Futures are an appealing option for new bettors. They’re uncomplicated, and the lines don’t fluctuate as quickly compared to other wagering formats. In this guide, BettingUSA explains how betting on futures works, which sports betting markets support them, and whether it’s ever a good idea to invest in a long-term wager.

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Many sports bettors seek instant gratification. They place bets with the knowledge that their outcomes will be decided within hours, if not minutes.

Then there are the more patient types, who would gladly trade quick fixes for long-term entertainment value and potentially massive payouts. Futures bets are perfect for this group.

If straight bets are a sprint, then futures are a marathon. Their outcomes are often not determined for weeks, sometimes months.

Futures Betting and Odds Explained

A futures bet is a wager on the winner of a major event such as a league championship or a season-long accolade. They are not wagers on single games or matches and do not resolve on the same day they are placed.

In fact, futures are often available months in advance. For example, bettors can wager on the Super Bowl winner well before the start of the NFL season. Other examples of futures include the winner of the NBA’s MVP award or the MLB’s next World Series champion.

Unlike straight bets (point spreads, totals, etc.) that typically feature two teams or competitors, futures often feature dozens of contenders. As a result, even a favorite can pay out relatively long odds.

For example, FanDuel Sportsbook priced the San Francisco 49ers as the favorites to win the next Super Bowl and still gave them odds of +500. Other strong contenders like Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens paid +650 and +900, respectively.

That’s a serious return on investment for some of the league’s strongest teams. To get the same odds on a single game, bettors would have to bet on a hapless underdog with little hope of winning.

FanDuel Sportsbook NFL futures

Futures odds may not vary daily, but when they do shift, the movement can be significant. Injuries, trade acquisitions, wins, losses, and rumors can have substantial impacts. Due to the shroud of uncertainty surrounding season-long outcomes, futures tend to be one the least efficient betting markets. In other words, they make books nervous.

Types of Futures Bets by Sport

Team sports that utilize seasonal or league structures are tailor-made for futures. Here’s a look at some of the most common features by league:

  • NFL: Super Bowl Winner, Divisional Winners, Regular Season Totals, and Most Rushing Yards
  • College Ball: NCAAF Championship winner, Heisman winner, and NCAAB Championship
  • MLB: League winners, World Series winner, Cy Young Award, and MVP winners
  • NBA: Championship Winner, winning state, point per game leader, and assists leader
  • NHL: Stanley Cup winner, Divisional winners, and Hart and Vezina Trophy winners
  • Soccer: League and World Cup winners

Books may also offer futures on individual sports. Golf is a good example, as it supports major annual tournaments like The Masters and the US Open. However, the scope of futures is more restrictive for individual sports since bettors can only wager on individual showings and not team performances.

Sports like boxing and MMA do not lend themselves well to futures because each fight is an individual result, and there is no season-long championship to consider.

All major betting apps offer futures, although the menu varies from one sportsbook to the next. Some take a tried-and-true approach, but recent trends have been more toward the outlandish. For instance, DraftKings pushes boundaries. Bets on who will be the 7th seed in the NBA Eastern Conference or Cam Newton’s next team are just a few of the unconventional futures users will find on the DraftKings app.

How to Place Futures Bets Online

The exact location of futures differs slightly from book to book, but once bettors know where to find them on one app, locating them on another should be a breeze.

Let’s consider Caesars Sportsbook as an example:

  1. Log in to the Caesars Sportsbook app or website. Make sure geolocation services are enabled.
  2. Navigate to a sport that offers futures bets, such as football or basketball. Users can find it on the left navigation menu via desktop or the top nav menu on the app.
  3. At the top of the screen, there will be a button called “Future Bets.” Click or tap it, and the sportsbook will display all futures for that league.
  4. Select a desired futures bet from one of the submenus.
  5. The bet slip will appear, where bettors will enter the amount they’d like to wager.
  6. Add more bets to convert the wager into a parlay or round-robin (optional)
  7. Submit the bet and enjoy the sweat.
Caesars Sportsbook futures screenshot

Futures Betting Pros and Cons

The primary upside of betting futures is that a single wager can provide months of entertainment.

The entertainment factor may also positively impact bankrolls, as bettors who place futures wagers may feel less inclined to bet throughout the season.

Another pro is that there is often value to be found by betting futures. Odds deviate wildly from book to book, and bettors willing to do a bit of line shopping are bound to find a decent deal.

To get a sense of these deviations, the Buffalo Bills were priced early in the last NFL season at +850 to win the Super Bowl on FanDuel, +800 on Caesars, and only +750 on DraftKings. A Bills fan who only uses DraftKings would be missing out. 

On the other hand, straight bet odds tend to be more static. They vary, but the differences are often minuscule.

However, futures betting is not all roses. The main drawback is that the theoretical hold on futures ranges from high to through the roof. For futures with only a handful of candidates, like NFL Divisional winners, the vigorish hovers around 6-9%. That’s more than the tax on most straights (4-5%), but still within reason.

