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As sports bettors, we regularly come across these betting markets. So based on your experience, observation, or personal record, which one do you feel most comfortable betting on? And which do you think gives you a better chance of winning?

What’s the best market for you?
(1) Moneyline
(2) Total
(3) Point Spread
(4) Player Props

Let’s hear your thoughts!

Player props is the best for me since a consistency on individual player is much easy to predict compared to a team play.

Point spread is my other option and I frequently combined them on my bet builder picks. I rarely bet on money line because the odds is so low on favorite team unless you are betting live while underdog team is winning at that point.

Frankly, it depends upon so many factors like, which game are you betting on, how familiar (skilled) you are with that game, the odds themselves, etc. IMO if it is a team game like soccer, cricket, etc. there is less chance of match-fixing (which is a big concern for me) and I will choose Moneyline . However, if you know the game quite well you might find better odds with other types but for bettor like me who just want to watch a match with some interest till the end, Moneyline it is ;D

I bet on a regular basis, and I’m more of a Point Spread guy. I just enjoy the challenge, feels like a 50/50 shot, even though the odds aren’t always exactly even. From what I’ve seen in gambling forums, a lot of regular bettors also prefer point spreads over the other options. It’s definitely the most talked-about market.

 For me it is usually the winner market or total goals but it is not that important. The main condition is that the odds must be at least 2.0. It can be a single bet or a parlay, it does not matter as long as the odds requirement is met. Mostly I bet on football because I believe I understand it quite well. Sometimes I might play handicaps but that happens less often, and quite often I place bets in live because when I am waiting for a particular event the odds for it can increase so I often take advantage of that.

Interesting.. how’s it going so far? Are you profitable already?

Because if we look at the actual numbers, when you're consistently betting on odds of 2.00 or higher, it means the implied chance of winning is lower. So you really need to be good at spotting value in the lines to end up profitable.

For bettors who stick to odds around 1.90, I think they need to maintain a long-term win rate of about 52.5% to break even. But for odds of 2.00, around 51% should be enough.

Depends on what spread type you are availing and the team involved but there’s a point spread pick that usually has a higher 50/50 chance. There’s an instance that you bet on +10.5 while the team you bet manage to have an early lead while the game end with close points.

Watching the game with that huge point margin is the most satisfying feeling for point spread bettor because it’s almost sure win.

I frequently do this on teams like Spurs that usually on the bottom rank but they usually show a good fight even on top team.

This reasoning is perfectly fine for casino-based games where RnG plays a 100% role, but it is not how things work in sports betting. Sports betting odds are set by how much money favors which team/individual. So if you are getting 2.00 odds, this does not translate to an about 50-50 chance.

Honestly, I don't have a definitive preference, and the betting options I choose depend on both teams' conditions. However, I usually choose Total because it makes predicting the outcome of the match easier. We just need to look at the average score between the two teams, which usually works well. Sometimes, if the match is between big teams, I bet on the moneyline for higher odds.

I rarely bet, but moneyline has always been my go-to since it is the easiest to understand and does not really need deep knowledge about the game or the players/athletes. Basically, I just want to bet on the team/players/athletes that I like and enjoy the match.

Not gonna lie, reading some of the member's posts and their reasoning as to why they chose that bet is quite interesting to read.

Moneyline to me is more straight forward than other options, I prefer to bet on the favorites to win than betting on any team to score to a certain point. money spread gives you more chances of winning compared to others but betting can be very tricky, it's possible to get lucky from any of them. Whenever I feel like staking low and picking high value odds I go with point spread, reason why I stake low is because I hardly win from it

How can it be based on money when the odds are already displayed before betting even starts? Most of the time, it’s just the line movement that changes, not the actual odds especially when we’re talking about point spread betting.

As for casinos, yeah, those games are already fixed with a set house edge. But with sports betting, we can assume it’s more of a 50/50 scenario. Of course, bookmakers can still make mistakes as they might overvalue or undervalue a team or line.

If we’re good at spotting those value opportunities in our favor, that’s when we can actually win in the long run.

