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.
- What Does Spread Mean In Betting Basketball
- College Football Betting Spreads
- Spread Meaning In Betting
In the NFL the best team will win the vast majority of the games. Spread betting is the most popular NFL betting option because spread betting handicaps the favourite team, which puts both teams on a more even playing field. This allows wagers on favourites to cover the spread to payout much more than money lines and also allows wagers on underdogs to have an equal chance of winning. NFL spread betting is very easy to understand and this page will explain it in detail.
In NFL spread betting the oddsmakers set a number of points that one team is favoured by in the game. This is also known as the games handicap. For a wager on the favourite to payout the favoured team must win the game by more points than the spread amount. This is known as covering the spread. For a wager on the underdog to win, the team must either win the game straight up or lose be fewer points than the spread. This is known as beating the spread. For example, if a team is favoured by 7 points, then the favourite must win by more than a touchdown to cover the spread and the underdog must either win, or lose by less than a touchdown in order to beat the spread.
| Sportsbook | Rating | Bonus | Review | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50% up to $1000 | ||||
| See Website for Details |
With the advance in technology, bettors are able to place live wagers on the points spread, plus bet different spreads at different intervals in a game. Beginning with live betting, point spreads are routinely adjusted predicated on the flow of the game, meaning how the favorite and underdog are performing. Spread betting or point spread betting. Spread bet is a bet on score difference between two opponents. In the example above the Patriots are favored to win by 6 points and that is marked with -6 next to their name. So you can make two spread bets: 1) that the Patriots will win by 7 or more points or 2) that the Bengals will lose by 5 or less. A point spread is a bet on the margin of victory in a game. The stronger team or player will be favored by a certain number of points, depending on the perceived gap in ability between the two teams. A minus sign (-) means that team is the favorite. A plus sign (+) means that team is the underdog.
NFL Spread Betting Example
Oakland Raiders +10 (-110)
Denver Broncos -10 (-110)
In this example, the Denver Broncos are 10 point favourites over the Oakland Raiders. The (-) sign beside the spread amount indicates the favourite because they are essentially having 10 points taken away from them, while the (+) sign indicates the underdog because they are basically having 10 points added to their score.
In this example a wager on the Broncos will payout if they win by more than 10 points, while a wager on the Raiders will payout if they lose by fewer than 10 points or if they pull of the big upset and win the game outright.
Other NFL Spread Betting Information
The most common odds associated with each side of a spread bet are (-110), which means that a $110 bet would win $100. That being said it is possible for the odds to vary slightly if the spread doesn’t perfectly handicap a game. Here is an example:
Green Bay Packers -3 (-120)
Minnesota Vikings +3 (+100)
In this case the oddsmakers feel that it is more likely that the Packers will cover the 3 point spread than it is that the Vikings will beat it. In this case a $120 wager on the Packers covering the spread wins $100, while a $100 wager on the Vikings beating the spread also pays out $100.
In the two examples given in this article the spreads are whole numbers. If the game finishes with the favourite winning by exactly the spread amount then the bet is pushed and the wager is refunded. It is also possible for spreads to include half points (eg. 3.5, 7.5, etc), in which case it would not be possible for the bet to push.
Easily the most popular type of betting for NFL football is “spread” betting or more commonly known as betting against the spread. Bettors who are new to NFL betting or betting in general may be a little confused with NFL spread betting, but it is pretty easy to understand once it is explained to you. We will explain what betting against the spread means below.
What is Betting Against The Spread?
For each NFL game the oddsmakers set a number of points in which the favored team is favored by. Bettors can then either choose for the favored team to win by more than the number of points set, or bet on the underdogs to lose by less than the number of points they are underdogs by or win the game straight up. For example, the spread could be set on the favored team at 6.5 points. This would mean in order for a bet on the favored team on the spread to win they would need to win by more than 6.5 points (7 or more) in order to win the bet. It also means that a bet on the underdog team would win if the underdogs lost by less than 6.5 points (6 or less) or won the game outright.
Example of NFL Spread Bet
Below is an example of what NFL spread betting would look like:
Matchup
- TeamsSpread
- Dallas Cowboys -2.5
- New York Giants +2-5
The negative (-) sign indicates that the Cowboys are the favorites, while the positive (+) sign indicates that the New York Giants are the underdogs. With the spread set at 2.5 points, a bet on the Cowboys would mean that they would have to win by more than 2.5 points (3 or more) in order for you to win that bet. A bet on New York would mean that the Giants would have to either lose by 2.5 or less points (2 or less) or win the game outright in order for your bet to win.
Here is another example with a screenshot taken from 5Dimes.eu during Week 3 of the 2013 NFL season:
Here you can see that the Rams are +3.5, while the Cowboys are -3.5. So for this example the Cowboys are 3.5 point favorites, while the Rams are underdogs of 3.5 points. If you were to bet on St Louis you would need them to lose by 3 or fewer points or just win the game outright. If you were to bet on Dallas you would need the Cowboys to win by 4 or more points.
If the Cowboys were to win by 3 points, lets say 30-27, any bets on the Rams +3.5 would win. Even though the Rams didn’t win the game they covered the spread of 3.5 points.
What Does Spread Mean In Betting Basketball
Now if the Cowboys were to win by 4 points, lets say 31-27, the Cowboys have covered the spread and anyone who wagered on Dallas would win their bets.
Other NFL Spread Betting Information
You may often notice that the spread is sometimes set at an even number such as 3, 6 , 10, etc. In this case if the favored team won by the exact amount set for the spread the bet would be pushed, and all bets would be returned. For example, if the Patriots were 3 point favorites and they won by a FG (3 points) than this would results in a push, meaning no matter which side you bet on you would get your money returned to you.
The most common NFL spreads are usually set between about 2.5-10.5 points, but you will also almost always have games each week with spreads lower than 2.5 and higher than 10.5. In the event that the oddsmakers feel the game doesn’t need a spread, it would be set at 0 or what some call a pick’em (both teams are given even odds to win for this type of bet).
College Football Betting Spreads
The odds given on the spread are usually -110 unless otherwise noted. It is not uncommon to see one side of the spread being -105, with the other side being -115. If you don’t see any odds listed for each side of NFL spreads you are supposed to assume the odds are -110 on each. Not sure how to read NFL betting odds? Check out our Sports Betting Odds guide.
Spread Meaning In Betting
Now that you know the basics of NFL spread betting you’ll want to check out our Sports Betting Strategy guide which has some great NFL strategy articles written by a professional bettor.