Welcome to the Pinnacle Sports Betting Help section.
This section is intended for players who are new to sports betting and for bettors who would like a quick refresher course on the most common bets available for online betting at the Pinnacle Sports book. Please make your selection from the links below.
Straight bets are the most common type of sports bet at Pinnacle Sports and are a single bet on the outcome of a game. They can generally be broken down into three types;
When two teams of varying strengths play, sports books offer a ‘point spread’ on the ‘side’ or team. The point spread is the number of points that the favoured team is expected to win by. The point spread will then be added to one team's score to determine which side won the bet (which might be different from who actually won the game).
For example if the New England Patriots are playing the Miami Dolphins and New England is favoured to beat Miami by 7 points, that means that if you pick New England to win, they have to win by more than 7 points for you to win your bet.
If they win by less than 7 points or lose the game, you lose your bet. If they win by exactly 7 points (the point spread), the result is a tie for betting purposes and your original bet is refunded.
Alternatively if you pick Miami to win, they must either win the game or you can still win your bet if Miami lose by less than the point spread of 7 points. If they lose by exactly 7 points, the result is a tie for betting purposes and your original bet is refunded.
The favourite is indicated by a minus sign and the underdog by a plus sign. If the teams are evenly matched and there is no point spread, the teams will be displayed as PK or 0, which means the point spread is zero.
The result of the game for betting purposes is determined by taking the actual score and subtracting points from the favourite’s score or adding points to the underdog's score. For our example, New England would be -7 or Miami would be +7. In other words, we would subtract 7 points from the Patriots final score or add 7 points to the Dolphins final score to determine the winner for betting purposes.
A bet on the total is a wager on the total number of points scored in the game by both teams combined. You can bet on whether the actual number of total points scored is over or under the line posted. The total points scored include points scored in overtime unless otherwise noted.
Baseball betting and some other sports events are handled a little differently than football, basketball and hockey. Oddsmakers don't set a point spread for baseball games. Instead, they set a moneyline. The moneyline gives the odds that one team will simply beat another.
The easiest way to understand a moneyline is to think of it as an indication of the amount you need to bet to win $100 (or 100 of whatever currency you are betting in) or the amount you will win if you bet $100.
Money lines are expressed with a negative number, say -110, or a positive number, say +110. A negative money line number indicates what you must wager to win $100, and a positive money line number indicates what you will win if you wager $100.
If you bet $110 on a team with a money line of -110, and they win, you will win $100 (plus return of your original $110 bet). If you bet $100 on a team with a money line of +110, and they win, you will win $110 (plus return of the original $100 bet). Unlike point spread bets, the teams do not have to win by any particular number of points.
It should be remembered that you do not have to bet an amount equal to the money line number. You can bet more or less and the payoff simply becomes a proportional amount. For example, if you bet $10.50 on a money line of -105, and your bet wins, you will win $10. If you bet $50 on a money line of +110, and win, you will win $55.
An Asian Handicap is a bet on the outcome of a football match. In addition to a moneyline price for the bet selected, there are one or two handicaps or point spreads for the selection.
If there is a single handicap, the entire bet is resulted after the score is adjusted by the handicap. For example, consider the following bet offer;
The Asian handicap for this game is Portugal -1.5 goals. If Portugal wins by at least 2 goals, bets on Portugal win. If Mexico wins, draws the match, or loses by exactly one goal, for betting purposes the bet on Mexico wins. Some handicaps will be whole numbers (i.e. 0 goals, +1 goal, +2 goals). If a bet ends in a tie after adjusting for the handicap, bets ‘push’ and the stake is refunded.
In some cases, there will be two handicaps listed for a game. For example;
When two handicaps are listed, half of your bet is placed on each of the handicaps. If you selected Manchester United and placed a bet of $122 to win $100, your actual bets would be $61 at 0, and $61 at +0.5 goals. If the game ended in a tie, you would receive a refund on your $61 bet on 0 goals and win $50 on your bet on Manchester United +0.5 goals. If Manchester United won the game, you would win both sides of your bet and receive $100. If Manchester United lost the game, you would lose your bet of $122.
Totals can also have two handicaps, and work similar to Asian handicaps. For example, if a player bet Under 2.5 and 3 -108, half his bet would be under 2.5, and half would be under 3. Just like the Asian handicap on the team to win the game, a player could win or lose half of their bet depending on the selection they make.
