Sports betting has become legal in several states, and the number of available options continues to grow. While some sports are easier to bet on than others, any good gambler should follow some basic rules of thumb. The more you know about the sport and its betting markets, the better able you will be to make wise wagers.

While moneylines and spreads focus on a particular match, futures bets are long-term wagers on events that will take place in the future. These bets offer higher odds than standard bets and can result in bigger payouts. They can be placed on anything from a team to win the World Series to a player winning a championship.

The NHL has yet to adopt a position on sports betting, but the Vegas Golden Knights are one of several teams that have signed sponsorship deals with bookmakers. This enables them to share their betting data and help bettors make informed decisions.

MMA is another popular sport for betting, with fighters often having unique styles that help them to dominate their opponents. For example, UFC women’s champions Ronda Rousey, Valentina Shevchenko, Amanda Nunes, Cris Cyborg and Khabib Nurmagomedov all enjoyed spells as dominant champions where they were regarded by many pundits as unbeatable.

It took some time, but New Jersey finally launched legal sports betting in 2019 and was quickly followed by Pennsylvania, Illinois and Delaware. Ohio passed a law allowing sports betting in 2021, and online operations went live in January 2022 with DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars, BetRivers, PointsBet and BetMGM all offering a range of betting options.