Online sports betting is not yet active in Florida. This page will be updated with the latest promos, news and odds once Florida sportsbooks launch.
Sports betting is increasingly popular in the United States thanks to continued legalization in multiple states. New bettors mean new business for the sportsbooks, which means sportsbook promo and bonus offers to attract first-time users. It also means the newcomers will need to learn the ins and outs of betting in order to maximize their potential return on their wagers.
Here in Florida, you’ll find multiple online sportsbooks that can be available right at your fingertips. They will have a host of betting opportunities, including every major sport and every popular bet.
Below we’ve outlined some of those wagers and what you might see when it comes to odds. Bookmark this page and check back often for up-to-date information.
Live sports odds at FL sportsbooks
No one wants to get old information. Check this page’s odds feeds to help avoid that. You’ll find odds and lines from sportsbooks in Florida, updated in real time. Here is a selection of the sports for which we provide live odds:
- NBA odds
- MLB odds
- NFL odds
- NCAA basketball (men’s) odds
- NCAA football odds
That list is only going to continue to grow thanks to the growth in sports betting across the US and Canada. At times you’ll find a sport that has no odds available. That’s because it is in the offseason and odds aren’t regularly available. You can, however, still place futures bets for many of those sports. Check the section on futures below for more information.
When do lines come out?
It really depends on the sport and the sportsbook. In most cases, the earliest odds line is going to be of the futures variety. These can sometimes come out really early and be available to bet on as soon as the previous season’s championship is over.
Point spreads and totals are usually next, though they are always much closer to the start of the event than their futures counterparts. The moneyline odds are typically the line released closest to the actual event itself.
What causes the line to change?
There are typically two reasons the line will shift at sportsbooks: new information or public betting.
The oddsmakers who set the lines at sportsbooks use every resource available to make the most educated determination of an outcome. Once they’ve set the numbers, additional data or news could influence that prediction. This will commonly be injury news, trades, weather and other game-influencing situations.
Because the probability of the original outcome potentially changes with the new information, sportsbooks shift their odds to compensate and reduce their potential liability.
Sportsbooks are in the business of making money, so they will update odds simply to make sure they don’t lose “too much” of their intake of cash. That’s what happens when the public begins to wager heavily on one outcome over another. When that begins to happen, the potential loss for the sportsbook is often too much, so it adjusts the odds to make the opposite outcome more attractive to reduce its liability.
Available sports bets
One of the features of our odds feeds is the ability to toggle between one of the three main bets that are available at just about any sportsbook you come across. You’ve heard of all of them, no doubt, and you’ve already come across them on this page:
- Moneylines
- Point spreads
- Totals
If you check the odds feed, keep in mind that all of those bets will show the most current odds available at the online sportsbooks. If you decide to sign up for an account at a different time, those odds definitely have the potential to change by the time you do sign up and start betting.
How do sports betting odds work?
Reading odds and knowing how they pay out is not as easy as simply doing some quick math in your head. In the sportsbooks you’ll encounter when betting in Florida, you’ll see “American odds,” a system used in betting that is pretty exclusive to North America. In that format, the oddsmakers use a negative number, like -110 or similar, to identify the favorite to win the bet. They use a positive number, such as +170, to indicate the underdog.
When making a wager on a negative number, you have to wager that amount in order to win $100 on a successful bet. For example, if you’re betting on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at -105 to win a game, you would have to wager $105 to get a $205 payout with a win — your $105 initial wager plus $100 in winnings. The negative number tells you that you will have to wager more than you stand to win.
On the other hand, if you’re betting on a positive number, a $100 wager means you would win an amount equal to the odds number if correct. As an example, say the Miami Dolphins are the underdogs in an early season game with +130 odds. If you bet $100 on them to win and they do, you’d receive $230 — your $100 wager plus $130 in profit.
Of course, you don’t have to wager that high — or that low, for that matter. The ratio of potential profit to what you wagered will be the same for a bigger or smaller bet.
If you don’t want to do the calculations yourself, you can always use one of the many bonus online betting calculators to do the math for you. You can input any dollar amount for your wager, and it will calculate your potential winnings.
