Some UFC betting players may be just getting into the game heading into UFC 126, where middleweight champion and pound-for-pound No.1 Anderson Silva will take on Vitor Belfort on what should be an exciting card in Las Vegas. Here are a couple of things to look at before you make your sportsbook picks.

Styles

Just like in team sports, some styles just don’t agree in MMA, so you can take a look at each fighter’s style and see if they clash. For example, Silva has shown in the past that he can be taken down to the mat, although he is tough to put away once you get him on the mat. This is why Thales Leites and Demain Maia, a pair of submission and grappling artists wanted no parts of Silva while they were standing up. Of course, you also get guys like welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, who many thought couldn’t stand up with anyone. Then he spent most of his last fight against Josh Koscheck teeing off on him with jabs.

Past Opposition

This ties into the first part as you can look back at past opposition and see what fighters/styles have given a fighter the most trouble. But other things to factor in is the level of opposition a fighter has gone up against; it’s like the TCU argument in NCAA football, who have they beaten? Also, is it their first time in a title match or main event? There is more pressure in those situations than in those mid-card matches, and if they haven’t fought in that kind of fight, there may be nerves, which could hurt their chances at online betting sites.

Online Sports Betting Systems are in a very lucrative business. People spend billions of dollars each year to make sports wagers on the Internet. Online sportsbooks attract customers by offering bonuses and incentives for depositing funds into an account. A majority of the profits made by sportsbooks are attained through a concept called the vigorish. Before making any bets online, potential bettors should have a solid understanding of what the vigorish entails.

Understanding the Vigorish

In an exchange for providing services, online sportsbooks charge a fee called the vigorish. Also known as the juice or the fee you pay in losing in a video slots, sportsbooks use the vigorish concept to ensure that they earn a profit regardless of the outcome of a sporting event while also driving up the action on both sides of any particular sporting event. This is achieved by adjusting the point spread or line of an upcoming game.

Who Pays the Vigorish?

Assume the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics were about to play each other. Neither team is favored, giving bettors a 50/50 chance to win some dough. Considering the odds, you must risk $110 to win $100. You’re a lifelong Lakers fan but you’re buddy loves the Celtics. You bet $110 on the Lakers and your friend risks the same amount on the Celtics. The sports book collects a total of $220. The Celtics win, earning your friend $100 in winnings while you lose your $110. The $10 left over goes to the sportsbook for providing their services. This tax off the top of the action is called the vig or vigorish.

Betting on Underdog Avoids Juice

Let’s say there is a college football game between the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins. The Trojans are favored to win. The odds are 110/90, meaning for every $100 you bet on USC, you get $90 back if you win. If you bet on UCLA to win, you’d earn $110. In this situation, only those betting on USC would pay the vigorish, because the Trojans were favored. Conversely, the sportsbook rewards those who risked money on UCLA because the odds of winning were lower.

Simply put, if you make the safe choice and bet on the favorite just like in video roulette, expect to be hit by the juice. In the example above, betting $100 on USC would have only yielded $90 in winnings. The remaining $10 went to sportsbook. The losing bettor forfeits their entire bet. There is no juice when betting on the underdog.

College football betting players are always looking for an edge, and it is the same in the NHL, where the season is just over a month old and teams are starting to come together. If you’re looking for an NHL betting system, there is an easy one that will get you started: bet on the home team.

It’s a long season in the NHL, and most teams are just going to play better at home than they do on the road. This will happen a lot with young teams, as it is similar to college sports: younger players usually respond better to favorable crowd support, and they’ll get down on themselves easier than veterans when it comes to hostile fans. Generally, hockey teams will win 57% of their games on the road, which is a decent winning percentage, so your best bet is to take advantage of the times when a good home team is playing a bad visiting team. This is an even better bet when the home team has lost their last home game, because they’re going to come back even harder in their next game.

As we said earlier, now is the time to get in on this system as you can’t tell much in the first couple of months of the season. It’s been long enough now that teams are on stable footing, and you can pretty much assume that the teams that are good at home now, are going to be good at home for the rest of the year. Take this tip and head over to your favorite sports betting sites for big winnings!

Second in betting popularity only to the Super Bowl, the March Madness Tournament is one of the most exciting sports events to ever be created. Bettors from a plethora of other sports, similar to the Super Bowl, actually take a break from their niches to get involved in office and friends pools for the legendary tournament. For the sports betting fan new to March Madness, here are a few tips on how to bet on the tournament.

Sides

During the early rounds of the tournament, the majority of wagers go in the direction of the favorite. Over the last few years, the favorite has won the majority of games at an astounding 56.3 percentage. What’s more, in the last three years, bettors that pick teams ranked in the top four, which are favored by 10 or more points against their opponents, win at an incredible 60 percent.

