Outright Betting Guide
Outright betting markets are always popular for players at the LeoVegas Sportsbook.
More and more outright betting options are becoming available all the time, giving customers an added layer of flexibility when trying to pick out winning wagers for their favourite sports.
Our guide to outright betting at the LeoVegas Sportsbook will tell you everything you need to know, so read on.
About Outright Betting
Outright betting is simple, but those new to the LeoVegas Sportsbook will benefit from a quick explanation of these wagers.
Outright betting is available on virtually every sport offered by LeoVegas. It just means placing a wager on the overall outcome of a match, competition, tournament, league, cup, trophy, and so on.
They can be for individuals or teams, depending on the sport. Outright bets take a long-term view, so customers might be waiting for a while to see whether or not their selection is a winning one.
Outright bets can often be placed long before a sporting event even gets underway. For example, let’s take the Ryder Cup in golf, where teams from the US and Europe face off. The Ryder Cup only occurs every couple of years, but outright betting markets on the next scheduled competition are almost always available for golf fans to place wagers in advance.
Some outright betting markets are also known as ante-post, particularly for sports such as horse racing.
What is an outright bet?
Outright bets simply refer to any wager on the overall outcome of any sporting event.
No matter what sport you want to bet on at the LeoVegas Sportsbook, outright bets will be offered. For example, if the NFL is your favourite, you can bet on the team that wins the Super Bowl each year.
Outright bets can also involve individuals within a team sport. Let’s take football, which is by some distance the most popular sport for people to bet on at LeoVegas. Football fans can bet on which team will win the Premier League at any point during a season or even before the campaign gets underway.
They can also place outright bets on individuals, such as which player will score the most goals throughout the season, winning the Premier League’s Golden Boot individual prize as a result. The Golden Boot outright market usually runs through a Premier League season. This means that while Manchester City’s new signing Erling Haaland was already among the Golden Boot favourites even before he had made his debut at the start of the 2022-23 season, his outright odds for the prize were soon dropped when he made a sensational start to the campaign, scoring a series of hat-tricks.
What is the difference between an outright bet and a live bet?
As noted above, outright bets can be placed before a sporting event has started, often a long time in advance. For example, in horse racing, odds for a big race such as the Grand National or the Cheltenham Gold Cup are often available weeks, if not months, before the meetings have even got up and running.
Live bets, meanwhile, are placed once the sporting action is already underway. Cricket fans, for example, might want to place a bet on the outcome of a match in the popular Indian Premier League T20 competition. Live in-play bets can be placed at any point in the game, even between each ball.
In short, outright bets are placed before the sporting action starts. Live bets are placed once it is underway.
Outright Winner Betting
In football, outright winner betting can cover a wide range of markets at the LeoVegas.
Position Betting
Position betting is one of the most popular outright betting markets in football at LeoVegas. Which team finishes top can be considered a type of position betting, though it will be labelled something else.
Taking the Premier League as an example, it will generally be possible to place an outright bet on a team finishing in the top four at the end of the season, securing Champions League football.
Other options for position betting include a finish in the top six or the top 10 of the final table.
Qualification Betting
Similarly, it is possible to take on qualification outright bets instead. Within the Premier League, this could be betting on a team to qualify for the Champions League or any other type of European competition.
In international football, qualification betting might involve backing a team to reach the final stages of the Euros or World Cup. Cup tournaments can also include a form of qualification betting in football. For example, it can be possible to place a wager on a team to qualify for the final of the FA Cup.
Relegation Betting
Dropping a league is one of the worst feelings for any football fan to experience. Outright betting markets on relegation remain very popular at the LeoVegas Sportsbook, both in the summer and during the season.
Relegation betting involves predicting which team will suffer relegation at the end of a campaign. If that team suffers the drop, the bet would be a winning wager – something to celebrate, at least.
Next Manager/Coach to be Sacked Betting
Often known as the ‘Sack Race’ in football, one of the top outright betting markets at the LeoVegas Sportsbook concerns the next manager or coach to lose their job in the Premier League.
This outright betting market is particularly popular just before the season starts as football fans try to predict which teams will start the campaign so poorly that they opt for a change in the dugout. As soon as one manager or head coach loses their job, the outright betting market will be updated with a fresh set of odds, and the cycle starts again. This betting market is, therefore, almost always available.
Award Betting
Some of the most popular outright betting markets at LeoVegas are about individual sporting awards. We have broken down some of the most popular outright betting markets for awards at LeoVegas:
Top Goalscorer: For most football competitions, there is an individual prize for the top goalscorer. This is ordinarily official, with an award at the season's end. Each league around Europe has a different name for a top goalscorer prize, but these are always among the most popular outright markets.
Player of the Year: There is usually a Player of the Year award in Europe’s top football divisions, including the Premier League. Odds for the Player of the Year are offered throughout the year.
Young Player of the Year: In the Premier League and other major leagues, there is a further award for the best young player throughout that campaign. Sometimes the same players are in the running for both the Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year, which makes it interesting to bet on.
Golden Boot: Competitions such as the World Cup have a Golden Boot prize for the top goalscorer. It is always worth checking the small print to see how Golden Boot bets are decided in the event of a tie.
Golden Ball: The World Cup also has an individual award for the best individual player at the tournament, known as the Golden Ball. The same players are often in the running for both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball, but the latter is decided by a panel of experts rather than by the number of goals.
Ballon d’Or: For many years, the Ballon d’Or was considered the top individual honour in football. Countless column inches through the year are devoted to which player will be handed the trophy. As a result, this is one of the most common outright awards betting options.
FIFA The Best: A few years ago, FIFA launched a competitor to the Ballon d’Or with its new The Best awards. It goes without saying that a similar group of players normally competes for both The Best and the Ballon d’Or, both of which also have awards for the men’s and women’s games these days.
Sports Personality of the Year: The BBC’s own Sports Personality of the Year award is another common outright betting market in this department. The gong is handed out in a glitzy televised ceremony towards the end of the calendar year.
MVP: In the NFL and other major American sports, the top award for individuals is the MVP. Standing for Most Valuable Player, the MVP inevitably goes to a quarterback at the end of the NFL season. An MVP award is also given out for the Super Bowl itself, which again often goes to the winning team’s QB.
Pros & Cons of Outright Betting
As with any other type of market, there are significant pros and cons to placing outright bets.
The fact that outright bets can often be placed a long time in advance is both a positive and a negative. For example, as soon as one FIFA World Cup ends, the odds on the next one are widely available. This allows football fans to lock in a good-value price a long time ahead of the event.
On the flip side, it does mean that people who place outright bets can be waiting quite a while for them to be settled. Waiting for winnings can be frustrating, but the higher odds on outright bets in advance can make it worth it.
Specialist outright bets such as player props wagers can reward those with more knowledge and expertise around their favourite sport. The more people know about a sport, the more likely it is that they will be able to pick out winning wagers from the outright options. For instance, those who follow horse racing closely might realise that an outright price on a particular horse is good value.
Outright bets are not always available for smaller or niche sports, which is something else to consider. However, for most major sports, there is a wealth of outright betting markets to pick from at LeoVegas.