A lot of hardcore sports fans with numbers in their heads are aching to try their hand on sports betting. After all, with a good understanding of baseball statistics, handicapping should be pretty easy to beat, right? Oddsmakers set the betting line based on the beliefs of the uninformed public. How difficult can it be to pick winners better than the public?

Unfortunately, achieving a positive result in sports handicapping is not so easy. All it takes is one person with better information than you, and you’re facing an uphill climb. Not only is the best handicapper likely to be betting the maximum amount allowable at any sportsbook they frequent, but differences in the odds from one sportsbook to another are quickly eliminated as line shoppers arbitrage away any significant differences.

So if you’re a sports expert who wants to profit from your knowledge, are there any easier ways to do so? The answer is yes, as a new form legal online sports betting has emerged recently. A number of new daily fantasy betting sites have launched, and they all share a number of advantages over traditional sports betting.

• Fantasy betting is completely legal. Thanks to fantasy sports being specifically excluded from laws affecting online sports betting, these sites are not illegal in any way.

• Money can be deposited via credit card or PayPal, and easily withdrawn via check. There is none of the jumping through hoops and uncertainty found when transferring money to and from gambling websites.

• Because contests are based upon the performance of individual players, a much wider variety of contests are available.

Don’t get the wrong idea, though. These are not traditional fantasy contests. Rather than tying up your money for the full duration of the season, most of these contests just last one day. You pick a team for the day, and results are based on the performance of your players that day. Contests can range from heads up (two players) up to 100 players or more. The sites that host the contests have the look and feel (and the business model) of online poker sites.

Some of the features that differentiate these sites from each other include:

• Widely varying user interfaces
• All sites offer salary cap format contests, some also offer live draft contests where player selection resembles a traditional fantasy sports draft.
• Varying rake, from as high as 20% to less than 10%.
• A variety of sports available. Most sites offer baseball, football, and basketball. Some also offer one or both of hockey and NASCAR.
• Chat features give some sites more of a communal feel than others.