Motorcycle Racing Bet Types Explained
Not only is motorbike racing an exciting sport to watch, but it can also be very profitable. What we’re talking about is motorcycle betting online. If you would like to give it a go on one of our top sportsbooks, here are some motorcycle racing betting markets you should try!
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Race Winner
The most popular of all the motorcycle racing bet types is the race winner. Probably the main reason for that is that this market is pretty straightforward. What you got to do is put your money on the rider whom you believe is going to pass the finish line before all the others.
Although the number of contestants depends on the championship, generally speaking, each race has at least 20 riders competing. Still, most of the time, the winner is the rider who was one of the pre-race favorites. Betting on a major underdog to win the race usually doesn’t end well for the punter. If you are finding some of the betting and motorcycle racing terms mentioned here are confusing, perhaps you should look at the beginner's guide to motorcycle racing online betting before continuing.
Pole Position Betting
The winner of the race is often the rider who starts the race in the position at the inside of the first row. In the world of motorsports, that position is known as the pole position. The pole-sitter is decided a day before the main racing event, during the qualifying trials, and you can even bet on that! You can place your money on which rider is going to earn himself the pole position in the main race.
Lap Betting
Every race consists of many laps, usually over 20. Instead of betting just on the winner of the entire race, you can also bet on the winner of each lap. The only problem is that such a betting market is not offered by too many sportsbooks.
A motorcycle betting market you can expect to find in many books is the fastest lap market. How it works is that you wager your money on which rider will achieve the fastest lap in the race.
Rider Matchups
The sportsbook comes up with riders’ pairs and the bettors have to guess which of the two will do better in the race. Riders of similar abilities are paired together so that the odds on each of them are similar. You can’t pit Marc Marquez or some other highly-ranked rider with Bradley Smith or some other huge underdog – the odds on the favorite would be just too short. But, there is a solution for that. What we’re talking about is handicap betting, which is based on the points scheme in MotoGP and similar championships.
Handicap Betting
To understand how handicap betting works in motorsports, you need to learn how the points system works. The top 15 riders are awarded points, with the highest number going to the winner. The race winner gets 25 points, the runner-up gets 20, and so on. The 15th finisher gets only a single point.
Some books use this points system as the basis for handicap betting. The rider handicap matches are similar to regular matchups in the sense that two riders are pitted against one another. The difference is that the favorite gets a disadvantage of certain amounts of points. In order to win the matchup, he needs to have more points than the rival even after the handicap is applied.
This betting market is best explained with an example. If Marc Marquez is pitted against Johann Zarco, the Spanish rider needs to get a handicap disadvantage in order to make their duel more interesting. Let’s say that the handicap on Marquez is -10.5 points. If he wins the race, he’ll get 25 points. But, after the handicap is deducted, he’ll have 15.5. For Marquez to win the matchup, Zarco needs to win less than 15 points, that is, to finish below third place.
In-Play Betting
Most wagers happen before the start of the race, but you can place bets during the race as well. If in-play betting is offered by the sportsbook, you can bet while watching the race. This can be very profitable for you because the odds do change over the course of the race, especially if the favorite is not doing that well. If the pre-race favorite is far behind, the odds on him are bound to go up. But, if you’re certain he’s going to make up for it later, you can get a good value betting on him live.
Miscellaneous Bets
Some sportsbooks like to spice up their betting offer by including certain miscellaneous bets. What we’re talking about are wagers like the following:
- Will someone retire before the race is over?
- Will someone break the track record?
- Will a rider fall off his bike?
- Will rain fall during the race?
Sometimes the sportsbooks come up with their own miscellaneous bets, sometimes they let the bettors pitch their ideas. If you’re feeling creative, you can suggest your exotic motorcycle wagers to the sportsbooks.
Outright Betting
Most bettors prefer betting on motorcycle racing on the weekends when the races takes place. The reason is simple – they don’t want to wait for too long before knowing the results. But, this doesn’t mean that you can’t bet on the races happening weeks or months into the future. You can even bet on the outcome of the entire season. Actually, one of the most popular motorcycle racing betting types is the championship winner. Apart from betting on riders, you can also bet on which constructor will collect the most points by the end of the season.