A proposition (or prop bet) is simply a bet on something other than a game spread or total and these are generally considered some of the easiest for a player to beat. When you see the line on an NFL game, it is the result of at least a dozen separate odds makers whose collective opinion is merged to form the market. When you bet on a proposition, it’s typically your opinion versus one odds maker. If you know more than that one odds maker, you are going to get the best of it.
Proposition (prop) bets are offered on a variety of different events that happen during a game and range from which team will win the coin toss to a match-up between two players in a particular event or game. Due to the variety of different proposition bets offered, the terms and conditions are noted individually for each bet offer when making a bet. Like future bets, all odds offered are to win only unless otherwise noted.
For players looking to improve their bank balance, betting on props is one of the best ways to win long-term. And by playing at low margins, the odds will be even more in your favour. At Pinnacle Sports we use a 16 cent line on props, which offers up to 60% better value than traditional bookmakers.
Future and ante-post bets are wagers on a team's chance of winning the championship at the start of a particular season (Superbowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, World Cup, English Premier League etc.). The odds on a team will change as the season progresses, but you get the odds that were in effect at the time you placed your bet. All odds offered are to win only unless otherwise noted.
Event betting works in much the same way and are simply bets on an individual tennis or golf tournament, a NASCAR or horse race or on a boxing match for example. Again, all odds offered are to win only unless otherwise noted.
A parlay (also known as an accumulator or multi-way) is a combination of 2 or more picks on 1 or more games. You must correctly predict all of your selections to win your parlay. The more games you select in your parlay, the higher the odds increase and the bigger the potential win if all of your selections are correct.
For more information on placing a parlay bet at Pinnacle Sports including how parlays are calculated, details of the payout tables for winning parlays and the terms and conditions, please go to the rules section of this Web site.
A teaser is like a parlay, but you can adjust the point spread in your favour to increase your chances of winning. Additional points are either added to the underdog or subtracted from the favourite when betting a teaser.
The odds change according to the number of points the spread is moved in your favour and the number of teams combined to form the teaser. The more games you select in your teaser, the higher the odds increase and the bigger the potential win if all of your selections are correct.
For example, Miami might be favoured by 10 points in one game and Dallas might be a 5 point underdog in a second game. A 6 point teaser on the favourite would adjust the Miami point spread 6 points in your favour so that Miami would now be favoured by 4 points (10-6=4). In the case of the underdog, a 6 point teaser would increase the Dallas point spread 6 points in favour of Dallas so that they would receive 11 points (5+6=11).
As in a parlay or accumulator, all selections must be correct for your bet to win.
For the terms and conditions on teasers at Pinnacle Sports including details of the payout tables for winning teasers, please go to the rules section of this Web site.
In many sports including basketball betting and American football betting, we give players the option to buy or sell points on the spread, which changes the moneyline according to your bet. You can see how the price will change before making your bet by looking at the pull-down menu for the wager, and selecting by how many points you want to adjust the point spread by.
For example;
If you wanted to bet on the Indianapolis Colts, you could click on the ‘-7 +132 -6.5 +118 -6 +112 -5.5 +106 -5 +100 -4.5 -106 -4 -114 -3.5 -122 -3 -134 -2 -154 ’. This would give you a drop down box:
-7 +132 -6.5 +118 -6 +112 -5.5 +106 -5 +100 -4.5 -106 -4 -114 -3.5 -122 -3 -134 -2.5 -146 -2 -154
By selecting a different spread, you can increase the odds by moving the point spread against the Colts, or you can reduce the number of points they must cover to make it easier to win your bet but receive slightly reduced odds in return.
Pinnacle Sports offers online betting on most Classic races from around the World until post time including two-horse match-ups on selected races.
On premier events, at Pinnacle Sports we offer odds on the outcome of the match-up while the game is being played or ‘in-progress’. If we are going to offer live odds on an event, the game will display a “Live Odds” header before the event begins to alert players of the upcoming opportunity.
Live betting is treated the same as any other bet, although the pricing will reflect what has happened in the game so far.
For example, in Super Bowl XL, at the start of the second quarter, Seattle led Pittsburgh 3-0. We might offer the following lines:
If you place a bet on the Seattle Seahawks +2.5 -116, this bet would be graded the same as if it were made before the game began. If Seattle won the game or lost by exactly 1 or 2 points, your wager would win. Alternatively, if you bet on the Pittsburgh Steelers they must win by 3 points or more for your bet to win.