Below are explanations for the three main bets — totals, point spreads and moneylines — along with information to help you prepare to bet.
Main types of sports bets
There are a number of different ways you can bet on sports games, with the three main wager types as follows:
Moneyline betting
The most straightforward wager a newcomer can make, the moneyline is a bet on one side to win. That’s it. Really.
You will see a listing in the sportsbook that identifies the two teams playing and which team is the favorite (negative odds) and which is the underdog (positive). You pick which team you think is going to win.
Easy, right? The truth is, the moneyline wager is the most straightforward, but it’s also the bet that may not offer as much of a potential windfall if you are correct. But that’s part of the risk versus reward scenario that is the basis of betting.
Let’s use the Dolphins as an example:
In a Miami-New York Jets game where the Dolphins are favored, you might see a listing that looks something like this at FanDuel’s sportsbook:
- Miami Dolphins -150
- New York Jets +130
For the Dolphins, you’d need to wager $150 for a chance to win $100. If you won, you’d get $250 back — your original $150 bet plus $100 in winnings. For the Jets, you’d wager $100 for a chance to win a total of $230.
Point spread betting
For more experienced bettors, the point spread is the most popular wager. It’s a well-known bet that is available at every sportsbook you’re going to encounter in Florida. The best way to look at it is as a projected margin of victory for the favorites, and a projected margin of defeat for the underdogs.
Still using the Miami Dolphins as an example, let’s say they are favored with a point spread — or margin of victory — at -3 over the Jets. If you place a wager on the Dolphins in this scenario, you would need them to win by more than three points.
The Jets, then, are at +3. If you wager on New York, it’s because you think they’ll either win outright, or they’ll lose by fewer than three.
In this scenario, if Miami wins by exactly three points, it would be a push, which means the sportsbook would refund wagers. That’s why you’ll often see listings that include a half-point, such as -3.5, in order to prevent a potential push.
BetMGM Sportsbook may list it like this:
- Miami Dolphins -3 (-105)
- New York Jets +3 (-110)
The sportsbooks use point spreads to make games more “even” for the underdog, which typically makes the wagering more balanced for both teams. With negative odds on both sides, that means the sportsbook can seek to ensure a profit no matter which side wins. Odds for point spread wagers will generally be right around -110 on both sides, with the sportsbook shifting things if it’s trying to encourage betting on one side to balance things out.
Totals (over/under) betting
Totals bets are another wager that is pretty easy to understand for newcomers. The bet, which is also known as an over/under, is a wager on the projected combined score of both teams playing. The oddsmakers determine that number, and you can wager whether the actual total score will be over or under that line.
Typically, you’ll find odds around -110 for both sides, which, as we’ve talked about above, means you have to wager more than you’re going to potentially win — $110, in this case, to win $100.
When presenting bets on the Tampa Bay Rays against the Washington Nationals, the sportsbook might determine the game is likely to have around nine total runs. At the HardRock Sportsbook in FL the listing might look like this:
- Over 9 (-110)
- Under 9 (-110)
You don’t need to worry about which team is going to win the game. Your focus should be on if the two teams are going to score more than nine or fewer.
If the game ends, 7-3, then over bets would win. If it were a lower-scoring affair, such as 4-3, then under bets would win. If the game ended up with nine total runs, such as a 5-4 finish, then bets would push, and the sportsbook would refund wagers.
How do I calculate sports betting payouts?
Calculating the exact payout for a wager can be confusing at times, though there are a variety of bonus betting calculators online to simplify things.
If you’re more interested in doing the work yourself, however, just keep in mind that negative numbers, such as -130, require you to wager more than you’re going to potentially win. In this case, you’d have to bet $130 with hopes of winning $100, or $65 with a potential return of $50, etc.
Positive numbers indicate that your potential profit will be greater than your wager amount. If you see a +150 listing, and you bet $100, your return would be $250, which is your initial bet plus the $150 in winnings. A bet of $50 would lead to $75 in winnings, etc. You can wager any amount you want in most cases, and that amount will determine the potential payout.
