We assume you likely know how to bet on moneylines, point spreads, and totals by now, and are finding this page to spice up your sports betting game. If bets are quite complicated, especially when you are including more than two events on your wager. These are more complicated than parlay wagers, which is similar but combine odds of wagers instead of basing the next wager off the last.
If bets give you the opportunity to connect two to six bets together, similar to a parlay. The only difference is that the bets are placed conditionally in stages and the next bet is dependent on you correctly picking the winning outcome in the previous stage. It essentially ties games together but only allows one to be played or contested at a time.
Your first bet will need to win for your second bet to be eligible, and then if you bet on more than two games, your second bet will also need to win to trigger your third, and so on.
There are other options within if bets: you can choose ‘If Win Only’ which means that your subsequent bets will only count if your preceding bet wins, and ‘If Win or Push’, which is sometimes called Double Action, that your subsequent bets will have action if the previous bet is a win or push, or even canceled.
‘If Win Only’ bets will give you the option to bet more money total than your initial bet amount. The bets that follow your wins can include the original wager amount plus any winnings from the previous won games.
For a simple example, let’s say you want to bet on an NFL Sunday. You decide to choose three if bet options that occur at different points in the day (not that this is totally important, you can place if bets on games that start at any time):
- Green Bay Packers -150 (1:15 pm game)
- Kansas City Chiefs -120 (4:15 pm game)
- Dallas Cowboys +250 (Sunday Night Football at 8pm)
These games all work perfectly for if bets, as they don’t occur simultaneously, and if each bet is correct, will allow for the next one to occur in natural order if you plan to watch each game. If the Green Bay Packers win at the early game, your bet clears and you’ll win and your second bet on the Chiefs will activate. Then you will need the Chiefs to wager to win as well in order to activate your third and final bet.
Once your third bet is activated, you will need the Cowboys to win for your entire bet slip to cash.
If any of these games lose, your bet slip won’t win. Like parlays, all parts of your bet needs to be correct to be eligible for winnings. You really have to be certain with your first bet, as that is the most important one that will trigger the rest of the bet slip.
Let’s break it down further:
You decide to bet $25 on the Green Bay Packers at -150, in which you would win $16.67 plus your initial $25 for $41.67. If you chose ‘If Win Only’ your winnings would be rolling into your next bet, so you would be betting $41.67 on the second bet, The Chiefs at -120 which would end up with $34.73 in winnings plus your winnings from your last wager for $76.40. Then, finally, you will need the Dallas Cowboys at +250 to win, which would result in a payout of $191 plus your initial $76.40, equalling $267.40.
If at all, let’s say during this time that the second or third bet lost, you would end up losing much more because you technically won the second wager, so you will be forfeiting more winnings as a loss because you tied the bets together. If the Dallas Cowboys didn’t win the third game, you would have lost $76.40 total, not just your $25 (like you would have on a parlay).
You are basically making conditional bets, that are connected together but not linking the odds together as a parlay does.
Types of If Bets
If bets can be fun when you place different types of wagers. You can combine money lines, point spreads, totals, props, etc, to create your if bet wager, which can make things very interesting. You can also bet on different sports, so combining a football, basketball, and hockey wager will spread things out and allow some variety. While you can’t place if bets on different types in the same game, there are plenty of options available.
If Bet Strategies
You will want to rank your if bets and make smart decisions on which teams you place in which slot. In the above example, it was quite risky to finish with underdog odds, but it had the promise of a bigger payout because we had more stake after the first two wins. It would be more devastating as a sports bettor to have that game lose after all the wins before it, but that’s all part of the game.
Obviously, saving the underdog odds for later will win more money, and having the easy, favored teams start things off is a great strategy, as you will work up to winning more money in the long haul, and if your first bet doesn’t win, you won’t lose more than what your initial wager was.
It’s up to you on the order of your if bet wager, just make sure you do some research and make smart betting decisions when you decide to make this risky play.
Now that you have an idea of how if bets work, it’s time to put the lesson into practice – if you’re ready to! If Bets can make for a fun day of betting if you have enough games on, you just need to make sure you are sure with the order of your wagers and try to avoid highly risky wagers at first while you’re dipping your toes in.
How to Place an If Bet at BetUS
Go to the sportsbook page at BetUS. If you only want to see the lines for one sport, such as football, click the football link in the menu on the right to see what options are available for wagering on football. The options will show up in a dropdown menu underneath the main football tab.
If you want to bet on NFL, click on it and the available games will show up in the middle of the page in what is called the betting engine. Choose which NFL events you would like to wager on by clicking on the odds displayed in the betting engine. After your choice loads, you will see it in the right-hand column under Bet Slip.
You can choose to add another sport to your ticket. Go back to the Sports column on the left and click another sport. Choose again from the available events and add them to your Bet Slip.
Note 1:
The system will automatically inhibit you from choosing two correlated wagers on the same game. For example, choosing Team A to win on the point spread and also on the Moneyline. You will only be able to choose one or the other, as they are otherwise too similar (correlated) to allow on the same ticket.
All your chosen events will be listed in the Bet Slip with your wager options above.
As you are choosing your events, you will see wager options for placing a Parlay, If Bet, Reverse, and Teaser in the Bet Slip. Straight will be the default wager type until you choose something else. Whatever wager type the Bet Slip is set to will be grey, as below.
Click the If Bet button and you will see all your selections listed in the Bet Slip with a drop-down menu at the bottom where you must choose an action between ‘If Win Only’ or ‘If Win or Push.’ If you select nothing, ‘If Win Only’ will be the default action.
By entering your Risk amounts, your Win amounts will automatically be generated for you, as seen in the examples above.
Ranking Events
To the right of each event, you will see little arrows. These arrows are how you rank your events in the order you want the wagers to be placed. You want to start (place at the top) with the event you are most sure of, then work your way down, as the wagers will stop being placed after the first loss, push, no action, or cancellation on the ticket, depending on which action you have chosen.
To remove an event, click the X.
You can add more selections or an event from another sport in the menu. Just bring up the lines for that sport in the engine again and select another event. The Bet Slip will add that event and keep itself in If Bet mode. You will have to enter a Risk amount for the new event, and the Payout amounts will automatically readjust with the new event’s odds, depending on where in the Bet Slip you move the new event to.
To place your wager into the system, click the Place my bets button under the Bet Slip:
As shown in the above examples, your BetUS Bet Slip gives you one more chance to view your pending wager before it is placed. This includes the game information, lines and Risk and Win amounts. To confirm your wager, simply click Confirm. After you do this, you will be unable to change your wager and BetUS will be unable to cancel it.
Once your wager is confirmed, the Bet Slip will again show you all your wager details and ask you to print a hard copy of your Slip. In case of emergency or other circumstances, no internet claims will be honored unless a printed copy of bets in question is supplied.
Get full access to all your big games and leagues here in our Sportsbook
Sign up with us by clicking on this link
