Football Spread Meaning

4/10/2022

Football Spread Meaning Rating: 3,9/5 3900 votes

How to Use the Odds Comparison Tool

Compare odds across legal US sportsbooks at ScoreandOdds.com to help you profit over the course of the NFL season. Find out how to use the odds comparison tool, along with other NFL betting tips below.

What is a Point Spread or Side Bet? A point spread is used in sports betting to even the odds between two unevenly matched teams. Each team is given a point total by the oddsmaker that can either be added or subtracted to the final score, thus factoring into if the bet was won or lost. Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome of an event where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple 'win or lose' outcome, such as fixed-odds (or money-line) betting or parimutuel betting. A spread is a range of outcomes and the bet is whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. In sports betting, how much a team wins by is usually all that matters. The most popular way to bet for the two most popular sports, basketball and football, is with the point spread, also known as. Sep 21, 2018 Point spread betting is the most popular way to bet on the NFL and NBA, and it is a way for a sportsbook to generate betting interest on both sides.

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Nfl Football Spread Yahoo

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Of course, if you are new to NFL betting, or sports betting in general, you will first need to understand what you are looking at in terms of NFL spreads, moneylines and point totals. A few complementary NFL betting tips never hurt anyone, either. Let’s get started.

NFL Betting Glossary & Tips

Spread – The most popular way to bet on NFL football is by betting on a team against the spread (ATS). You will either wager on the favorite or the underdog to cover the spread. The Favorite is the team giving or laying points (ex: Chiefs -7). The underdog is the team getting points (ex: Colts +7).

By betting on the underdog, the team does not have to win the game for you to win your bet. You need them to lose by less than the number of points they are getting. If they win outright, you will win your bet too. Example: If you bet on the Indianapolis Colts +7, the bet wins if the Colts lose by six points or less (or win outright), you push (no money won or loss) if they lose by exactly seven points, and you lose if the Colts lose by eight or more.

Point Spread Odds Meaning

NFL Betting Tip: Be aware of NFL key numbers when betting, the two most important numbers being 3 and 7. It is more common for teams to win by 3 or 7 points than any other margin of victory. The third-most common margin of victory is 10 points. Often, you will find different point spreads across different sportsbooks. If one sportsbook has a team favored by 7 points, by using our odds comparison tool, you can quickly find out if another sportsbook has the spread at 6.5 or 7.5 points. Finding the best spread is arguably the biggest factor in making you a profitable bettor over the long term.

How Does The Spread Work

Money Line – By betting on the moneyline, you are only wagering on what team will win or lose. Large favorites require you to risk more money than you will win (ex: Chiefs -300, requires you to risk $30 to win $10). Conversely, betting on underdogs will earn bettors more money than they risk (ex: Bengals +300, a $10 bet will earn you $30 profit).

NFL Betting Tip: While it is important to take or give points when the team you like is on the right side of key numbers, what do you do if the spread is not on the right side of the key number? Maybe you love an underdog and even think they have a chance to upset the favorite but the spread is +2, not quite reaching that key number of 3. The moneyline might be more enticing here. Some historical data shows that break-even percentages on moneyline underdogs are better than that on moneyline favorites

Total (Over/Under) – When you bet on the point total, you’re betting on the total number of points scored by both teams. So if a game has a total (or Over/Under) of 49 points before kickoff, you can bet on Over or Under 49 total combined points between the two teams for the entire game. Points scored in overtime are included. There are also point totals for quarters and halves.

NFL Betting Tip: Try to spot teams who have changed things up, whether by adding a key player in the NFL free agency or identifying a generational talentbefore others do, such as Patrick Mahomes. During the 2018-19 season, in Mahomes’ first year as a starter, the Kansas City Chiefs went Over their respective point totals in each of their first three games. By the end of the season, Chiefs Over/Under record was 10-5-1.

Vigorish (vig) or Juice – The vig or juice is the cut sportsbooks take from bettors to place their bets. This is the house edge. Sportsbooks typically have a vig of -110 on both sides of a bet, meaning you have to risk $11 for every $10 you want to win. Taking into account the vigorish, you need to win not half of your bets but at least 52.4% to break even.

NFL Betting Tip: While -110 is most common, some sportsbooks are nicer than others when it comes to vigorish. You will want to use SAO’s odds tool to find which sportsbooks are charging the least amount for your NFL picks.

Other NFL betting Terms

Parlay – A parlay involves two or more picks, all of which have to win for your parlay to pay out. You have a three-team parlay, and two of your picks win but the last game loses? Tough luck, you lose the entire bet. Parlays are attractive to bettors because of their large payouts. Two-team parlays traditionally pay 2.6-to-1, three-team parlays pay 6-to-1, four-team parlays pay 10-to-1, etc. Though we refer to these as “two-team parlays,” parlays can consist of picks on the point totals and sometimes even props. Use our parlay calculator for your convenience.

NFL Betting Tip: Remember, NFL lines are extremely efficient. In fact, the NFL is arguably the toughest sport to beat over the long haul. Parlays require perfection, making it even more difficult for you to win on Sunday.

Teasers – Like a parlay, teasers require more than one pick, and all picks in your teaser must hit. NFL teasers are a popular way of moving multiple point spreads (or totals) to bettors’ advantage. Since the points are adjusted in the bettor’s favor, teasers do not have as large of payouts as parlays

NFL Betting Tip: Generally speaking, teasing football point totals does not raise your win rate enough to make teasing advantageous. This is especially true in college football, but even in the NFL, it is much sharper to focus on teasers that move point spreads through key numbers like 3 and 7.

Live Betting – Live betting occurs after a game starts. Did you sleep in or forget to place a bet, missing the kickoff of an NFL game you wanted to bet on? Most US sportsbooks will have live lines available for you to bet on while the game is still in progress.

NFL Betting Tip: Live lines are not as efficient as closing lines in sports betting. Watch games closely, take in the extra information available, and use live lines to your advantage, especially if you notice something that you believe sportsbooks’ live algorithms are not accounting for.

What Does Against The Spread Mean In Sports Betting?
by Doc's Sports - 10/10/2014

The term 'against the spread', commonly referred to as ATS, is one of the more commonly used sports betting terms. To bet against the spread is simply to bet on a pointspread. Most commonly, you will talk of your record against the spread, which means the number of games you have bet in which the team you bet on covered the spread compared to the games in which the team did not cover. When someone talks about their performance against the spread you know that they are not talking about moneyline betting, totals or proposition bets. You can bet against the spread in football and basketball, but not commonly in baseball or hockey.

The easiest way to understand this concept is with an example. If Nick takes the Patriots against the spread. Then he is saying that the Patriots will cover the spread in their game. If the Patriots are -3.5 in that game then Nick will win if the Patriots win the game by four points or more, and would lose if they win by three or fewer points, tie the game, or lose outright. If Nick were to win the game then he could say that he is 1-0 against the spread on the day. If the Patriots were favored by 3 points instead of 3.5 then the situation would be the same, except it would be a push if New England won by exactly three points, and Nick would get his money back.

When betting against the spread there is one thing above all that bettors need to remember - who you think is going to win the game is mostly irrelevant. You aren’t trying to pick a winner - that’s what moneyline betting is for. You are trying to figure out how much a team is going to win or lose by. A team could go undefeated for a whole season and never cover a single spread, while another team could lose every game and be undefeated against the spread. It all depends on what line they are up against.