A futures bet is a bet you can make on something now that will be concluded at a later date. Common sports betting futures across every sport include betting on which team will win the championship and which player will win the MVP award.
You can place these bets as soon as odds are available, either before the season or at any point during the season, as long as the outcome is still unknown.
Futures bets are inherently more risky the earlier you place them, but that’s when you get the best odds on the favorites.
As more and more information about the season is learned and the outcomes become more clear, the odds will reflect that, and the value will go down.
If you bet on who will be the champion of a league before a single game has been played, you’re taking a pretty big risk.
If you place that bet in the middle of the season though, and that team hasn’t lost a game yet, it’s a safer bet to make given the information you now have.
Betting on futures is pretty straightforward. Most online sportsbooks will have a section for each sport they offer betting on, and then a sub section for “futures”.
Some future sections are more extensive than others, but every bet you can make will be lined up there. All you have to do is click on the player or team you want to bet on, and the bet will be added to your bet slip.
Another thing you need to know before you place a futures bet, is that you’ll sometimes find drastically different odds across the industry.
When you’re betting on an individual game, all the information is known before that game, and sportsbooks are generally similar across the board with the lines and odds they offer.
With futures though, the more unknown there is between the time you place the bet and the time the event is concluded, the more variance you’ll see in terms of odds.
What we do here is present you with the best odds from across the sportsbooks on any bet you want to make so you don’t have to spend all your time researching to find it yourself.
Here’s an example of the futures odds for the NBA Championship:
You can see that the Celtics are currently the favorites to win the championship, and if you want to bet on them winning it, your best odds would be at BetMGM. The rest of the top 5 all have different odds on different sportsbooks, and the best odds you can get are shown in this graphic. You also click on “more sportsbooks” to see the odds for each team across every sportsbook.
The NFL season starts in September, but many futures odds are available well before that. During the summer you’ll be able to bet on the Super Bowl winner, conference winners, division winners, how many games each team will win, and more. You’ll also be able to be on player awards like MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Rookie of the year. The regular season ends in January and the Super Bowl is in the middle of February. All of the player awards are announced at a ceremony days before the Super Bowl.
The NBA season starts at the end of October and goes through the beginning of June, with the All Star game taking place right in the middle, in February. Futures bets are available well before the season starts, and some popular ones include: Finals winner, each conference winner, MVP winner, Defensive Player of the Year winner, and the rest of the individual awards. During the first half of the season, some sportsbooks allow you to bet on whether a player will be named an All Star that year.
Baseball and its 162 game season start every year on April 1st, and the World Series is played in October. Your basic futures odds are generally available shortly after the season. Team futures like World Series winner, league winner, division winner, and “will team x make the playoffs, as well as individual awards like MVP, Rookie of the Year, and Cy Young.
Similar to the NFL, college football season starts in early September and ends in January. During the offseason you may only be able to find futures odds on the National Championship winner and the Heisman winner, but closer to the season you’ll be able to bet on much more. Will team x make the playoffs? Which team will win each conference? How many games will team x win? Will all be available closer to the season.
The college basketball season starts in November, goes through March Madness, and then has its national championship in April. Some popular futures for college basketball include who will win each conference, who will make and win the NCAA tournament, and who will win the Wooden award. A large chunk of college basketball betting revolves around the NCAA tournament. You can place futures bets from well before the season on who will make the final four, and in some sportsbooks you can bet futures on how far into the tournament each team will go.