In my case, I would say that none of them fits my favourite bets. In sports bets, I prefer two types of bets: the ones that are almost impossible to win but that would be life-changing if it happened, I mean, multibets, and the bets that would make me expect something improbable but that would be epic in a single game, to increase the excitement while watching it (the closest option to it would be player props, I think, but not only).

From what I see, we each have very different styles here, which is a curious fact.

IMO there are two answers to your questions. One is practical and the other is a bit deep and philosophical  ;D. Now the practical part is easy and I can say that ever book makes is following Betfair, which operates on the principle of how much money sits where, like a weighing scale.
Now the answer that is more concerning to me is the second one and the honest answer should be I don't know. I researched a bit and found that if you are going to be the first one to offer odds for any sport, it is totally based upon your own judgment (which might be influenced by historical stats). But 99.99% are following Betfair more or less.   

I know that Moneyline doesn’t give as much profits as others like player props and Point spread but still it’s the most convenient for me and I tend to win more when I bet on Moneyline rather than try predicting what exactly a player is going to do, how many goals they are going to score, how many assist they’d get air even their shots on target, I prefer just betting on who’s going to win or if I think it will be a draw.

My second most favorite is the TOTAL, it’s far more comfortable than player props and point spread and the reason why it’s not my favorite is because I’ve had more loses than when I’m betting on MoneyLine.

Moneyline is my most used option but lately I often do parlay and total sometimes also occasionally test my luck on non seeded teams, ;D  usually at the end of a competition like this the favorite team that is safe in the standings is no longer enthusiastic about playing and this is quite profitable if the guess is correct. My notes bet on soccer matches, I am more familiar with this sport although not very expert. :P

As someone who doesn't bet so often on sports, particularly football when I do maybe because our national team is playing or there's really a match that I have been looking forward to, I go for the simplest and easiest betting strategy, the Moneyline betting. In this one, I am not doing any serious analysis I am just betting on the team which I believe that they would win based on what I know about both teams. I know the risk involved in this but I still choose to trust my instincts and follow my belief.

Moneyline all the way. I am more comfortable that way due to the games I pick and how I make use of my bankroll.
Moneyline help keeps it simple for me added with 2UP , so I just need to focus on who wins the match, not by how much difference, or predicting cards, or corners. Plus, it helps me avoid risky variables while sticking to straight outcomes, which makes it a lot easier for me to stay disciplined. One game at a time, parlay.

I like all of them. My top pick, though, will be the "Total". Most of the time, I get this one right in NBA games, and that's because I have been watching the games most of the time, so I know the records of the team when playing against their opponents.

The player props is where I suck the most. I don't know. Maybe it's because I am too greedy when choosing the stats of a player. When a player averages 5 rebounds per game, I tend to pick 5 also, which is definitely wrong. It must be lower than that, but because I want to increase the total odds where I make mistakes.

I go for the simple one which is moneyline, because I am not that concerned about how big my profits will be but how I can limit the risk of losing woefully. If the odds are very small due to the professional team is far stronger than the underdog, that isn't my concern because at the end of the match, I will be happy that I won something.

Gambling isn't something I hope to use to buy a car or build a house, I am only doing it for fun and losing your bet limits the fun. So I love gambling on the safer side, so that I don't incur unwanted losses.

Player props is one of the easiest to predict because there’s already an average on each player while you can check the consistency based on the stats.

You’re right about your realization and probably you are doing it because of the odds. Normally, Bookmaker put a very low odds on the average of each player base on stats then increase the odds on the upper limit stats to encourage gambler to risk more since it’s just close to player’s average.

In my opinion, the Best market Is always the market where you have more experience or where you have enough time for study.
In my case, for a long time the best gambling was with horse race in UK and IE (betting against single horse).
Living there was also helpful since I have seen many racea.
Late It was soccer matches (hedging correct score).
Nowadays I am just confident (a little) in tennis betting (moneyline) but only few players/tournaments.

