A lot of people see professional sports bettors on television and think to themselves, “Betting on sports must be easy money!” However, the truth is that a successful sports bettor does not win every game or wager. They make money by betting on games and events that have a higher probability of happening, meaning they take risks in exchange for rewards. The best way to do this is by doing adequate research and using the most efficient methods possible. Some examples of this are researching weather forecasts, staying up to date on injury updates and looking into the past performance of a team or player against their opponent.

Another important aspect of winning in sports betting is understanding variance and mathematically accounting for the amount of money one can expect to lose before making a profit. It is not uncommon for even the most successful “experts” to get less than 60% of their bets correct – which means they have a lot of bad days mixed in with their good ones. That is why it is imperative that all bettors start off with a solid bankroll and only risk 1% to 5% of it on each play (this is generally known as flat-betting).

In addition to the standard straight bets, most sportsbooks also offer multiple types of prop bets. These are based on different aspects of the game and can be either straight or parlays. Some popular props are team totals and Over/Under bets, which are based on the expected score for a game and allow the bettor to place a wager that the total points will exceed or fall short of a set number. These bets are also more lucrative if the bettor has access to multiple sportsbooks, as odds can vary from book to book.

Another type of prop bet is the novelty prop, which is a bet that has nothing to do with the actual action on the field or court. These are usually offered at large sporting events and can range from the length of the national anthem to which song the halftime artist will perform. These bets can also have a huge impact on a sportsbook’s bottom line, so they should only be placed by the most seasoned of bettors. In addition to the bonuses listed above, many of the apps on this page offer special promotions for their customers such as first-bet insurance bets and odds boosts. You can find a full list of available offers on the Promos page of each sportsbook.