Throughout the tournament’s history, the number one seed is undefeated against the 16 seed. Yet, one should keep in mind, that betting underdogs at least on the point spread can have its advantages. For instance, in that same three year survey noted above, the number one seed is only seven and four against the spread of 20 or more points when facing a 16 seed.

As well, taking the underdog in a low spread game can be beneficial too. For example, favorites have a losing record when it comes to games with a spread of two and a half points or less.

Totals

In keeping with the three year study from above, we discovered that 103 games have gone over the total while 86 went under. Moreover, in games where the total is listed at fewer than 125, the games have gone over at almost 58 percent of the time.

Ever since he was acquired by the Lakers from the now defunct Charlotte Hornets in 1996, Kobe Bryant has been the face of not only the Lakers but the NBA. Sports betting is naturally a difficult way to make money, however since 96′ Kobe has been making Laker fans very rich for betting on him. Now 14 years later, Kobe and his Laker teammates are aiming to win back to back championships for the first time since the early 2000’s when Bryant was part of the dynamic duo with Shaq, which guided the team to three straight championships.

Although only being in the league for 14 years, Bryant has guaranteed himself a hall of fame spot, as he has proven to be the essential piece to the Laker puzzle, which keeps them moving. On Thursday, the Lakers will kick-off the 2010 NBA finals against Eastern Conference and historical arch rival the Boston Celtics. In years past NBA championship betting has been easy, as the West has primarily dominated the East. This year however, Kobe and the Lakers will have their hands full as the 2008 champion Celtics appear to be back in form.

Fans betting on the NBA finals for the first time, should feel confident in taking Kobe and the Lakers as they appear stronger than last year’s squad. Further, although the Celtics have Pierce, Allen and Garnett, the Lakers have Kobe. Annually, teams try to take out the Lakers by having more than one star on the team, and annually those teams fail. Kobe is the x-factor for the Lakers, which allows them to be so dominant. Over his career Kobe Bryant has been compared to Chicago Bulls icon Michael Jordan, however, as this year will prove, Bryant is better than Jordan as he and the Lakers will beat a stacked Celtics team in five games while winning their second straight championship and sixth of Bryant’s career.

Today Canada and the Czech Republic played in a Round Robin game with the winner avoiding a quarter final match up against the stacked Russian team led by Russian phenom and playoff flop Alexander Ovechkin. Ovechkin the NHL’s Lebron James, is the star of a Russian squad which also has NHL stars Pavel Datsyuk, Evgenie Malkin and Seymon Varlamov to name a few. Going into the game the Canadians had played two hard fought games against Norway and Sweden without sensation Steven Stamkos. Unfortunately for the Czech Republic, Stamkos would be returning, giving Canadian fans betting on the team a ton of confidence going into the game. However by game’s end the Czech Republic led by former NHLer Jaromir Jagr and NHL goalie Tomas Vokun walked away with the three to two victory. Stamkos appeared invisible at best and the strong play of the Czech Republic was over shadowed by a chippy affair which saw things turn ugly by the end of the game. In the final two minutes with Canada down three to one, Canadian forward Corey Perry thought it would be a smart idea to run into Czech goalie Vokun.

As a result the Czech defense proceeded to go after Perry for running into Vokun, which then led to Canadian forward Matt Duchene scoring into an empty net, cutting the lead and eventual final to three to two.  Sports betting enthusiasts could not imagine what would happen in the final minute of the game, as although the Czech won the game, they were still upset with Perry as seven of the Czech players attacked him. In turn the rest of the Canadian players also on the ice came to the aid of Perry as a line brawl broke out. The Canadians will now go on to face the dreaded Russians in one quarterfinal match while the Czech Republic will face the Swedes in another. As a hockey fan one can only hope it is Canada vs. the Czech Republic in the final to see if the bad blood remains.

Super Saver reigns supreme in the slop

It was a sloppy track on the occasion of the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby, and when 20 horses had all covered 1.25 miles of real estate at Churchill Downs, Super Saver came out on top. Calvin Borel - the rural Louisiana legend who has established himself as one of the greatest jockeys in the sport of kings - has now won three of his past four Kentucky Derby mounts, having already won with Street Sense and then last year with Mine That Bird. Borel guided Super Saver to victory this past Saturday on a muddy mess, but he still followed his patented strategy of guiding his horse to the rail when the final turn approached. Runner-up Ice Box tried to make a bold push on the outside, but the rail normally offers the best path for Kentucky Derby winners … at least when Calvin Borel is the man at the controls.

