Live Betting – What It Is, and How to Do It

Online sports betting is underway in all provinces of Canada. Therefore, live betting is available everywhere in the Great White North.

Live betting is a relatively new form of wagering that has become a fixture for almost every sportsbook app. Unfortunately, it is also not understood very well by most casual sports bettors.

This page is here to help. We have all the details about what live betting is, how it works, and what you should bear in mind if you decide to give it a try.

Best Sportsbooks for Live Betting

At present, Ontario is the only area of Canada offering multiple options for sportsbook apps. Within this group, however, there are some books that stand above the rest as destinations for bettors who wish to engage in live betting. So, if you’re in Ontario and want to place a live bet, consider visiting one of these apps through the links below:

If you decide to sign up with one of these apps, most of them have no code to enter. However, BetRivers does require new players to enter code ONPLAY in order to maximize their welcome package.

What is live betting?

Live betting is a type of wagering that occurs only after a game, match, or contest has begun. Some sportsbooks may call this practice “in-play” betting or wagering, but it means the same thing.

Live betting is technically a type of proposition wagering. Like standard pregame props, most live betting options ask yes/no questions about particular elements of the game. You then wager according to whether you believe the answer will be yes or no.

Live bets also relate to many of the same parts of the game or match that propositions do. They focus on statistical achievements or partial game results that may come to pass later on in the contest. So, the same types of questions about whether Player X will score a hat trick or Player Y will run for a touchdown commonly appear as live betting options on Canadian sportsbooks.

The biggest differences between live betting and its parent wager type stem from two factors. The first of these factors is the magnitude of the events in question. Where a pregame prop might ask about the number of points a player might score in the entire game or the total number of certain plays an offence might run, live betting constrains these types of questions to how many points a player might score in a period of play or whether the next play from scrimmage will be a run or a pass.

The other difference is the timeframe in which you have to exercise your option to bet on these propositions. Pregame wagers are available for days at a time, and you can research and consider them carefully before you put any money down. By contrast, live bets come and go at a rapid pace, and you only have a few minutes – at best – to make a decision.

In other words, live bets are going to come down to your instincts about the situation far more often than their pregame brethren.

One last word of caution, however, relates to the standard pregame wagers. Point spreads, totals, and moneylines may seem to carry over into the game after it has begun. Please do not mistake these as the same bets they were before the game. The book adjusts the estimates on these opportunities according to the progress of the match. Therefore, they are live bets, not their namesakes, and do not bear the same level of predictability or opportunities for value.

How to place a live bet

The good news is that the procedure for placing a live wager is identical to the one for placing a pregame bet. You just have to wait until the opening kickoff, puck drop, tip-off, or other introductory play and see what pops up.

Otherwise, you make your selection, then go to your betslip to declare the size of your wager and finalize the bet. Unsurprisingly, you can expect to see a resolution for the bet, one way or the other, in short order.

Top strategies for live betting

If you haven’t gathered so far, live betting is not for the faint of heart. The measured approach that many smart bettors use is unavailable for the live betting options that you’ll encounter. However, you still have some strategies that you can use to make your live betting (hopefully) more effective.

Anticipate based upon the game’s progress. Live bets may seem to appear without warning, but the truth is that you can anticipate likely options if you pay close attention to the game. A player who seems to be racking up particular statistics is a top candidate to become the subject of a live betting opportunity. If you see that there is a team on its way to an obvious milestone, you might want to start thinking about whether you believe they will make it or not.
Use live bets for balance, rather than as primary wagers. Live bets are far too unpredictable to be your bread and butter bet when you visit a sportsbook, be it online or in-person. Instead, use them as a balancing tool for your pregame wagers. If a pregame wager appears to be going well, try to find a live bet that follows the same trend. If a bet is not going well, then you might be able to wager on an in-game option that has the other outcome in mind.
Be as deliberate and slow as possible. Live wagering moves at a fast and furious pace. It’s not uncommon for a single match to offer more than one hundred possibilities for betting. With so many chances, you need to slow down and be as choosy as you can be. Look for options that mesh with the stronger parts of your research a bit.

Live betting mistakes

All types of gambling bear risk – almost by definition – and live betting is certainly no exception. Realizing a profit on your in-game wagers is no easy feat. However, you must also take care not to aggravate your uphill battle by committing one of the following sins:

You ignore your bankroll exposure. In-game wagering’s pace lends itself to a frenetic amount of betting. However, you must be cautious about getting swept up in the wave of betting options. Whether you make one $100 wager or 10 $10 wagers, you’ve still put the same amount of money at risk. If you normally don’t have so much money working, you need to slow things down.
You chase pregame losses. Although you might be able to use live betting to hedge against your pregame wagers going south, you must be quite careful not to compound the situation and make things worse. Chasing losses is a common mistake in many forms of gambling, and you should not be live betting if you are angry or upset. If you feel your emotions running high, the best thing to do is cut your losses and come back another day.
You bet for the sake of betting. We climb mountains simply because they are there, but the same cannot be said for live betting. It is a mistake to place a wager simply because you want to put some money in the game. Instead, try to have a rationale for every live wager that you make. In-game bets aren’t always mere guesses, and you can take steps to read the tea leaves a minute before you put your money down.

Why you should consider trying live betting

If you are a cautious and meticulous sports bettor, you might be wondering why you would ever want to give live betting a try. Truthfully, there are plenty of reasons to support the notion that you would avoid them, and no one would blame you if you stuck to the pregame wagers.

However, live betting does give you a feeling of agency during the course of the game. With pregame wagers, you are left with no option during gameplay to mitigate your potential outcome If a pregame bet appears to be going the wrong direction, all you can do is watch. With live betting, though, you might be able to grab the other side of the coin and balance out your dying bet.

There are also just too many bets to ignore. Pregame betting only bears a handful of bets you can make, but refusing to look at the in-game bets means that you are cutting yourself off from the majority of wagering options in a game. Even if you don’t plan on grabbing too many options, you might be able to pull down some value that you’d otherwise miss.

It’s also helpful to remember that oddsmakers and sportsbooks are under the same time pressures and constraints that you are. In fact, they have even less time to consider where they set their marks, since they have to publish them first before any betting can take place. If you are on your guard and in tune with the progress of the game, you might find some opportunity for tremendous value and upside lurking amongst the rapidly-made set of wagers.

In short, it’s not wrong if you decide that live betting is not for you. However, you might want to consider giving it a try or two, as there might be extra money waiting for you in the ether. In fact, if you can hone your senses about the way the wind is blowing in a game (so to speak), you might be able to catch the oddsmakers unaware and find some great moneymaking opportunities.