Point Spread Betting Explained
A pick’em is a betting offer in which there is no favorite or underdog. Pk’em happens when both teams are graded by the oddsmakers to be even in strength — there’s no clear favorite. The first is that point spread bettors are different people than moneyline bettors; the odds will be different in order to incentivize different groups of people. That’s a bit vague, to be sure, but you better believe bookkeepers have information on how moneyline and point spread bettors react when the spread is PK. For example, for a half-goal line, the favorites must win outright to cover the goal line.
There is a lot of ground to cover, but you will be much savvier about sports gambling in general by the end of it. Now, not only is Michigan given a larger point spread, but they are given better odds and payout. Before at (-110) a $110 bet wins $100, but now only a $105 bet is needed to win $100. On the flipside, Ohio State must win by even more and you must risk more money to win the same amount with a $115 bet now needed to win $100.
If one team is expected to win, the odds need to reflect enough enticement for people to place bets on that team. Conversely, if one team is the underdog the odds need to be attractive enough to generate bets to counter all the bets on the favorite. In addition, to fully take advantage of all that live betting has to offer, a mobile app is the best way to make that happen. Odds are attached to the benchmark set by sportsbooks on both sides, and bettors then decide if they expect the total goals scored to be over or under that number. The total number of points scored in a contest is a big focus for many team-based sports, and it’s no different with soccer.
Propositions are a unique market where each sportsbook or bookmaker will choose how to condition the selection. You may be asked to guess how many yards a quarterback in the NFL is going to clock in or how many points an English Premier League player will score in a game. Totals (Over/Under) – Then you have a Totals or Under/Over bet. In this type of situation, you are betting not so much on who wins but how many points the teams will score together and whether this amount will be under or over a certain level. Usually, this change is geographical, but we will gladly help you find out all there is about sports betting and how you can make it work best for you.
But unlike a moneyline wager, they are much closer to each other in a point spread bet. When you would bet straight-up on the Spurs to win the game, your odds might be -340, meaning you need to wager $340 to win $100. That’s a lot of money to risk for many bettors, so a point spread might be a better alternative. For the Lakers at +7.5, you would also have to wager $110 to win $100. Most sportsbooks have standard -110 odds for football and basketball games. But some, like our #1-rated sportsbook, BetAnySports, offer reduced juice, which is a huge benefit for gamblers.
Unlike live moneyline betting, live spread betting can sometimes give you the opportunity for sizable “middles” – groups of numbers where you can win multiple bets but you can’t lose them all. Imagine in the above example you took the Lions at +17.5 then watched them run the kickoff back. Now, you can take 49ers -11.5 and have a chance to win both bets if the Niners win by 12-17. This means bettors must win more than 50% of the time to break even.