More betting lines and odds
Above we discussed the three “main” bets that you’ll find at every legal and regulated sportsbook in Florida. Those, however, are far from the only bets available. Here are a few more popular wagers you’re likely to come across:
Parlay betting odds
Combine two or more wagers as a single bet, and the more you add, the more potential return you could get. However, there’s a risk with that chance for increased winnings.
In order for your parlay to win, none of your individual selections can be incorrect. So if you take a three-leg parlay and only two of the teams you picked actually win, your bet is a loss. Even if you take 10 teams (please don’t) and nine of them win but one loses, your wager is a loss.
The easier the parlay is — in other words, the fewer individual wagers — the lower your payout will be. With every team you add, you increase your potential payout, but you also increase your chances of losing, too.
Teaser betting odds
This is a form of a parlay wager that doesn’t include moneyline bets as an option. With this bet, you can nudge the point spreads or totals in your favor to give yourself a better chance of winning the bet. The more you nudge, the lower your potential payout is going to be thanks to your increased chances of winning the bet.
For example, if there was a parlay bet for two NFL point spreads, the teaser might work like this:
You want to wager on the Jacksonville Jaguars as 3.5-point underdogs against the Houston Texans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as 11-point favorites over the Carolina Panthers.
The original numbers you would need to beat would be Jacksonville +3.5 and Tampa Bay -13. To make it easier for your picks to win, you could apply a 6.5-point teaser. Now your picks would be Jacksonville +10 and Tampa Bay -4.5. You are more likely to win your bet, but at a lower potential payout.
Prop betting odds
Prop bets are a kind of a “side bet” you make with a sportsbook. They often involve individual player or team performances, or game situations, or even less serious things like how the coin toss will turn out.
Every prop bet is going to have its own odds, and they can vary wildly depending on what the subject of the bet is. IF you’re looking for prop odds on Jimmy Butler, for example, you’ll find game-specific props odds for him to go over/under 25 points, get a triple double or get a certain number of steals. You’ll also find prop odds for him to win season-ending awards, like MVP or Defensive Player of the Year.
The most popular event for prop bets is the NFL’s Super Bowl, which offers hundreds of prop bets each year. For some, it’s a great chance to get involved in sports betting for the first time, and for others Super Bowl prop bets are just a fun way to be engaged with the game itself.
Live (in game) betting odds
Live betting, aka in game betting, is one of the newest additions to sports betting, and it is rapidly becoming more popular. The betting option, which requires you to have access to an online or mobile sportsbook, allows you to make wagers as the game is taking place.
Your betting options may include updated moneylines and point spreads that change as the game progresses, as well as things like which team will score the next touchdown, if there will be a home run in the fifth inning, if there will be a fourth-quarter comeback victory and many more.
The best way to experience live betting is by setting up an account and trying your hand at it. You get to engage in the game in a way sports bettors really haven’t been able to before the introduction of online sportsbook apps.
Futures betting odds
Just as the name indicates, futures betting is focused on longer-term outcomes. Odds for some wagers will usually be available nearly year-round for most sports, and become available for an upcoming season shortly following the conclusion of the previous one.
For example, the odds for which team will win the next Super Bowl appear almost immediately following the end of the previous Super Bowl. The new MVP barely has a chance to tell people he’s going to Disney World, and bettors are already able to wager on if that player’s team will make it back to the NFL championship or if another will take its place.
Almost every sportsbook in Florida is going to offer futures wagers, and they vary in odds as well as scope. Some are player-focused, others are team-specific and some revolve around division, conference and league championships and playoff contenders.
Futures are notoriously difficult to predict when the sports lines and odds first come out. However, that is often when the most payout potential is available to bettors. The closer it gets to the actual event that the futures line is focused on, the narrower those odds become thanks to the flow of information available to oddsmakers.
In short, the longer you wait, the easier it is to research and take an educated guess. That’s also when the odds are definitely shifting as the oddsmakers, too, gather more information. If you’re the type of bettor who likes to take long odds, then early futures betting may pique your interest.