Nadal wins landmark Masters 1000 title in Rome

Sports betting enthusiasts might not have known what to expect from Rafael Nadal two months ago, but now, it’s a very safe bet that the Spaniard - who will turn just 24 years old this year - has once again established himself as the man to beat for the remainder of the clay-court tennis season. On Sunday, Nadal put the finishing touches on an historic championship, as the lefty outlasted countryman David Ferrer, 7-5, 6-2, to win the Rome Masters 1000 event. The win marked Nadal’s 17th Masters 1000 (formerly known as the Masters Series) crown, tying him with Andre Agassi for the most in tennis history. It’s true that the “Masters” event is relatively recent in the sport’s evolution, but the achievement still points to Nadal’s amazing consistency. The best clay-court competitor since Bjorn Borg has now won five of the last six Rome titles, in addition to having won each of the last six Monte Carlo Masters.

Henin triumphs in Stuttgart for first title since return

If one great tennis champion had a fantastic week on the men’s side, another decorated performer capped off a similarly glorious week in the world of women’s tennis. Justine Henin, who returned to the court this year after a self-imposed tennis hiatus, won the first WTA Tour title of her new tennis life. On Sunday afternoon, Henin disposed of Australia’s Samantha Stosur, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, in the final of the Porsche Grand Prix event in Stuttgart, Germany. Stosur - who reached the semifinals of last year’s French Open, produced another strong run in a clay-court tournament, and she took the second set from Henin in appreciably decisive fashion. However, Henin once again showed why she’s won seven major championships in her career. The diminutive but muscular Belgian, despite playing with a broken finger on her left hand, regrouped to take the third set and enter the winner’s circle. Henin - who has been unseeded in every event she has played in 2010 - earned enough ranking points to crack the top 20 with the French Open just a few weeks away. This performance will ensure that Henin is one of the top three favorites to win at Roland Garros.

Betting enthusiasts looking for a choice to invest in a team to win this year’s NBA Championship should look to perhaps the biggest mismatch of the first round to find their pick. The Cleveland Cavaliers begin their run at an NBA title against the Chicago Bulls, a series that offered the most lopsided NBA odds of all the opening round match ups. Already up two games to none, the Cavaliers aren’t looking to waste any time on their way to the big game.

Unlike a season ago when they just didn’t have the tools for a long run, the Cavaliers are stacked heading in to this postseason, with two key additions that will make the sport betting difference this year.

Cleveland fell to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern conference finals a year ago, and the presence of Dwight Howard in the paint was the biggest part of their undoing. Enter Shaquille O’Neal and his four NBA championships, whose signing with the Cavaliers will be judged solely on his ability to earn a fifth championship this season. Cleveland also added Antawn Jamison from the Washington Wizards during the season as another scoring weapon that can excel both in the paint, or pull outside with his perimeter game to open up more room underneath, and serve as another kick-out option for Lebron James.

The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers have struggled all season with injuries and inconsistencies, and that will be the difference when the Cavaliers beat them in this year’s NBA finals.

February is over which means one thing.

March Madness is on the horizon.

It’s the time of the year college basketball betting enthusiasts love more than any other, as they formulate their systems, and determine their brackets for the big tournament.

The great thing about March Madness is that smart money can be won by playing to the factors that comprise most betting systems.

Betting against the public, monitoring line movement, and analyzing the top seeds are three criteria that in unison provide the ultimate betting system.

Since 2003, top seeds have gone a terrible 20-25 against the spread in the first round of the tournament. This trend can be made use of by analyzing the top seeds and their opponents in the opening round.

On average, the betting public majority has lost 53-57% on average. By focusing on the top selection of heavily wagered on games, investors can increase their opportunity for success.

Another excellent criteria by which to gain a betting edge is to monitor line movement. The line will often change a couple of points based on where the public majority lays its money. That indication can be used along with the concept of betting against the majority to increase the chances of winning.

March Madness is the time of the year NCAA basketball betting enthusiasts wait for all year. Implementing a proven betting system can limit the chance of risk, and improve the odds of winning for all wagers.

The Super Bowl odds are up and most people are itching to get in on the action for Super Bowl XLIV. But before you dive head-first into the pool, you have to be cautious of where you are diving to make sure that you don’t drown.

Cheesy analogies aside, here is a great Super Bowl betting system:

Middling is not a new concept in the sports betting community but with so many different wacky props and betting lines during the Super Bowl, we are afforded a good opportunity in the big game.

Usually – and this isn’t always, but usually – the Super Bowl matches up two teams who are very even against each other. After all, theoretically, this is supposed to be a matchup of the two best and last teams standings.

With all the alternate lines available, we can get both teams as an underdog and hope for a close game.

For the Super Bowl, we can take the Indianapolis Colts +10.5 and the New Orleans Saints +17.5 and if the game lands in that 28-point window, we win the bet.

Obviously, if it lands outside of it, we are laying -800on the Colts and -500 on the Saints, which could be costly, but this game is supposed to be close between two high-scoring teams and the likelihood of it being a blowout one way or another is unlikely. That’s why middling is a good opportunity for Super Bowl XLIV.

Pick: Bet Both Colts +10.5 & Saints +17.5