Here’s how you can bet on sports that ‘anybody’ can play from the comfort of your own home. Yes, we’re talking darts and snooker!
Picture this – after a long day, you come home, grab dinner and sit back on the couch. It’s time to watch some world-class athletes do the hard work for a while… swinging their putters, chalking their cues, aiming their darts…
That’s what you had in mind, right? Well, there’s more out there in the world of sports wagering than football and basketball. ‘Activity’-type sports are available for wagering at some of the most prominent online sportsbooks.
Competition is competition, and money is money, no matter how you win it! So let’s take a look at some of the available sporting events.
How to Bet on Snooker
A variation on pool or billiards that gained popularity in the United Kingdom before spreading to Germany, Australia, China, and other nations, snooker’s major events are available for wagering at many big-name sportsbooks.
The sport is played in tournament format with many entrants (rather than in one-off games). So, perhaps the simplest bet is an overall “Player to win the tournament” wager, in which each contestant is listed with odds. You can also bet on players to reach the final, the quarterfinal, or other various stages of the tournament.
But, the most popular wager involves individual match play. Snooker matches are often played to a set number of “frames”. The sportsbook will set a line similar to a point spread.
Example
Player A and Player B play a match where the winner is the first player to win 10 frames. The book installs Player A as a -2.5-frame favorite. By betting Player A, you’re wagering that the final score in frames will be 10-7, 10-6, or greater in Player A’s favor. Player B wagers are hoping for a 10-9, 10-8 score or an outright win.
Other Popular Snooker Betting Types
Money line wagering, where you simply choose the match winner, is also available. As are totals or over/under bet. For totals, you’re wagering on the number of frames that will be played in the match. In our above scenario of a first-to-10-frames contest, a proper total would be about 17.5 frames. You’ll wager whether or not the match needs more or fewer frames to reach a conclusion.
Prop bets also exist – the most common being “highest break.” A ‘break’ involves a player going on a run of scoring. The balls are numbered, with each ball counting a certain number of points. You can wager which of the contestants will score the highest total in a single break during the match.
Now that you know how to bet on snooker, here are a few online sportsbooks that offer snooker betting:
DraftKings Sports SPECIAL OFFER
FanDuel Sports SPECIAL OFFER
How to Bet on Darts
A professional darts match involves two players in a “best-of-11-legs” match. Each ‘leg’ sees the players start with a total of 501 and work their way down to zero. The winner of the ‘leg’ is the first player to “check out” or reach zero. First to six legs wins the match.
Again, the simplest wager you can make is on an individual player to win the match via money line wagering. With eight contestants in most brackets, the matches tend to be fairly even. As a result, money lines rarely range much higher than -250.
Handicap (point spread) and totals wagering are also available, though there’s not much variance in these lines. A recent April event saw four opening-round matches ALL at a -1.5-leg spread with an over/under of 9.5 legs necessary to determine a winner.
What is the Most Fun Way to Bet on Darts?
Props betting is probably the most fun way to wager on darts. You can bet on the outcome of the first dart a player throws – will he hit the famed “triple 20?” Or will he be off by a hair and hit a “single 20?”. Single 20 is usually the favored outcome, with triple 20 just behind and “any other outcome” a considerable underdog.
You can also wager on “180s” – the highest total a player can reach in one three-dart set (achieved by hitting three consecutive triple 20s.) Will this happen in a given match? If you bet “yes”, you can expect a payout from even money up to about +130, while a ‘no’ wager will net you odds of about -150. It’s one way to ensure you’ll be on the edge of your seat throughout the match. Yes, while watching darts!
Your quick guide on how to bet on darts, complete. Now, here are just some online sportsbooks that offer darts betting to you today.
Caesars Sports SPECIAL OFFER
PointsBet SECOND CHANCE
How to Bet on Golf
The best-known of these sports also has the most robust wagering market. Golf bettors are able to bet on tournament outcomes, round-by-round wagering, or even head-to-head between two golfers.
A typical tournament is 72 holes (18 holes per day over four rounds), and you can bet accordingly. Planning to follow the entire tournament? Go ahead and bet Dustin Johnson at 20:1 Odds to take home the trophy. Or, maybe play it a little safer with Johnson to finish in the top five at +400, or the top 10 at +220.
Only planning to watch the final round? It’s not too late – who’s going to shoot a lower score today, Tony Finau or Kevin Na? Sportsbooks usually pair golfers in head-to-head matchups who are seen as equals, ensuring you’ll be able to bet at close to even odds.
What Else Can You Bet on as a Golf Fan?
You can also wager on a player’s round score (over or under 70.5 strokes, for example), as well as hole-to-hole wagering during live play (will Finau or Na have the lower score on the 12th hole? Or will they tie?)
Other fun golf prop bets include nationality wagers. You can bet on which Canadian, South African, or Australian player will finish with the best score in this week’s tournament. Again, most of these wagers will keep you tuned in until the final holes are complete, even if the tournament is a landslide victory for one player.
The world of golf has been rocked in recent weeks following the emergence of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. However, as a golf bettor, this gives you even more events to wager on from the comfort of your own home.
So, that’s how to bet on golf explained. But WHERE can you bet on golf?
FanDuel Sports SPECIAL OFFER
BetRivers Sports SECOND CHANCE
DraftKings Sports SPECIAL OFFER
Betting on Snooker, Darts & Golf: A Summary
| Sport | Wagers Offered | Live Betting? |
| Snooker | Money line, handicap (point spread), totals (frames needed to conclude the match). Prop bets include highest break, century breaks, and exact number of frames needed to determine a winner. | During major, World Championship-type events. |
| Darts | Money line, handicap (point spread), totals (number of legs needed to complete match). Prop bets include 180s, highest closeouts, and outcome of first dart. | Only for select events. |
| Golf | Tournament winner, top-5, top-10, and top-20 finisher. Head-to-head: given a grouping of 2-3 golfers, wager on the golfer you believe will shoot the lowest score for the tournament or over a specific round. Props include nationality bets (highest-finishing Australian, for example, hole-by-hole betting, and exact outcomes such as “will there be a hole-in-one at any time?”. | Most golf events offer live betting on rounds, individual holes, even groupings on specific holes (example: will Tony Finau or Kevin Na shoot a lower score from Holes 13-15?) |