The point spread is where I recall getting a lot of success from several sports, but i'm more comfortable with betting on the moneyline when the odds are close to a coinflip.

The only reason I lean more with moneyline is because i've had more bad beats with point spread where teams fail to cover despite having a comfortable lead.

The totals and player props are my last resort if I don't have the guts to trust both teams and see a pattern with the way they put up points.

Which market is best for me depends on the game I am looking at betting. Here lately I have been betting alot of NBA. Moneyline is probably the easiest bet for people as whomever you bet on only has to win the game, but the odds are lower if you bet the favorite. I am a fan of spread betting as I watch alot of NBA and have a decent grasp on most teams so for me this would be my favorite market although sometimes player props are easy to hit.

Horse racing is always another love affair for many I was also in this for years but now stopped for years as well due to many factors playing with underdogs and having bets against favorite was always my favorite and this give good profit.
After this now involvement in sports betting its depend on sports with markets as well because few games have better options in player props few are always good in ML because have better chances and better odds.
Few needs good stats works and also search about many factors which works in this game because sports betting is always needs good analysis without checking related stuff its never been works good mostly have lost but if someone able to do work and also have good history then surely its give good result.

There are different types of games in sports betting and I can't really say that my preference suits them all generally... I focus more on just soccer and basketball, money line works more for me these two sports... occasionally I use the point spread and I also win from it...My suggestion to make the best out of any of these systems is to avoid parlays.. combining too many games would reduce your chances of winning

Moneyline is my favorite, I don't need to be too specific, I just bet on who will win and that's it. I choose a team based on their performance, or my favorite team and bet. I don't like to complicate what can be simplified. It's not the only type of bet I make, but it is the one I use the most.

I don't like to make depth analysis and care too much about my gambling, so I choose the easiest one which is money line.

You only have to guess the results until the match ends, that's it.

Sometime I do bet on player props, but maybe I was unlucky, it's hard to see my pick corrects. Since I suffer many losses in player props, this make me stay in money line and not looking for another betting market.

I am a casual bettor, who likes to bet on the most important football leagues and baseball leagues when they come, so I rather to go simple and go for moneyline, because of my status as a casual bettor and gambler I don't have much of time to research and keep in touch with the performance of each one of teams or the personal performance of individual players in those teams.
Though, because of my lack of experience with other methods of betting on sports, I cannot be sure which is the most profitable method for anyone of us in the short or midterm.

Before venturing into point spread and player props, I would need to get a minimum of one month of research.

Sometimes I may have other option in mind but at the point of placing the bet, I end up betting on total. I also noticed that my inclination is towards teams that scores many goals. This is the reason I usually bet on totals and so far I have not been able to measure my progress with that because it has been a mixture of winnings and losses. As the new season starts, I will try and make adjustments to try other patterns to be able to make comparison.

For some bets, I often use Moneyline, but we know the bet for the favorite team must be with low Odds. Only dare to bet bigger for the team with a better chance of winning. Some bets may be made for the underdog team.
Player props are also interesting to me, but I don't do it that often. Only a few games where I really know the players well.

Bigger odds also make a lot of sense to me in football betting, i know the bigger the odd is the lower the chances of success, however, smaller odds does not also guarantee anything, lol. To be clear, i would not simply select the underdogs to win, but instead of going with the favorite team to win, with an odd of 1.02, i would rather go with the option of both teams to score or the underdog to score the first goal, etc, it is interesting in that way for me.

Moneyline is very simple and straight forward for me, after doing my analysis, I feel it's easy to know the team that will win the match, even though it's not all the time I get it right but many times, it easy to know that the team you are betting on is supposed to win the match. The point spread which deal on how many goal the team will score is usually more difficult for me to handle but I usually bet on it by just guessing and most of the time I bet on that option, I lose because my predictions are wrong.
Some bettors don't have a  specific market type, they are good in all and make use of the one that can be profitable at the match they are betting on.

