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In sports betting, an oddsmaker's job
is to calculate the odds, or probability,
of one side winning against the other.
The odds are presented showing a favorite
and an underdog, a point spread or moneyline,
and a total, each of which is used to
make various types of wagers.
In football and basketball, a point
spread - also called "the line" or "the
spread" - is used to level the playing
field between two teams for betting
purposes, and is designed by the oddsmakers
to draw even money on both sides of
the game. The oddsmaker predicts that
the favored team will win by a certain
number of points.
The
favorite is always indicated by a minus
sign (e.g. -5.5) and the underdog by
a positive number (e.g. 5.5).
If you
bet on the favorite, you win your bet
if the favorite wins AND their margin
of victory is greater than the point
spread
If you
bet on the underdog, you win if the
underdog wins, ties, or if the favored
team wins but fails to exceed the point
spread.
If the
favorite wins the match by exactly the
amount of the spread, the result is
declared a push and money is neither
won nor lost (the wager will be returned).
Spreads are often given as something-and-a-half
(35.5, 10½ , etc.) so that the result
will necessarily fall above or below
the spread, thus avoiding a push.
Example:
Imagine that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
are 7-point favorites against the Atlanta
Falcons. The final score is Tampa Bay
18, Atlanta 13. In this case the favorite,
Tampa Bay, won "straight up" against
the underdogs, since they beat Atlanta…
but they did not win against the spread
(ATS), because they won by fewer than
7 points. If you bet on Tampa Bay, you
lost your wager; if you bet on Atlanta,
you won.
It is
standard for point spread bets in most
sports that you wager $110 to win $100.
A moneyline, used in baseball and hockey,
takes the place of a point spread. In
moneyline betting the team wagered on
has to win the game outright, regardless
of the score. There is no spread to
cover, and the oddsmaker evens out the
action by adjusting the price on both
the favorite and the underdog.
The
minus sign (e.g.-130) always indicates
the favorite and the amount you must
bet to win $100.
The
positive number (e.g. 120) always indicates
the underdog and the amount you win
for every $100 bet.
Using
these numbers as an example, therefore,
you would bet $130 to win $100 on the
favorite, while for the underdog you
would bet $100 to win $120.
The total, or over/under (O/U or o/u),
is the number of points oddsmakers expect
will be the total score for the contest
(both teams combined, overtime included).
It doesn't matter who wins or loses.
You
bet on whether the total points scored
will be over or under the predicted
number.
Using
as an example our Bucs-Falcons game,
imagine that the predicted total for
the game is 29.5. The final score of
Tampa Bay 18, Atlanta 13 gives a result
of 31. If you bet on the over in this
game, you are a winner.
If the
total score is exactly the same as the
predicted total, the result is declared
a push and money is neither won nor
lost (the wager will be returned).
As with
point spread bets, you must generally
wager $110 to win $100.
Betting on a point spread or money line
is sometimes called betting "sides"
- that is, betting that one side or
the other will be the winner - while
betting the over/under is referred to
as betting "totals".
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