Considering a Career in Sports Betting?
Embark on a rewarding career in sports betting, where innovation meets opportunity, and your skills can make a significant impact on a booming sector growth.
- Thriving Industry: The US sports betting industry is experiencing explosive growth, presenting lucrative career opportunities.
- Diverse Job Market: With legalization spreading to 38 states, there's a wide array of roles available, from oddsmakers to tech experts and marketers.
- Job Security: As the industry expands, so does the demand for skilled professionals, ensuring stable employment prospects.
- Innovation and Growth: Tech-driven platforms and marketing strategies are reshaping the landscape, offering exciting avenues for career advancement.
- Economic Impact: Sports betting boosts local economies, providing a dynamic environment for career growth and financial stability.
- Social Responsibility: Strong regulations promote responsible gambling, allowing you to contribute positively to the industry's integrity and public perception.
Industry WISDOM: Online Sports Betting 101
FanDuel data scientist Kristy Bell spoke at the 2024 WISE Multiplier Summit about her job, specifically, how she uses data to help set the odds. If you aren’t sure what that even means, the following sports betting primer, graciously compiled by Bell, will help.
For a more in-depth education, check out FanDuel’s Sports Betting 101 videos.
- The odds: The main thing to understand is that odds imply probability. The higher the odds, the less likely it is that an event will occur, which is why you will get paid more if it does. Conversely, the more negative, or lower, the odds, the more likely an event is to happen, and, thus, the less money to gain if it does.
- The most popular bets:
- Money line: This is a straight wager on who will win, and how much is paid is determined by the odds.
- The Total or Over/Under: This is a bet on how many points will be scored by both teams. The oddsmaker sets a “line” — say, 47.5 for a football game. If you believe the two teams will together finish the game with more points than that, take the “over.” Think they’ll score less? Bet the “under.”
- Spread: This bet is dependent on how many points you think a team will win – or lose – by. This number, set by the oddsmaker, essentially evens the playing field, as it is added to the underdog’s final score before determining the winner.
- Prop bets: These bets cover “propositions” not necessarily related to the final score: statistics (e.g., how many touchdowns will a player score?), occurrences (e.g., who will score the first touchdown), random events (how long will the national anthem be?).
- How to start: With a small amount, like a dollar, until you are comfortable with all the choices.
- An insider’s note: It's a common misconception that sports books have “extra” information. It is not true. Oddsmakers use the same information that is publicly available to customers — game logs, stats, websites, social media — to create the odds. That said, sports books do build models that help them make sense of all the data. Generally, though, anything that is difficult for bettors to predict is probably also a tough call for bookmakers.