Odds Boosts At Iowa Sportsbooks
Online sportsbooks in Iowa have been legal since August 2019, and bettors in the Hawkeye State have been able to enjoy placing bets remotely as a result.
Bonuses, promotions, additional betting markets, cashing out, live betting and placing wagers from the location of your choice are all pillars of the online platform. But there’s another aspect of online betting that benefits the player, and that is the odds boost.
Have you ever wished that you could increase the potential payout of your wager and get more value for your money than the betting lines allow? That’s exactly what is possible thanks to the odds boost feature, and many online sportsbooks offer you some benefit.
What is an Odds Boost in Sports Betting?
An odds boost involves the sportsbook enhancing the potential payout for a winning wager.
These offers have several benefits, starting with the fact that the odds boost feature can bring betting markets into play that weren’t viable options before. Some wagers aren’t worth making because the betting odds present little value, but an odds boost may be large enough to erase that concern.
Odds boosts come in all shapes and sizes. They can also be an incentive for you to try new markets and categories you hadn’t previously considered. The site may offer enhanced odds on specific markets that the sportsbook picks, or it could offer a boost for a certain percentage of your potential profits.
The actual amount the odds are boosted varies, as does the type of bet for which the boost is available. You could receive boosted lines for single-game wagers, parlays, live bets, futures or even props. This all depends on the individual boost and the form in which it is presented, which we’ll get into below.
How Do Odds Boosts Work?
Odds boosts, also known as bet boosts or profit boosts, are a way for sportsbooks to incentivize players, whether they are offering enhanced odds on a specific wager they picked out or they are offering a boost for you to use anywhere you choose.
In all cases, this promotional offer always increases odds in your favor and provides an opportunity for you to win more profits than you would with the standard line. Odds boosts don’t increase your chance of winning, but they do give you better odds and a larger payout if you do win.
Because all betting sites calculate odds with a house edge baked into them, odds boosts are one way of getting true odds or better from the sportsbook, which is a true rarity.
Previously, these boosts were generally offered only leading up to a specific event, such as March Madness or the Super Bowl. But nowadays, many online sportsbooks offer boosted odds each and every day for various sports, in addition to those special occasions.
Types of Odds Boost Offers
There are many different types of odds boosts available in online sportsbooks. The following represent some of the most popular price boosts offered.
Single-game odds boosts
When you receive an odds boost on a single game, it can be available in a couple of ways. Sites may choose a game and offer the boost for a specific market, as we see with our FanDuel Sportsbook example below featuring the College Football Playoff.
In this case, FanDuel is offering a boost for a wager on the Alabama moneyline in the NCAA football national championship game. Rather than getting -310 and risking $31 for every $10, you could receive -110 odds and only risk $11 to get $10.
It is a massive difference, and bettors were essentially getting the same price for a moneyline wager as Alabama originally had on the spread as nine-point favorites.
This market held much less value before, and the boost allowed you to eliminate the point spread without any additional risk. A -310 moneyline wager is not an attractive single-game bet, but -110 is around the standard odds we see for spreads and totals.
Another way that sites boost odds for a single-game bet is by giving the player a profit boost for a certain percentage of a bet. Instead of choosing the market that bettors must use, the site lets the customer choose where to use the boost.
This can be especially common leading up to a major sporting event, such as playoffs or championship games. Take the following example from DraftKings Sportsbook leading up to Super Bowl 55:
This wager allows bettors to choose any Super Bowl market they want and receive a 55% odds boost on that wager. It can be a moneyline, spread, total or one of the nearly endless props available for the big game.
This means that a wager on the Kansas City Chiefs moneyline at -167 suddenly pays out at -108 instead, or a wager on the under at 56.5 (-110) moves to +141. The sportsbook makes the exact calculation of the boost and where it moves the line, but the point is that there is nothing but positives for the bettor.
This promotion is extremely generous since profit boosts don’t normally get above 50%. But the point remains that any boosted odds still work in favor of the bettor, whether it’s 55% or 10%. It’s all a bonus on top of potential winnings.
Parlay odds boosts
Parlay odds boosts are also quite common, and sportsbooks can offer them multiple ways, similar to single-game boosts.
Online sportsbooks regularly boost the odds of featured parlays the books have built on their own, but they will occasionally provide a boost to a certain percentage of the odds on a parlay that the player builds.
The first of these is evident on a daily basis at many online sportsbooks, including DraftKings in Iowa:
In cases like this, the site chose to parlay a player going over his point total with the team winning the game, then boosted the odds on that particular bet. Damian Lillard scoring 33 points and the Portland Trail Blazers winning now pays out at +330 rather than +300.
That means a $10 bet that originally paid out $30 in profit would now pay $33. It may not seem like much, but it can make quite a difference depending on the amount you wager.
The other parlay boost is similar, with the site increasing the odds from +300 to +335 for Stephen Curry to make five or more three-pointers in a win by the Golden State Warriors. This bet now pays out $33.50 in profit for every $10 wagered.
These options may not be what you envision building for yourself, but they are an incentive thanks to the added value.
There are also commonly offered parlay boosts that feature several teams to win their games. These teams can be in the same or different sports. If you would rather build your own parlays, there are plenty of opportunities for boosted odds on those, as well.
DraftKings is well-known for its parlay boosts spanning several sports, including college and pro football and basketball. The following example is a perfect one:
With offers like these, you can choose any team or total you want, so long as there are four or more legs and they all come from the college basketball schedule on the dates outlined in the promotion. In exchange, the profit is boosted by 20%.
Check terms and conditions for any restrictions on a wager like this, such as the maximum bet (usually $25 or $50) and any limitation on what the odds for each side must be.
Futures odds boosts
While it may be most common to find single-game or parlay boosts, it’s not unusual for sportsbooks to offer futures odds boosts, as well. On most occasions, this will mark an important event, such as the start of a season or the postseason.
DraftKings, for example, offered an incentive leading up to the College Football Playoff.
With only four teams remaining and Clemson seeded No. 2 in the rankings, its odds to win the title were +175. But DraftKings elevated those odds to +250, which winds up being a profit boost of nearly 50%.
Similar offers have appeared on various apps in time for betting on the NFL season, as well, when you receive a boost for selecting the winner of a division, conference or the Lombardi Trophy.
How Do I Use Odds Boosts?
No matter what you call them (odds boosts, bet boosts or profit boosts), these promotions are easy to use. When using boosted odds on a wager that was prebuilt by the sportsbook, there is nothing you need to do except add it to your bet slip since the boost is already calculated.
If the offer boosts a player-built wager by a certain percentage, you need to opt into the promotion. From there, all teams must be added to the bet slip, where the option to add the profit boost should be present and the odds will recalculate in your favor.