Online Sports Betting Guide For Under 21 Players

If you’re under 21 and just learning about sports betting, the first thing you need to understand is the American moneyline system. The moneyline is how bets are priced at all US-facing sportsbooks. (European and Asian markets use fractional odds and decimal odds.)

Each wager has a moneyline to price your risk vs. reward, and straight wagers use the moneyline to also show you which teams are favorites and which are underdogs (see above).

That isn’t an “and,” it’s a “plus,” and it can be referred to as a “positive moneyline.” Any moneyline with a positive number is representative of two things. First, it shows which half of the bet is the underdog. Second, it shows how much any such wager pays out on a $100 bet.

If your team is pulling +165 odds to win a given game, they’re the underdog, and a $100 bet on them would pay out $165. These are ratios, not minimums, and most offshore bookmakers will accept wagers of as little as $0.50, which is perfect for first-time 18 and up players.

The “minus” is the other part of the moneyline equation, and it represents the favorite half of the bet. It also shows how much money you must risk to win $100. For example, if your team is favored with -180 odds, you have to put up $180 to win $100. Again, these aren’t betting minimums, just betting ratios, and most books will take small bets of $0.50 to $1.00.

A “push” is a result where the outcome of a game hits the exact number indicated on a sportsbook’s spread bet line or totals line. If your team is favored by 7 points and then wins by exactly 7 points, this is a push, and all wagers are refunded.

Similarly, if a game’s over/under is 42 points and the final combined score is 42, the bet pushes and all wagers are negated.

This is not ideal for sportsbooks, which is why you’ll see so many point spreads and over/unders with half-point increments (as these prevent any possibility of a bet pushing). 

Parlays are when you put multiple single wagers together on the same ticket. Essentially, you’re turning several bets into one huge bet, where all “legs” have to hit in order for the wager to be a winner. Parlays can be extremely valuable, as they pay out much better than the sum of their legs wagered individually.

However, for under 21 players just starting out, don’t be fooled by the allure. Parlays are difficult to win and require an advanced approach and lots of experience. Stick with single bets and work your way up.

Online sportsbooks work like domestic books. They are run by sophisticated software that allow for real time updates to odds and lines as new bets come in. For most game lines, computer modeling informs a human curator who posts the initial numbers, and then the algorithm adjusts those numbers as new wagers “move the line.”

Live betting is handled entirely by computer, as no human operator can crunch the numbers and update lines fast enough. Each site uses its own proprietary, fair-play certified live betting software, so you’ll want to browse sites to see which one best suits your style of play.

When you’re looking for what states have legalized sports betting, the list is pushing 20 now and is expected to be upwards of 40 within two years or so. Only three states currently have operational sportsbooks for under 18+ bettors:

• Montana
• Oregon
• Rhode Island

Yes! Online, offshore books – if you go with an operator we recommend (Bovada, BetOnline sportsbook, or Mybookie) – are safe to use. They’re legal, they operate with integrity and have great customer service reputations, they pay out all winnings in a timely fashion, and they use state-of-the-art encryption to keep your bets and financial information private. There is literally no safer place to bet sports than at an offshore betting site.

No offshore sportsbooks accept PayPal gambling deposits, which is due to PayPal’s blacklisting of this segment of the global gambling industry. However, you don’t need PayPal (or Venmo) to fund your account, as Bitcoin and Zelle-to-Bitcoin have totally obviated PayPal.

Best of all, BTC doesn’t come with censorship policies about what you can and can’t use it for. So if you want to make an electronic transfer for sports betting, Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are the way to go. PayPal is not your pal!

In most US states, to bet real money on sports domestically, yes. However, that’s why offshore betting sites accept players under 21, as this is an untapped market (and 18-20-year-olds are some of the most avid sports fans on the planet).

However, if your state has laws on its books mandating 21+ for sports betting, even though you’re using an offshore book, we suggest sticking to that age limit. We’ve never heard of anyone getting in trouble for betting at 18+ in such states, but proceed at your own risk.