Most punters choose to bet on events and sports markets so as to enhance their overall enjoyment of watching or following them. Should you see your chosen team or player win (or lose), not only does this stand out as being a great moment for you in general, but it also means that you get a payout from your bet.
We wouldn’t place a bet if we didn’t think it had a chance of winning but we know we won’t win them all. What can be frustrating, though, is to place a bet on a game only to see that bet go down very quickly. In this instance people will sometimes place further bets in-play as they want to have a bet on to enhance their enjoyment. An alternative approach, however, would be to place bets that you know will last longer, thereby allowing you to enhance your experience of following an event without feeling like you need to place more bets.
Here we look at bets that last longer and bets to avoid if you don’t want them to go potentially go down too early.
The Restrictions of Sports Betting
If you’re the kind of bettor who tends to stick to placing a bet on the overall winning team or player, then you’re going to be kept within that game for as long as it lasts. A football match goes for 90 minutes, and your wager on the winning team will last throughout that (unless you’re engaging in live betting or you utilise a cash out option prior to its finish). Or if you’re betting on basketball, then a wager on the winning side will see you go through the full 48 minutes before your bet produces an outcome.
However, what if you want to engage in betting on other markets instead? Let’s say you intend to access some of the various additional markets provided by sportsbooks on different events. Which of these will allow you to receive the most staying power from a wager? Certainly, if you intend to bet on the first goalscorer in a game of football, then the chances are that your wager will end early. Many football matches see goals scored within the first half of the game, so that won’t see your wager exist beyond the first goal scored, regardless of whether it was a correct bet or not.
What bets allow you to go further into the game, producing longevity? It would be easier to look into this in terms of the different sports. Therefore, let’s take a look at the bets that last for a longer time period this way.
Popular Sports with Longer Bet Options
If you’re a fan of betting on tennis, then you can always place a wager on something like ‘Most Games’. This sees you bet on which player will have achieved the most game wins by the end of the match. You can also bet on the ‘Draw’ outcome if you think that both players will acquire the same number of game wins. This is a longer bet to go with than the ‘Total Games’ option for the whole match. Obviously, the ‘Most Games’ option is the one that takes you right to the end of the game, because each set features a number of games that should be won before the set is taken and the match is won completely.
A longer football bet that you can engage in though, is the betting on ‘Both Teams to Score’ option. Now, while this doesn’t specifically mean that the bet will go right to the end of the game because both teams could score within the first five minutes, therein lies the additional argument. Because both teams have the chance to score right up until the end of the game, regardless of who eventually wins, this offers the potential for a longer running wager. At the same time, one more that exists as an addition to this is the ‘Both Teams to Score in Both Halves’ option. Obviously, this requires more from both teams competing in the match, and therefore, it definitely means that the bet will go beyond half time.
You could alternatively look towards greyhound racing and engage in trap betting as an alternative to the standard winning runner. Bigger bookies, for example, offer trap challenge betting on greyhound events, giving you the possibility of placing a longer lasting wager. Through this, you place a wager on which trap will host the most winning runners at the event. With multiple traps in operation for every race at that course per day, you will need to see this through to the end to find out which one will have been the host of the most winning dogs. This often makes a much more intriguing bet (and one that keeps you in the game for a longer time period) than the standard greyhound runner bet that many others engage in.
If you have more of a penchant for betting on rugby, then one of the most popular routes to take for placing an extended bet is to utilise the ‘First to 10 Points – 2nd Half’ betting option. Naturally, this requires you to stay around with your wager for the first and second halves of the game, and you can also wager on a ‘Draw’ being the outcome of it as an alternative. Of course, there is also the bet for ‘Including Overtime’, which wouldn’t come into effect until the end if overtime does indeed occur with the match.
Smaller Sports with Longer Betting Options
You may not think that cycling would offer much in terms of betting markets other than the overall winner. However, that’s not strictly true. Some sportsbooks allow you to place wagers on the cyclist with the ‘Best Finishing Position’. Naturally, to see where these competitors finish in the race, you need to see it through to the very end. And that’s precisely what this wager allows you to do. That type of wager is also possible for events in the athletics category as well, for such options as the 100m Hurdles and so on.
