you place a winning wager, you’ll be waiting many months to make use of those winnings. Standard money line bets pay out quickly and that money can be recycled into many other wagers as well before a future et will ever payout. If those negatives weren’t enough already, these wagers usually come along with steeper fees as well. The sportsbook takes a larger edge than standard with future bets in most instances, which means that it’s even more difficult to win consistently with these wagers. Between all the different downsides, there are many good reasons not to take these wagers.

Uncovering the Edge

There is always an edge in any sports betting market, and before placing a wager, especially one as difficult as a futures bet, it’s important to make yourself aware of what the edge is so you know whether you should be placing your bet with another sportsbook or avoiding it entirely. To calculate the edge you simply calculate the probability for each of the different futures options in the specific market. Then you add them all up and see how much over 100% you are and you know just what the edge is.

After you have the edge amount, you can determine the true probability of each of the different future betting options to find out which wagers are actually worth marking. To do this, simply divide the probability by 100 + the edge that you found. For instance, if you had a probability of 25% with the house edge added in and the edge was 10%, you actually have a probability of 22.7% instead. Finding these values should make it easier for you to decide whether or not to go ahead with any particular future’s bet, but it takes some time to go through the steps properly. While it can be confusing determining the house edge and the real probability of any particular wager, it’s important to do just that. Getting familiar with the edge and comparing the edge at different sportsbooks makes choosing a place to wager simpler and easier to do.

Developing a Future Betting Strategy

You may be asking yourself, "What is a staking strategy that could work with Future Betting?"It’s nearly impossible to come up with any sort of reliable betting strategy for future bets because there are so many different variables to consider, many of which aren’t available until the day of each specific game. One technique that players often use when playing futures is hedging. Hedging a bet means betting on the other side of the wager as well. Hedging is common with future bettors if they’re original team has made it nearly to the final game. By hedging on a futures bet it’s possible to lock in a guaranteed profit no matter which of the two competitors wins as long as one of them is your original future’s bet.

Hedging Your Bet

Hedging is one of the most effective future betting strategy tools because it makes it possible to guarantee a profit during the final leg of a future bet. If a player wagers $400 on the Eagles to win the Superbowl and the Eagles make it into the Superbowl, that player is set up perfectly to hedge that bet. Since future bets come with large payouts, it wouldn’t be unheard of for that bet to come with a $2,000 or $3,000 payout depending on the original odds. That means that the player can guarantee a payout in either instance if they place a large enough wager on the other team to make at least $400 or more if that team wins. Imagine that they spend an additional $200 for a chance to win $800 on the other team. Now that bettor is into both wagers for $600 total and will either win $800 or $2,000 depending on which team wins. The Eagles would be the preferable option, but for only a few hundred additional dollars the other team becomes a profitable option as well. Hedging a bet is an excellent strategy and something that every future bettor should start doing.

How to Hedge a Bet

It’s plain to see the benefit of hedging future bets, doing so guarantees a prize payout. Players that want to make sure they’re getting some sort of prize payout in the end can do so at just a small cost to them. Place a wager down at another sportsbook on the opposing team while making sure that the upside of that wager is high enough to cover the original future bet as well as the new hedge bet. As long as the payout is high enough to cover both the hedge bet is an effective one and worth making for security.

By hedging their bets, finding the house edge and determining the odds accurately it’s easier to maintain profitability while placing future bets. These bets are considered to be risky, but they offer the added opportunity of hedging that other wagers simply don’t allow for. Learning how to make the most of future bets makes them a bit more useful. Take the time to test out future betting options, but be wary of them because they are much more difficult to be successful with than standard money line wagers are.

Test Future Betting Strategy and Build Your Skill

Future betting isn’t for everyone, but with proper hedging it can be made a bit more successful. Take the time to find a high-quality sportsbook, or use our in-depth comparison to help you choose a sportsbook that’s right for you, and start practicing placing future bets effectively. With enough practice, you can improve your success with these wagers and maybe even develop some of your own strategies to use with them as well.

If it doesn't work out well for you, do not be dismayed. There are still many other different types of betting lines for you to experiment with. As you grow, you will also learn some valuable betting strategies to work for your game style. Be sure to read our guide to using the Fibonacci strategy to learn more about variable wagering.

Conclusion: Future Bets are a Beneficial Tool When Used Properly

Though future betting is risky, it comes with high-paying rewards as well. Understanding helpful techniques and tips like hedging bets will help you find more success with the bet type and can result in more prize payouts overall. Take the time to learn how to be effective with future bets and you might enjoy using them more as a result.
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