The best sports to bet on

Association football is one of the best sports to bet on ... photo by CC user Gordon Flood on Flickr

Sports have been your passion for as long as you can remember, and in accordance with this interest, you have a brain that is encyclopedic when it comes to your knowledge surrounding teams and players in various games.

Has it occurred to you that you might be able to make some serious cash from your athletic intellect? If we have your attention, then the following best sports to bet on might end up making you a significant chunk of change that you can use to live your life to the fullest…

1) Basketball

Consider yourself an action junkie? If you can’t stand the conservative nature of association football, where a significant portion of play is spent passing the ball back and forth in a desperate attempt to find a hole in the other team’s airtight defensive formation, then basketball is the perfect antidote for you.

With specific rules in place against “goaltending”, the focus is on outgunning the competition, which makes it a bettor’s dream come true, as there are many offensive stats that you can wager money on, from offensive rebounds captured to the number of three point goals made by a specific player or team.

2) Association football

If you love the world’s most popular sport in spite of its slower nature, there are countless varieties of football bets that you lay your quid down on to make the action more compelling to you and your friends.

You can not only bet on the outcome of the match, but also on over/unders not just on the final score, and even on more exotic bets, like whether a goal will be scored within the next five minutes, or whether the referee will pull his yellow/red card out of his pocket in that time frame.

3) American football

Evolving from the rugby and rugby union, the game of American football is a rough and tumble sport that presents a variety of betting possibilities to a sports fan looking to spice up the action of a game known for its frequent stops and starts.

Spreads, field goals, and the amount of interceptions are just a few of the stats you can use to make your viewing experience much more exciting when you are sitting in a pub watching the full slate of Sunday games with your friends that are visiting from the USA.

4) Ice hockey

While this fast and physically demanding sport hasn’t caught on in Britain in the same way as it has in Northern Europe and North America, taking an evening to watch the NHL or the Swedish Elite League will clue you in to how thrilling it can be.

There are also many opportunities to make money from the various stats and situations that pop up in the run of an ice hockey match; from power plays to whether a game will end up going to a shootout, there are many easy and complex ways to invest your money in the hopes of beating the bookies.