I’ve had the most success with Player Props. I like digging into individual performances and matchups it feels more strategic and less random compared to full team outcomes. I do dabble in Moneyline when I’m confident about an underdog with strong momentum. For me it's all about finding edges based on current form and situational stats.

I am more on the money line as well and not the point spread. But I guess, it depends on how the player is being totally familiar with the teams as they can already predict the ending scores. But on my end, I would bet on the moneyline as it is quite easier for me. Of course, you would want to bet where you are more comfortable of, right? And also, the betting line you would feel have higher chance of winning. Because after all, that's what all gamblers are hoping for - to win your bet no matter what route or option you took.

Does Each-Way (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Each-way) qualify?   ::)

I couldn't bet on horse racing without the each-way option, going for the favorite is mostly a waste of time, going for a total outsider for the win again is like a chance in a hundred, so bets way ahead of anything if you take a horse that has some return value is a each-way bet, you get something for the placement, you get big for the win and at least you don;t have heeath attacks if he either gets caught one yard before the finish line or the race is declared a dead heat.
If not, since the other three are not available in every sport, then obviously the simple choice is moneyline.

Player props are for gamblers who are confident in the ability of a particular player.

I use a combination of the other betting strategies but let me highlight on this player props because it is one of my favourites.

My anxiety is reduced because I don't consider the team's performance but that of the individual. And once I know that a player's performance has been consistent in previous games, I can be confident that in the current game it is going to be repeated. Works well for those who are active and update about the player's performance.

It differs from time to time on what I think I should bet for. Sometimes, player props because it's an interesting bet to look for the performing players. But sometimes it's the total if the odds aren't too attractive at all. I see mostly are betting for the spread and they're good at that market.

That's a good reason and I think all of us have the same reason if we prefer to get into player props. If that player made good on their recent match, then the coming match might be actually good for him too.

Commonly known by those sports gamblers, for me point spreads good opportunities if I want to bet sports like NBA, basketball and NFL I only focus on a stronger team, it's better for me in the point spread betting.

Although the city only match the two teams, but I don't need to bother to analyze, I just place a bet on the best team and finished, even though the point spread can also be used In soccer but I use it more often in basketball and NBA is more challenging and has a good chance to win.

Moneyline is the only one i am comfortable enough to use, but my style is straight forward anyway.

I feel that rest of them are just ways to find profitable bets when one is out of options and there aren't interesting games or odds out there.

I guess one could benefit from betting other then just a winner, but i am willing to admit that i don't have enough skill to make anything useful with those. I don't enjoy betting on something like point spread, and i don't think i would enjoy guessing the result.

To answer your question I would say money line gives you a better chance of winning compared to other ones but for me I don't have a preference. Sometimes the system you use don't really matter. Betting needs luck sometimes, there are people that win more from point spread than any other systems of betting. Luck can come from any of them. All you have to do is to always gamble responsibly at all times

Analyzing games isn’t as easy as it seems, but it’s good that you keep it simple as that’s where the fun really is.

Point spread betting can be tricky, especially for newbies. A lot of them just think about who will win, so they go for the stronger team. But in point spread betting, based on my experience, the favorites don’t always cover the spread. That’s where it gets challenging.

I pretty much try everything. But moneyline is the most straight forward and easiest to be honest. Though of course it depends on the sport that you are betting on. I think each one has their own advantages. If you are indecisive, total is a good one because you don’t have to pick a winner. Just guess the total points.

Me either. I don't have a preference, whichever is having the better odds and I think that will make me win, I'll choose any of them.

Yeah, we know that gambling requires luck and all of those bets requires them as well. Those that are used to spreads and money line, they know that they're better in that niche.

But for us that we know that we can be better on our own choices, that's why we have no preference at all and we bet based on what we like.

Point Spread for me, although I sometimes bet on the Player Props, but it's a hit or miss. So I like the handicap as you can easily spot if the odds being released by sports bookies is good enough and you know that team that you are going to bet might cover it or even up the point spread by at least 1 so that the odds will be better.

Total is very hard as well, very hard to predict as there are high scoring team that suddenly went low percentage in the first half and that you know that your bet is not going to be hit because of the initial scoring drought.

