What is a point spread?
Slightly more complicated than the moneyline, the point spread is by far, the most popular choice for intermediate to expert sports bettors. This betting type essentially gives one team a betting handicap before the game even begins. It has nothing to do with the actual game itself, just for betting purposes. The point spread evens the playing field a little and makes the underdog look a little more attractive to bettors. There wouldn’t be much of a point if all bets ever made were moneylines.
The oddsmakers will determine one team is the underdog, and one is the favorite. Let’s say one team is significantly better than the other. For instance, the New England Patriots vs the Cleveland Browns. Obviously the Patriots are the favorite, and will likely win by a number of points. Oddsmakers may spot the Browns 12 points. So odds will look a little something like this:
New England Patriots (-12)
Cleveland Browns (+12)
The underdog is always signified by a plus sign – and your favorite with a minus sign.
What this means, is that if you bet on the Cleveland Browns, they will have to lose by less than 12 points or win the game for your wager to pay out. Conversely, if you wagered on the New England Patriots, they will have to win by 13 points or more for your bet to pay out.
The point spread is a bit more complex than the moneyline, because it’s not a straight wager, you don’t necessarily need to know who is going to win, but you need to have an idea by how much they’ll win or lose.
If either team ends up with 12 points exactly, you’ll receive a push. This is more rare today because most sportsbooks implement the half-point (12.5 in this case) making the push impossible. In the case of the 12.5, The Patriots would still have to win by 13 points or more, and the Browns would have to lose by less than 12 points still.
What Does Cover the Spread Mean?
You might hear this term frequently in reference to point spreads. Covering the spread means that the favorite team won the game with the point while taking the point spread into account. Same goes with the underdog. If the Patriots won the game by more than 13 points, they covered the spread.
What Does Against the Spread Mean?
Betting against the spread essentially means you are betting against the betting line or posted favorite. The sportsbooks set their lines and post their favorite – and you betting against that favorite means you are betting against the spread. In the above situation, betting on the Browns would be betting against the spread.
Betting on the point spread can be really challenging and fun. You have to do a bit more research before making these bets as you have to be able to predict scores – not just who will win.