Live betting, also commonly referred to as in-play betting, is a form of sports betting where punters can wager on a sporting event after it’s already gotten underway. Basically, you’re betting on different markets for a game as the game is being played live right in front of your eyes. The live and direct aspect of this type of betting can be quite exhilarating and it’s usually offered for both desktop and mobile devices.
Depending on the sport, there are sometimes no limits on what kind of bets you can make in the live format. Whether it’s Moneyline, point spread or alternate point spread, player props and other types, some sportsbooks have really opened up the floodgates for in-play betting.
The sportsbooks will continuously update the odds for each market being offered during the game, usually using an algorithm. For example, say the Steelers had a -3.5 point spread going into a game against the Packers and the Steelers went up 14-0 early, the update would likely have Pittsburgh’s live odds offering a spread of about -17.0.
Another example of the live updates being made is when a team gets closer to the endzone in NFL games, their likelihood of scoring a touchdown becomes much higher, so their odds to score are adjusted accordingly to offer less value as the proposition becomes more and more likely.
Updated odds are also very common for those sports betting sites that offer live betting for combat sports such as boxing and MMA. The sportsbooks will often provide punters with updated odds for various markets after each round that are informed by how the fight has gone so far.
Other common live bets regard how many of a certain stat a player might tally, for American football which team or which player will score the next touchdown, or for soccer, which team or player will score the next goal.