ML, seldom unless I'm doing a parlay and add at least one bet with that market.

As what others says, I had done and played all the market specially in NBA. So I don't think that there is a best one although I will say that Point Spread or Player Props could have been the majority here.

We focused more on the teams that are going to win and take a better odds so that will be the Point Spread. And then there are players that can easily hit like Points + Rebounds + Assists and the odds are appealing. Total points, well you have to look at how the teams played, like if they are a run and gun team, specially if both teams are high scoring. Then it's better to bet on this like the over.

There are many types of bets that I use that are not in that list but some are there and my favorite is moneyline because it gives me higher chance of winning, just that it has lower odds because I bet on the stronger team to win. But when I want to take risk, I use point spread for my NBA bets because the odd is higher as well as the risk. I guess this is what gambling is all about: the higher the risk, the higher the returns.  

I could say that I like betting on totals, but in reality once I choose games I check different analyses, stats, and I simply choose the market I believe will be a hit... Last night I bet on an NBA game, over 218.5, but it was a few points short, and for tonight I have some bets on players.

I think we need a special thread for sharing bets but with some rules... Only pre-match bets: for example at least 1 or two hours before kick-off. Minimum stake ($10-$20, or maybe even higher) & multiplier. Screenshot & bet id. Selfmoderated!

A picture speaks a thousand words... Instead of topics with so much spam, we would have some real action. That could be a really constructive topic where we could compare bets, follow each other, and discover what we like and what works for us... or doesn't work.

I prefer Total (over/under). Moneyline has too low odds. Point Spread is not much different from Moneyline to bother with. Player props is too random, the obvious options have very low odds while the rare things don't happen most of the time. It's about whether to play with less odds or more, the risk are similar. Over/Under is not special either, the risks are same but when you parley two medium odds but probable over/under, the chances are greater.
Or so I feel. Gambling odds are made so that the house always profits. So its just about what you feel comfortable with.

I think exactly like you, I'm not a great player, I do it for fun and I spend just enough
to have fun, if I manage to win it's nice, if I lose I don't worry about it.
There is no perfect technique, but there is a way to "optimize" the winnings, that's for sure.
It happens that I also bet on virtual dog or horse races, but sporadically because they don't drive me crazy.

In my case, I bet on all markets. I don't have any market that I think is better than another. I always analyze the game and then decide to bet on the market that will give me the best chance of winning and profit based on the analysis I made. I avoid putting feelings into sports betting. Things like having a preference for a certain market limit the person to always analyzing games that fit only in that market that the person likes. This means that the person can waste good opportunities for profit if they bet on other markets.

Actually moneyline seems to be the best option for me too. Because as a good gambler that knows the teams strengths and their performances would always prefer to bet on straight win than other options. However, there was a time that I was betting on both teams to score it very much hard then to came out with a good prediction, because I wasn't familiar with most teams performances then. But right now I normally pick my favorite teams and bet with only what I can afford to lose because nothing is sating in gambling.

We shouldn't be pressuring ourselves when we bet for the sports that we like to follow. If we're hardcore gamblers, we will take it as much as we can and be serious with that.

While I'm saying that we should be serious with each bet that we do but it's not that we should be relying on our emotions on it.

That's when a gambler falls, when they're too heavily invested with their emotions to the bets that they do.

It's the fact that you're really interested and conscious about your financial safety and well-being.People who enjoy gambling with moneyline strategy stands a better chance to Gambling responsibly;using moneyline strategy is a plus compared to other Gambling odds.

I typically play the point spread or just trying to select a winner. My favorite bets though are parlays that include a little bit of everything. Those can be exciting if you get some wild odds. As far as betting success in winning percentage though, I’d definitely say it is by betting with the spread when it gets carried away.

I prefer to for moneyline which is to choose the team that would win the match, but sometimes I go for a team to win in the first half which is riskier but comes with higher odds.

Aside this I prefer to go for in-play instead which are more interesting.