As states like Ohio continue to legalize sports betting across the United States, the industry has never been more popular. Sportsbooks are doing everything they can to attract new users to their platforms, as you may have seen with ad campaigns on TV, radio, podcasts, and sports websites. Even leagues are partnering with sports betting companies, which would’ve been unheard of just a short time ago.
So much competition in the marketplace is great news for sports bettors, as many sportsbooks are offering a variety of promotions to new and experienced users of their platforms. That’s where odds boosts come in. Whether it is a large boost just to get you in the door or a random day during the week, sportsbooks may boost the odds to tempt customers with the possibility of a larger payout. With so many of these boosts available, sports bettors should be on the lookout because they can help you increase your profit and earn more money in your sports betting endeavors.
In this guide, we will take you through the basics of what odds boost offers are, including examples of some you might see, and provide tips on when to use them.
What are odds boosts?
With an odds boost, sportsbooks change the gambling odds in the sports bettors’ favor. These boosts can come in many different sizes, though the biggest generally are promotions for new users. Sportsbooks often will offer smaller boosts frequently throughout the week for random sporting events to keep existing bettors happy with slightly increased odds. Odds boosts are also very popular whenever there is a big-time sporting event that should receive a significant amount of attention from sports fans and bettors.
Why do sportsbooks offer odds boosts?
Odds boosts exist because sportsbooks want to attract as many users as possible. One thing every sports bettor should know is that sports betting is heavily skewed in the sportsbooks’ favor, and only the best of sports bettors will ever earn a profit in the long term.
Sportsbooks understand they have an advantage over the betting public, so they are willing to take a short-term risk for a long-term gain. They will offer boosts and benefits because they know that over time, bettors are likely to eventually give that money back and probably more.
Odds boosts can be beneficial for sports bettors who use them properly, but sportsbooks know odds boosts are good for their business. In addition to adding users and keeping existing bettors satisfied, sportsbooks can promote these different boosts to the general public as part of their advertising. They will promote how you could potentially win more money with just a small wager.
How odds boosts work in sports betting
Now that you know the very basics of odds boosts, let’s take a look at some boosts involving the professional sports teams from Ohio in the NFL, the NBA, and MLB.
NFL odds boosts
For our NFL sports betting example, we’ll take a look at one of the more extreme odds boosts you’ll find, and this was actually available during the 2021 regular season. DraftKings Sportsbook offered a 150-1 odds boost for new users for a game between the Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. All bettors needed to do was sign up for a DraftKings account to take advantage, and a $1 wager on that game would’ve resulted in $150 in bonuses for you to start betting.
Another rarity about this promotion is that it didn’t even matter who won. You could’ve bet on the Browns or Beras, and regardless of the outcome, you would’ve received $150 to your betting account. DraftKings was willing to give you essentially a free $150 no matter what happened just to get you to start betting with it. That may sound like a bad business move for the sportsbook, but it understands that the odds are still in its favor to make money off you eventually.
NBA odds boosts
While the NFL example was a bit of an extreme odds boost, our NBA odds boost scenario is something existing users might see during a regular week during the season. Many NBA betting sites will often offer bettors odds boosts for team and player props, so let’s use Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley in our example.
FanDuel Online Sportsbook shows Mobley has -110 odds to score more than 16 points in the next game, but an odds boost could increase those odds to something like +120. That means you would’ve needed to bet $110 to win $100 with the initial odds. Now, after the odds boost, a $100 wager would win $120 if it’s correct.
This odds boost is obviously not even close to the value you would’ve gotten in the new user boost that we mentioned in the NFL example, but this is where smart sports bettors can take advantage and stay ahead of the sportsbooks with small edges throughout the year.
MLB odds boosts
Let’s use MLB betting for our final example, and assume the Cleveland Guardians are in a World Series Game 7 matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers. With a big-time event like this, sportsbooks know lots of bets are likely to come in as fans may want to entertain themselves a little more in a game they’re already going to be watching.
Like the NBA, a lot of MLB odds boosts are likely to be for prop bets. For this odds boost, let’s say the Caesars sportsbook app is increasing Jose Ramirez’s odds to hit a home run from +550 to +750. With the increase in odds, you could receive a $20 larger payout on a $10 wager, for example.
How to take advantage of enhanced odds
This should be obvious, but you do not have to use every odds boost a sportsbook offers. A good rule of thumb is to only bet on something that you would’ve considered betting before the odds received a boost.
For example, if you saw the Cincinnati Bengals were getting +450 odds as the underdog to beat the New England Patriots outright, you know right away it’s highly unlikely the Bengals can pull off that upset. If an odds boost for that game increases Cincinnati’s betting odds to +500, the chances of the Bengals winning are still very low, so it shouldn’t matter what the odds are. No matter what the payout could be, there’s still an extremely small chance the Bengals would get the job done in that scenario, and you’re probably wasting your money using those types of odds boosts.
A good time to use odds boosts is for an outcome that has -110 odds on both sides, which means the sportsbook is estimating that there’s about a 50% chance of either outcome to be correct. When the item you want to bet enters positive value, that’s where you can take advantage and increase a payout on a wager you would’ve potentially made anyway.
Finding odds boosts at Ohio sportsbooks
Sportsbook apps are easy to navigate, and you should not have much issue finding the odds boosts. Sportsbooks want to promote odds boosts and promotions as often as they can because they’re good for business, so they’re not going to make it difficult to locate them.
Sportsbooks will likely have a promotions page to scroll through, and many will have a specific tab that shows odds boosts. When you select that, you can navigate through the various boosted odds regardless of the sport and determine whether you think any are worth it.
Advantage of using multiple sportsbooks
Something to consider is registering for accounts at multiple sportsbooks. The reasons to do so include line shopping, but it can also give you access to a more varied array of odds boosts across the sports betting universe.
DraftKings will have different bet boosts available than FanDuel. Additionally, Caesars will offer promotions that won’t be available on the BetMGM Online Sportsbook app. If you are gearing up for an important game and prefer one sportsbook’s promotions over the others, it doesn’t make sense to strictly bet with a book whose odds boosts are not as good in your opinion.
If you are trying to earn a profit from sports betting in Ohio— which is extremely difficult to do and quite rare over a long period of time — there is no reason to be loyal to one platform. By opening accounts at multiple sportsbooks, you can access more promotions for a chance at better odds and a larger potential payout.
Price boosts – Read the fine print
Before placing any amount of money on any sort of odds boost, always check the fine print of what that particular promotion entails. If a big odds boost seems too good to be true, that may in fact be the case. Some odds boosts will list a certain number of requirements that you must satisfy before you can cash out the money.
These requirements may include betting up to a certain dollar amount before withdrawing funds. Regardless, make sure you’re reading the rules and regulations no matter which sportsbook you are using because the fine print could be quite a bit different depending on what odds boosts you decide to use.