What Are Totals?

If you are not familiar yet with betting on totals, it is definitely a concept worth acquainting yourself with.  As a sports bettor, you do not necessarily have to predict the winner of a game in order to win a bet.  You can bet on totals instead, also referred to as “betting on over/unders.” 

What is betting on over/unders?  This is a type of gamble where you bet that the final score of a game will be either under or over the online betting site’s posted total.  So let’s consider an example where the Vikings are playing the Lions.  The total the online betting site has posted is 30.  Whether you win or lose a totals bet on this game is determined by adding the final score of the Vikings to the final score of the Lions, and then comparing that total with the total posted by the betting site (in this case, 30).

So in our hypothetical example, let’s say that the Vikings beat the Lions with a score of 27-13, and you bet over, not under.  Add together 27 and 13, and you will get 40.  Since 40 is over 30, you would win this bet.  If you had bet under and not over, you would have lost.  Let’s say alternatively that the final score was 14-7.  Adding up 14 and 7 gives you 21, which is under 30.  Had you bet over, you would have lost.  Had you bet under, you would have won.  And what if the final score added up to exactly 30?  In that case, the bet would be a push.  At that point, your money is returned, and you neither win nor lose.

As you can see, betting on totals is a fairly simple concept, and it doesn’t require you to predict the winner of a game. That doesn’t necessarily make it easy to win a totals bet; you do need to intimately understand the two teams playing and be able to make a reasonably good guess at their scores.  You can bet totals on many different types of sports, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and more. 

There are some general rules that apply in each of these cases.  For example, most NFL totals range between 32 and 52, averaging out to about 41 points.  So the example above was actually slightly below the common range.  You might see a low total like this posted in a situation where two teams have been playing defensively all season, or they are dealing with especially cold weather.  Here are some more handy facts to know about totals:

·         College football totals may range significantly higher than NFL totals, even going up toward 70 points.

·         Basketball totals are substantially higher than football totals owing to the nature of the game, where many more points are typically scored.  They can range up toward 200 points in the NBA.

·         Baseball and hockey scores tend to be much lower than either of the other sports we have discussed here, so online betting sites are more likely to adjust the odds than the total.  You may have to risk more to win the same amount.

Totals give you yet another way to make money as a sports bettor.  Once you learn the ropes and start betting on totals, you may very well find that you prefer over/under betting to wagering on the winner of a game.  Some gamblers even bet exclusively or mainly on totals.  Remember to try it on paper before you try it with real money so you can be sure you know what you are doing, and good luck!