Futures Betting

Sports betting futures allows you to place a ‘future bet’ on who will win the championship, conference championship or divisional titles in all of the sports, where appropriate. This is well in advance of knowing who will actually be playing for the championships, and will have all of the teams available, meaning that the odds will also be better. 

You can place a future bet on anyone you think will win the championship, with factors such as previous year’s performance, off-season signings and trades and strength of schedule impacting how the bookmakers create the odds. 

Below is a tennis example of the future betting lines from the 2020 US Open, showing the top 10 chances in betting lines.

Novak Djokovic is a clear -110 favourite to win the US Open, with these odds taken four days in advance of the first round being played. 

There is some great value to place a future bet on one of the young guns in Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Zverev, which will only decrease as the tournament goes on and more players are eliminated from contention.

A popular future bet before a season starts for any given sport, is to bet on the win totals for teams during the regular season.

The bookmakers determine an amount of wins they think that each team will have throughout the season and give odds for you to make a future bet on over or under that amount. 

In the NFL, you can also place a future bet on who you think will win individual awards for the sports, such as MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and more. 

This is a great way to back in your favourite gun player, or take advantage of a player who will get increased exposure with a new team situation. The worry with this market is it takes one unfortunate play and your player to miss a chunk of the season to derail this bet, so it is always best to choose the guns, but also the most durable players. Check out who our experts think will take out all of the NFL Individual Awards now, including MVP!

Some of the best tips when placing a future bet are:

• Look at all of the off-season moves, which teams did well, which players will have more opportunities, which teams have an easier schedule 
• Shop around to different bookmakers. Bookmakers will have different odds on all futures markets, so find which has the best value for your specific bet, and also see which bookmakers allow you to parlay futures bets together.
• Follow team performance throughout the season, and try to beat the bookmakers to their updates. You might be able to place a bet on a team after an incredible  performance they have before the bookmakers can decrease their odds. 
• Don’t always back the heavy favourites. Make sure you do your research, or let us do it for you, and follow the path that teams may need to take to reach the Finals, Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, or so on before you place a bet on the team to win it all.
• Hedge your bets. We have an article that explains hedging in depth, but if you placed a wager on the San Francisco 49ers to win the 2020 Super Bowl as a future bet before the season started, you could have placed a bet on the Kansas City Chiefs to win the match once the two teams won their conference championship matches and the Super Bowl game market opened up. This way you would lock in profit no matter the end result…

Now you understand how to place a future bet, shop around the bookmakers and see the difference in their odds, and check out our expert’s articles for who we have becoming the new Champion for all of the sports, including NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, College Football, College Basketball, UFC, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, Horse Racing and eSports. 

For information on other betting markets, check out our betting guides on moneyline, spread, totals, parlay and prop betting.