What Does The Term Point Spread Mean?
If you are interested in sports betting at all, it’s inevitable that you will run into the term “point spread” at some juncture (note: “point spread” can sometimes be referred to as “the betting line” or simply “the line”). In basic terms, the point spread is used to make gambling on certain sports (mainly American football and basketball) more accessible and more appealing. It replaces the popular (yet sometimes confusing) “moneyline”.
The general idea is this: Team A is better than Team B. In a moneyline situation, you’d have to bet, say, $130 to win $100 if you wanted to bet on Team A. That’s somewhat confusing.
The point spread does away with that. They make the bet an even money bet, and instead say “Team A is favored by 3 ½ points”. This means, if you bet on Team A, they must win by 4 points or more. If they only win by 3 (a field goal in American football), you lose the bet, even though your team won. Subsequently, if you bet on Team B, and they lost by 2, guess what you lucky devil? You won.
Point spreads usually have a plus or minus sign associated with them. “Chiefs +3” means you are betting on the Chiefs, and getting three points. “Patriots -9” means you are betting the Patriots, and giving nine points.
The point spread makes it much simpler to bet on, and follow, the game. In fact, it adds another exciting element – if you bet on the underdog, and they are losing, you can still hope they keep the game close so you’ll win your bet. If you bet on the favorite, you need to hope that they “cover the spread” and win by more than the point spread.
Point spread ties are pushes, and all bets are returned.
Point spreads can move if action gets too heavy to one side. Say the NY Giants are favored by 3 points over the Baltimore Ravens, and many people are betting the Giants – the sports book may move the line to 3 ½ or even 4 to encourage betting on the other side (however, you are always locked in at whatever line you bet on).
If point spreads make the games more exciting and encourage more betting, why don’t all sports use them? Well, the answer is simple – point spreads generally only work in games with multiple ways to score (with multiple values), and also games where scoring is somewhat frequent. In a game like Baseball, one run (point) is worth more, comparatively, than it is in football. So point spreads work best in games where one point is not a huge advantage (like football and basketball, although we are starting to see point spreads in baseball and hockey in some venues).
So the next time you see “Jets -6 at Steelers”, you know that the point spread is 6, and the Jets are favored by 6 points. Do us a favor and throw a few bucks on the Jets for us – they’re going to kill those guys this week!
