How to Read Football Odds: Understand Betting Numbers

With your £2 staked at the buy price of 65 the batsman being out for a duck would see the market settle at zero and you’d have just lost 65 times your stake. Whereas if he makes just 50 runs, your loss is just 15 times your stake. Another downside of fixed odds betting is that it required you to make more of an exact prediction than most spread betting markets.Let’s take an example from cricket spread betting. Heading into the Ashes, you want to bet on how many runs England’s star batsman will make in the first innings of the first Test. He is being offered at a fixed odds price of 3/1 to score 80 runs or more. If said player then went on to have a cracking first innings, and scored 120 runs, you aren’t rewarded by your fixed odds bet for the player well exceeding the target.

The minus sign (-) actually depicts the favorite, while the plus sign (+) shows the underdog of the matchup. For example, at the start of the season, you decide to let the Kansas City Chiefs win the Vince Lombardi Trophy at +550 moneyline odds. You will have to wait and see if they make it all the way for your bet to be a valid one. However, the more games are played, the more the situation will change, and some of the odds might go down. For example, the sportsbook sets a line on the Carolina Panthers vs Buffalo Bills game, a 75.5 points total.

NFL Week 7 Betting Report: Will Public Finally Move Off Prime-Time Favorites?

However, if the players are constantly diving to keep the ball in play and there are only 10 corners, you would lose £40. The favored team needs to win by the indicated point value in order for a bet on that team to pay out. For example, a team with -4.5 odds needs to win by at least 4.5 points for your bet to make money. Oskeimsportspicks.com does not accept or place bets, and is not a gambling site.You must be at least 21 years of age to wager online. When people first startbetting on football, they often struggle to comprehend what a point spread is and what they need to do to beat it.

Football Odds FAQ: Everything You Need to Know

If money still isn’t coming in on the underdog, the sportsbook will either increase the spread further or change the odds, giving more value to the underdog. In both scenarios, the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit of $465,000 because the exact amount of money was bet on both sides. Of course, if public bettors incline to one team, spreads may change. The spread changes because oddsmakers need to adjust to new coming in or an injury.

Positive odds suggest an underdog, while negative https://officialpinupcasino.com/ odds point to a favorite. This format makes it straightforward to compare potential risks and rewards at a glance, once you understand the pluses and minuses. Liverpool finishing at 66 or 67 points means 66 is the selling price, and 67 is the buying price. If you buy the spread at £10 per point but Liverpool finish on 74 points, you will win £65 – £10 per point, plus £5 per half a point.

You’re not going to be able to rake in the big bucks if you don’t have a firm understanding of the spread. Make sure you know how point spreads work before you begin betting on games. In addition to looking at the spread on a game before betting on it, you also need to pay attention to the betting odds attached to it. All games have betting odds that will determine how much you’ll win if you choose to bet on them. It makes sense to work out your worst potential downside and determine your stake size accordingly.

They post competitive odds and spotlight plenty of promotions. In the two examples given in this article the spreads are whole numbers. If the game finishes with the favorite winning by exactly the spread amount then the bet is pushed and the wager is refunded.

Learn How to Bet the Spread to Win Money on NFL Games

• Some bookies have gone an extra mile to offer point spread betting in politics!
• In baseball and hockey, things operate a little differently as scoring is at much more of a premium.
• Enter the Spread, also known in some sporting events as the handicap.
• Typically, each side of a spread bet — the favorite and underdog — has odds in the area of +130 to -130.

A supremacy is similar to an Asian Handicap in that it gives the favourite an artificial handicap and the outsider an artificial goal (or fraction of a goal) start. The bottom team is always the home team, and as stated above, the negative number indicates the favorite. The two examples mean the same thing because in both examples the point spread indicates the Green Bay Packers are favored by 4.5 points over the Minnesota Vikings. Our editorial team is run by individuals with many years of experience in digital publishing, editorial, and content production.

Understanding these key numbers helps you identify advantageous spreads such as 2.5, 3.5, 6.5, and 7.5, where small shifts can dramatically affect the probability of a cover. For instance, a 2.5-point spread avoids the key number 3 entirely, providing a statistical edge in some scenarios. Bettors can leverage historical data to gauge how often teams cover at these critical margins.

As discussed, public perception can and will change the opening spread between two evenly matched teams. This is especially true for popular teams like the Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, or Green Bay Packers. Therefore, if you believe two teams are evenly matched and don’t see a 2.5-point spread, it’s something to investigate. First off, it’s important to understand that a game with two evenly matched NFL teams will often result in an opening 2.5-point spread in favor of the home team. The conventional wisdom is that home-field advantage is worth three points. Occasionally a spread may be withheld until injury reports are released.