Betting the point spread explained in detail

You can learn more about American odds , but the number next to the spread is the juice associated with that bet. When betting moneylines — which requires you to pick the winner straight-up — you can get bigger payouts because the likelihood of the worse team winning the game outright is much lower than it just covering the spread. Click on the spread you want to bet in the game module it will be lined up with the team you want to bet. Head to the bet slip on the right side of the page on your phone, it will pop up automatically.

Oddsmakers build mathematically-driven ratings for each team before the season and continue to tweak them as games are played. They use those ratings, plus factors like home-field advantage, rest, and injuries, to create a point spread in advance of a scheduled game. Bettors then begin wagering on that initial point spread, which will influence the spread and move it to the most accurate possible number.

So, if it says Lakers -3, that means the Lakers are favored to win by 3 or more points. So, if you bet on the Lakers and they win by 7 points, you would win that bet, but if you bet on the Lakers and they only win by 1 point, that would be a losing bet. The most popular sports for betting against the spread are higher scoring sports such as football and basketball, both pro and college.

Because betting ATS works best with higher scoring sports, lower scoring games, such as soccer and baseball, have different ways to bet on their games. What is a point spread bet? Betting the moneyline is simply predicting the winner of a given game. So, if you think the Lakers will beat the Clippers you can bet on them to win, though be warned if a team is a big favorite the odds may not pay out very well. If you want to bet on a team that is heavily favored to win, you might need to bet a significant amount of money just to see a small return.

Betting the spread, as explained above, is the most popular form of sports betting, by far. The spread odds even out both sides of a bet and you can pick any game without worrying about getting just a small payout in return. Who are the favorites and underdogs in a point spread?

The Kansas City Chiefs are You would generally see that listed as This means that the Chiefs are expected to beat the Broncos by 14 or more points. Remember, in point spread, you are not betting on the winner but on the margin of victory. So, if you bet on the Chiefs and they win the game, but by less than If you bet on the Broncos you would win the bet if they win, OR if they lose by The favorite is always giving points, while the underdog is getting points.

So, in this game, the Chiefs are giving Duke is a 3 point favorite over North Carolina in a college basketball game. If Duke wins by more than 3, they won the game against the spread. If North Carolina wins the game, or loses by fewer than 3 points, then they win against the spread. But, what happens if Duke beats North Carolina by exactly 3 points? Nobody wins or loses on a push. Of course, if a spread is a half number, ie. What affects the point spread? Each sports book or casino has a group of people who set the odds for every game, called bookmakers, or oddsmakers.

So, taking the above example of Duke being 3. So Duke might be 3 points better than North Carolina in the minds of an oddsmaker, but they give Duke the extra half point to account for the extra Duke supporters. A good enough player missing a game might move the betting spread, the bookmakers might move the line from Duke Another factor that could move the number is if enough bettors, or more specifically, enough money is bet on one specific team. So, if a big money bettor makes a massive bet on Duke at Though it is not a factor in college basketball, in an outdoor sport, like football, inclement weather could move a spread.

Similarly, travel issues, such as a team having a delayed flight and arriving only hours before a game, could also affect a spread. How are spread odds calculated? In the example we gave above, the Kansas City Chiefs are But with every point spread comes betting odds. So, the Chiefs are What does that mean?

While the numbers for this particular game are both , frequently a game will have different betting odds for the favorite and underdog. If the number is much higher on one side, say, on the Chiefs and on the Broncos, that would mean that much more money is being bet on the Chiefs and the oddsmakers are trying to even out their risk, by making the Broncos number more appealing and the Chiefs number less appetizing.

Can I parlay spread bets? A parlay is a bet that combines multiple bets together into one bet. You can bet on two teams against the spread, you can even bet on every single team playing on an NFL Sunday to cover the spread, and they are both examples of a parlay. To win a parlay bet all of your different picks would need to win, so betting on two or three games would be far more likely to win than a bet on ten games.

Can Point Spread Bets Push?

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