If you want to check something else out, then you could always bet on the ‘Total Legs’ involved in a darts match. This is a bet of whether it will be over or under a specific number, so this could be decided slightly earlier on than the full-length of the match. However, it still sees your darts bet proceed on throughout a majority of the match in question.
Now, something that relates to a variety of sports, including football, handball and others includes the ‘Total Goals’ option. The odds for such will usually be provided in terms of total goals for one team and total goals for the other and will also be an over or under figure. Goals in these games can be scored right up until the end of the game, so the bet itself has the ability to continue right up until the end, too.
Let’s say that Switzerland and Slovakia are playing against one another in a game of handball. A sportsbook offers odds of the total goals by Switzerland being over or under 28.5 and the same of Slovakia being over or under 25.5. The likelihood is that you’ll be able to get a fairly good opinion of how this game is proceeding in terms of total goals by midway through the second half, but the wager still proceeds onwards to the very end of the game.
Bets That Will Never Go to the End of a Match
It’s true to say that for all the long-running bets that you can involve yourself in at an online sportsbook, there are multiple options for shorter bets, too. Of course, it is all personal preference as to what types of sports wagers you place, regardless of if you go for the longer ones or the shorter ones. But what are the shorter bets that you don’t have to wait until the end of a sports game to see if they’ll payout?
Well, they include the following:
Total Goals 1st Half
Of course, anything and everything that has an attachment of ‘1st Half’ to it on a sportsbook only requires you to see up until the end of the first part of the game. This includes total goals in the first half, the half time leading team or player, the correct score in the first half and so on.
Result at End of Quarter 1
There aren’t many sports that have multiple quarters to them, but basketball is one of them. There are four quarters to a game of basketball, and with this wager, you will only need to see what happens in the quarter you’re wagering on. Any of the result at end of quarter 1, 2, 3 and 4 etc won’t require you to see the whole match and only last for a short timeframe.
First Team to Score
This one pertains to a number of sports, including handball, football, baseball and so on. Usually, at least one team will be able to score within the first half of a match, so this pretty much closes this type of wager down rather quickly. Where baseball is concerned, you can also place wagers on the teams that are the first to three runs, four runs and so on, which also end in a relatively short amount of time.
Set Betting
In tennis, you are able to place wagers on which player you believe will win each set played. You can also bet on who will win the first point in each game of each set, which is a lot more useful when engaging in live betting. However, these are all short bets to partake in, because they pertain to a specific section of a full match, rather than the whole of it. This also goes for predicting the correct score of each set and/or game in terms of tennis.
Highest Total in First 6 Overs
Cricket has a number of markets that can be considered as short bets. The highest total in first 6 overs is just one of these. Others include the ‘Toss Winner’, which is done with quite swiftly at the start of the game, and the ‘Highest Opening Partnership’, because this is the opening duo. You’ll also find that short bets are able to be placed on ‘Total Runs – 1st Ball’ and so on.
Frame 1
Betting on snooker is another option that allows you to enjoy shorter bets, such as those associated with the outcome of various things within each frame. This includes the total points gained in each frame, who will win each frame, whether there is a 50+ or 100+ break in each frame and so on.
To Conclude
As you can probably tell by now, sportsbooks will frequently offer you the chance to utilise a multitude of bets at their sites. This is especially true if they are a well-known brand. The question you need to ask yourself before engaging in such is whether you want to stick around for the length of a match or if you want a bet to be over and done with swiftly. Whatever the case may be, most sports provide you with options for both of these, so if you have a preference on betting on a specific sport, then you should be able to find something to suit.
Longer bets just tend to extend the excitement provided by participating in sports bets. Whereas the shorter ones give a quick buzz and then you have to place another one if you want to experience the same thing. And if you are a person who places bets as a way of enhancing the overall enjoyment of such, then utilising the longer betting markets could be the way to go for you.
Placing bets that last longer can ultimately mean you end up betting less too, which in itself can limit loses and potential harm from gambling. If you are the type of person that likes to bet on what they watch or follow them placing a single bet that you know will take you late into the game would be a better long term strategy than placing several bets throughout.
