A sportsbook is a place where you can make bets on a variety of sporting events. The days when you had to visit a physical establishment are long gone, and most sportsbooks now offer the convenience of online betting. They cover everything from horse racing to the big leagues of soccer and tennis to America’s favorite pro and college sports, like football, basketball, baseball and hockey.

When you bet on a sport, the odds are a key element of your bets. They reflect the probability of a specific outcome, but they are not accurate representations of the likelihood of a win or loss. Odds are expressed as positive (+) or negative (-) numbers, and they can be rounded up or down to the nearest half point. American-based sportsbooks use positive (+) odds to indicate how much you can win with a successful $100 bet, and negative (-) to indicate how many points you must bet to lose $100.

In addition to basic bets on individual teams and games, sportsbooks also offer a variety of props and futures wagers. The latter are bets that will pay off on a particular event in the future. For example, you can bet on a team to win a championship well before the season starts. However, these types of bets tend to have a higher house edge than traditional bets on individual teams. They are popular with sharp bettors who are willing to put in the work required to identify and execute a winning strategy.