Futures
In addition to the contests listed for each day, most sportsbooks take action on future bets for almost every major sport. The odds for these futures are just as fluid as for the daily events and will change as the money comes in, or individual teams change personnel.
The books generally love these future bets as much as the public. From the bettor’s standpoint, for a few dollars on up, you get to follow your team through the season, and if they win, you feel vindicated. You’re a true sports genius for the strength of your predictive powers, and you win money, too. Even if you don’t win, you get the thrill of rooting for a team all season long with a little something riding on it.
For the books, the futures usually work out well. They get to hold money for as long as nine months (NBA). Few professional bettors want to tie up their working capital, which could be used for daily betting. Fans supporting their favorite teams, for the most part, play these futures, so the betting action tends to be spread through the spectrum.
The men and women who run the Las Vegas sportbooks are all too aware that each year, in almost every sport, the cream rises and the better teams win. Naturally, there are upsets and longshots do work out. But, as we say in Vegas, "Form holds," and usually, what might appear to be a great bargain, isn’t.
This shouldn’t stop you from backing your team. But the chances of the Cleveland Browns winning the Super Bowl in their first year, at the posted odds of 5000-1, are almost non-existent. The books are all too happy to take whatever you want on the Browns. On the other hand, there are teams with more realistic chances of winning at 5-1, 8-1, or 10-1. These are the teams that might give you a run for your money.
