We all know that gambling requires some strategy. Well, more luck than strategy, but it doesn’t hurt to improve your odds as best as possible. And this is where Hedge Betting comes in. Hedge Betting allows you to reduce your losses no matter how the wager turns out. You could improve your winning chances with Hedge Betting, and this post offers a simple guide on how to make it work.
How Hedge Betting Works
Hedge Betting is a safety net for punters. A way to ensure that the bet comes in your favor no matter the wager. It is similar to the popular Hedge Fund system, where an investor creates an alternative investment to offset their existing investment in the event of a loss. The difference is that Hedge Betting does not sell anything but does offset existing bets. The alternative bet must be the opposite of the original wager.
Hedge Bets is the wager a punter places to reduce risk with a previous bet. It is common with low-risk bettors or those who doubt their original wager. The Hedge reduces risk exposure and guarantees a win, even if it is lesser than if they had won the original bet. It is a balancing exercise, placing two opposite wagers to see which one comes through.
Hedge Betting is quite popular in sports bets because of its competitive nature, but it is not the guaranteed money maker it sounds like. Placing your wagers on opposite bets implies placing those wagers on conflicting odds, so when either one comes through, you would have lost the other bet. A truly rewarding Hedge Bet requires the winning bet to be high enough to cover the cost of both bets and still have extra cash as a reward.
How To Hedge A Bet
Hedge Betting is considerably easy, especially since the alternative is a complete loss. The general idea is to place a new bet that contradicts your original bet. It is alright if the Hedged bet is lesser than your original bet, but we recommend a higher Hedge. The idea is to mitigate your losses, and hedging your bet with a higher bet would help you cover the difference in the odds and the cost of the wager. Let’s try a simple description of how to hedge your bet.
When you place a $100 bet in favor of the Lakers at +2.5 -110 spread against the Clippers, you may have a winning chance because your potential win would be approximately $190 if the Lakers win the Clippers by more than 2 points, so it is a fair bet.
However, hedging your bet would be a great strategy if you have doubts about winning that spread or want to ensure that you win. The hedge would require you to bet up to $200 or more. But this time, you are betting in favor of the Clippers at the -2.5 -110 spread. The potential payout would be up to $381, which covers the cost of both wagers and leaves you with about $81 extra.
Types of Hedge Betting
Hedge Betting is a betting strategy, so it is quite different from betting markets, but it works with them. Hedging your bet is also best when there are conflicting odds, making it ideal for sports betting and betting markets that thrive on competition. Here is a list of Hedge Betting options:
Future Bet Hedging
Future Bet is one of the best markets to hedge your bet. As its name implies, you are betting on a relatively distant event, like the end of the season or several consecutive games. Placing a Future bet opens you to one of the biggest gambling risks because it involves more than one game. The risk exposure with Future Bet makes it the ideal Hedge Betting option.
Hedging a Future Bet requires you to place an alternative bet that would offset your original bet. This means betting on a competitor or even betting that your original team would lose. Placing your bet on two teams increases your chances of winning, especially if they both have fair chances at the ultimate win.
Hedging a future bet is not a guaranteed win since there is always that small window that none of the teams you selected might win. It is also a relatively safe option as Future Bets accumulate more odds than other games. The gains from either win are usually enough to cover your wager cost for both bets. But no rule says you can only make one Hedge bet.
Parlay Bet Hedging
Sports betting thrives on Parlay bets because it allows the punter to combine multiple stakes on one bet sheet. Compared to regular Moneyline or other individual stakes, Parlay allows the punter to gather as many games as they need into the sheet and build up their payout. Parlay increases the payout by rolling the accumulated stakes into one huge win, so each bet on that sheet adds to the general win. But any loss also cancels the entire sheet.
Losing an entire bet because one leg fails out of two, five, or even ten stakes creates a disadvantage for the Parlay punter, but you can also employ a hedging strategy here. Hedging Parlay bets allow you to wager against a failing leg and give yourself a chance to make some profit. However, you can only hedge the final leg.
This means that Hedge betting only applies when you have correctly wagered every other stake on the Parlay and are only worried about the last leg. To truly Hedge this Parlay, you need to set up a new bet against the undetermined leg but at a high enough stake to cover the cost of both wagers. The hedge bet should cover the wagering cost of the Parlay and offer enough wins to compensate for that loss.
Suppose you had placed a $100 5-stake parlay where the last leg is for the Clippers to win against the Lakers at -110 odds. If the potential payout is $2000, but you have doubts about your wager on the Clippers, hedging your bet in favor of the Lakers would be a wise option. You can hedge the bet by placing a $300 bet on the Lakers winning, giving you a chance to win up to $570.
While the Parlay is still undetermined, you still have an excellent chance to win $2000, but the Hedge is still a great backup. The $570 potential win on your hedge bet would compensate you for the $400 spent on the Parlay and the Hedge bet. It would also give you up to $170 as a reward. It may not be the win you want, but it is better than an outright loss.
Live Bet Hedging
Hedging live bets is one of the safest bet options, as you can already tell how the game is going. Live bet allows you to place your bets on the game as it is in progress, but you may not always make the best choice. You can minimize the loss of a wrong wager by placing a hedge bet different from your original wager. The hedge would compensate for the previous bet and, sometimes, offer you more rewards.
Get A Edge
Hedging your bet helps you manage the risks of losing a wager without incurring more costs. While it looks like an unfair advantage, Hedge betting is entirely legal and socially acceptable. The downside is that Hedge Betting may not apply to gambling options like slots, poker, or other table games. Sports betting is the most appropriate option to Hedge your bet.