When there are dozens of potential winners, the vigorish is significantly higher. On Super Bowl futures, it usually ranges from about 16-18%. Keep in mind that oddsmakers are highly efficient at crafting accurate NFL lines and are therefore more comfortable offering players a better deal. For a 32-team league, a 16-18% house edge is considered low!

For niche markets, oddsmakers don’t have the same level of confidence. The more uncertainty, the higher the vigorish. The theoretical hold on less efficient markets may reach as high as 30%. This is not only among the highest holds in sports betting but in all of gambling. 

Another obvious downside of futures bets is that they lock up bettors’ funds for long periods of time. Those funds won’t be earning interest, and bettors cannot use them to place other wagers. They’re effectively gone until the bet settles. The lack of liquidity may entice bettors to reach further into their wallets later in the season than they would otherwise, especially if it looks like their futures bet will be a loser.

One final tip: Regionality plays a role in futures odds. Bettors from NJ may find that the odds on their home team are worse than the industry average because they attract so many wagers. Or the book may offer better lines on home favorites as a sign of goodwill or a part of a promotion. Be on the lookout.

Futures Betting FAQ

Yes. Users can combine futures from various markets to form parlays capable of generating massive payouts. For example, a 3-leg parlay on the World Series, NBA Championship, and Super Bowl winners is perfectly acceptable.

Some sportsbooks allow users to combine futures from the same sport into parlays, but some do not. For example, Caesars Sportsbook prohibits single-sport futures parlays. As a result, bettors cannot parlay the Lakers to win the NBA title and Lebron James to win MVP.

Sportsbooks have similar rules for parlaying futures with other bets like point spreads, totals, and moneylines. Some allow customers to convert any combination of bet types into parlays, while others only accept parlays in which each leg originates from a different sport.

Perhaps the better question is if it’s ever a good idea to combine futures into parlays. To that, the answer leans heavily toward no.

The reason is that bettors pay vigorish on every wager they make. Therefore, if they combine bets into a parlay, they’ll pay tax on each leg. The vigorish isn’t too hefty on 2-leg parlays, but it quickly adds up as bettors add legs to their tickets. The effect compounds if one or more legs are futures, as the theoretical hold on futures can be astronomically high.

No discussion about futures would be complete without at least mentioning hedging.

Hedging is a concept in which bettors bet the opposite side of their initial wager but only after their original bet becomes more likely to win. For example, imagine a bettor wagers $100 on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl at +800 odds. They place the bet during the preseason, and Tampa Bay makes it all the way to the Super Bowl, where they are -200 moneyline favorites against the +170 New England Patriots.

This might be a good time to consider a hedge. If the bettor doesn’t hedge, they’ll either take home $900 if Tampa Bay raises the Vince Lombardi Trophy or walk away with nothing. That may be too risky of a proposition for some bettors.

By hedging just $100 on the other team at +170, then the two possible outcomes become:

  • The Bucs win, and the bettor pockets $800 ($900 minus the $100 hedge). The original bet was $100, so the profit margin is $700.
  • The Pats win, and the bettor loses their initial $100 futures bet but profits $170 on the moneyline to net $70.

The bettor can also choose to increase the hedge amount, so they win roughly the same amount no matter what. A $300 wager on the Patriots moneyline would work out to a $500 profit if the Bucs win and a $510 profit if they lose. The outcome would be largely inconsequential, at least from a financial perspective.

Whether to hedge futures is one of the most hotly contested topics among gamblers. Some argue that it’s a way to mitigate risk, while others contend that hedging reduces a bettor’s expected value.

Both arguments are valid, and whether to hedge should be a personal decision based on the bettor’s unique circumstances. Casual bettors with a limited bankroll or who could really use the money should consider hedging their bets. And anyone who is one-leg away from hitting a ridiculous futures parlay at +10,000 odds or greater should probably lock up something.

However, for bettors who want to be long-term winners, hedging usually isn’t a wise option. The problem with hedging is that bettors pay vigorish on the hedge. That additional vig is in addition to the juice they already paid on the initial futures bet. It’s difficult enough to overcome one round of vigorish. Two is next to impossible.

In addition, hedges place a lower cap on the amount of money bettors can win. Winning bettors need to take every possible opportunity to pad their bankrolls.

Sports betting is legal in many states already, and regulators in every state have approved futures. Eventually, nearly every state in the US will have retail sportsbooks, legal online sports betting, or both.

However, some jurisdictions are more hospitable to futures bettors than others. For instance, New Jersey is home to dozens of online sportsbooks and allows remote registration. As a result, finding decent futures odds in NJ is much easier than in Montana, which only has a single provider and no online offering.

To find out more about the sports betting climate in your state, please see BettingUSA’s state-by-state sports betting page.