Winning margin betting involves wagering on the number of goals/points that a team will be winning by at the conclusion of the game/match.
How It Works
With winning margin betting you wager on how many goals a specific team will win a game by. You must correctly select the winning team as well as the winning margin.
Some sportsbooks also call this betting on the margin of victory or anything that indicates a team must win by a set number of goals.
Example
Let’s look at an example from the MLB. In this case the winning margin would be runs.
Here is a margin of victory bet at Bovada.lv for a game between the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox:
In this example you can see the different payouts associated with each winning margin outcome.
For example, if you bet $10 on the Cleveland Indians to win by 2 runs you would win $75 for a payout of $85 if the Indians won the game by exactly 2 runs. If the White Sox win or and Indians win by any amount other than 2 then your bet would be lost.
Most Common Occurrences
MLB games are often decided by 1 run, which is why the 1 run margin of victories will most often have the lowest return. This is true in most other sports as well, including the NHL, the majority of competitive soccer games and more.
In the NFL and NBA you will often find ranges of victory that the team must win within instead of the exact number of points. Here is an example using the CFL game between Toronto and Hamilton to showcase this:
Are Winning Margin Wagers Sharp Bets?
In general the sportsbook will add extra juice to prop bets such as winning margin wagers. For this reason it is generally not the sharpest bet to make on a particular game.
That said there are times when winning margin bets make sense and will provide value to the player. For example, if you think that a pitcher is going to get lit up in an MLB game then it may be advantageous to bet on their opposition to win by 4+ runs.
There are situations where winning margin bets can be used to your advantage so it is helpful for you to understand this wager and how it works.