Sports betting is when you bet on a team or individual to win or lose. It can be as simple as a straight bet, or it can include spreads and over/unders. You can even bet on specific outcomes, like how many points a player will score or how many home runs a batter will hit.

Whether you’re a fan of fantasy football or just looking to make some extra cash, the best way to win at sports betting is to find value and bet smartly. That means shopping for the sharpest sportsbooks, evaluating your own profitability on moneylines and against the spread, studying team trends in different situations (home/away, favored vs. underdog), and understanding how to quantify your expected value. The process is time-consuming and requires a lot of math, but it’s also what separates the winners from the losers.

Most people fail at sports betting because they treat it like a get-rich-quick scheme. They’re lured in by the massive payouts of longshots and ad campaigns that promote sports gambling as a way to “bet on the next big thing.” The truth is, profitable sports betting isn’t about picking winning teams or making bets with a high payout. It’s about finding the tiny edges that can exist everywhere and then betting them properly over the long term.