Point spreads are often listed with a half-point (ex: 2.5) in order to prevent the final margin from landing exactly on the point spread (ex: 10-point spread, final score of 20–10). Essentially, a point spread is a penalty that the better team has to overcome to win a game in betting terms. A point spread can be any half or whole number. Let's say, for example, that the.

1. How To Read A Point Spread Football
2. How To Read A Point Spread For Football Games

With more states legalizing sports betting, understanding how to read odds is becoming ever more important.

Understanding betting odds is vital when considering which bets are worth taking and determining if you will be successful or not. If you have no idea about how betting odds work or implied probability, you will likely struggle to make money wagering on sports long term.

Odds are displayed in numerous different formats, but they are easy to understand. Essentially, you use the odds to calculate the implied probability of a particular outcome of a sporting event. There is no need to be a genius with numbers to grasp how sportsbook odds work. However, if you have no knowledge of what betting odds reflect, your chances of winning diminish significantly.

Understanding odds is possibly the most crucial factor in becoming a successful sports bettor. It will determine how much money you want to bet and figuring out which wagers provide the most value. So, if you have read your sports gambling for dummies book and are still wondering ‘how do odds work’? Let’s delve into this odds explained article.

American Odds

There are three classic formats in which odds are displayed; Fractional odds, decimal odds, and American odds. In this section, we are going to focus on American odds. Most online sportsbooks will display their odds as ‘American odds.’ There are different versions of sports betting odds, but American odds are the most typically used.

American odds are displayed as either positive or negative odds. The below is an example of an NFL game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.

New England Patriots +120

Seattle Seahawks -140

The number in the bracket is the odds for the match. In American betting, there are two components to the odds, a positive and a negative sign and the number that follows the sign. Positive odds reflect your profit, while negative odds reflect the amount of money you would need to bet in order to win $100.

When placing a bet, if the odds are negative, it means the outcome is more likely to happen, so wagering on that outcome would mean the payout would be less than the amount you bet. On the other hand, a positive sign indicates that the outcome is less likely to occur, and the payout would be more than the amount you wagered. Essentially it is showing you who is the favorite and who is the underdog.

The next step is calculating exactly how much the bet pays out, where understanding US betting odds come into play. A listed odd with a – shown in front of it, like in our example above, tells us how much money we need to bet to win $100. So if as above the odds are -140, you would need to bet $140 to make a profit of $100. Alternatively, you could replace the $100 bet with a $10 bet by moving the decimal point across one spot, showing you must wager $14 in order to win $10 in profits.

Any listed odds with a + sign in front informs us how much money you would win with a $100 bet. If we use the +120 odds, a $100 bet on that outcome will pay out $120 in profits. Once again, this can be converted to a smaller or larger bet depending on how lucky you feel. Betting $10 on +120 odds would pay out $12 in profits.

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One of the perks of odds in sports and betting with online sportsbooks is that they calculate everything for you before you place your wager. Players can click on the outcome or team they want to bet on, then enter the amount they wish to wager, and it will display how much you could potentially win before you click confirm and submit your bet.

How To Calculate Implied Probability

Implied probability reflects the likelihood of a particular outcome, as shown by the odds. Calculating this involves converting odds into a percentage, which then indicates how likely that event will occur against the alternative. It is beneficial to have a grasp of implied probability as if your estimate of the likelihood of an event happening is different from a sportsbook’s; you will need to adjust your bet accordingly.

For example, if you believed one team had a 60% chance of winning, and the implied probability was 52.4%, you should take that bet. In our example of the NFL game above, the Patriots have odds of +120 to win the game, so what is the implied probability of these odds?

Implied probability=100 divided by (120 + 100)

Implied probability = 100 divided by 230

Implied probability = 0.4545

How To Read A Point Spread Football

Using this example, the Pats’ implied probability of winning the game is 0.4545 (or 45.45%). So the chances of the Pats winning the game, according to the bookmaker, are rated at 43.45%.

It can be challenging to calculate implied probability, so using the below formula may be helpful:

Risk/Return = Implied Probability

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are the most straightforward to understand. They are mostly used across Europe, so you are less likely to encounter them in the United States. To calculate decimal odds, you will need to multiply the amount you wish to bet by the decimal odds shown to get your payout. Below is an example of how decimal odds are displayed:

LA Lakers 2.40

Chicago Bulls 1.55

If you chose to place a wager on the LA Lakers at 2.40, you need to multiply your $10 bet by the 2.40 odds given (10 x 2.40) to determine that the payout is $24. It is crucial to understand when you read betting odds that decimal style already includes the amount you wagered. Consequently, to find out your potential profits, you need to subtract your wager ($24 – $10), and you will realize your payout is $14 in profits.

If you decided to bet $10 on the Chicago Bulls, again, you would multiply $10 x 1.55, and you will find out you could win $15.50 total or $5.50 in profits. Betting using Decimal style odds is straightforward, but they are not commonly offered in American sportsbooks. However, most online betting sites you come across will give players the option of choosing the style of betting odds they want to be displayed, with American odds typically the default option.

Fractional Odds

Similar to decimal odds, fractional odds are more commonly used in Europe, particularly on horse racing in the UK. These may look unusual to an American bettor, as the odds are displayed like 10/5 or 1/2 that you would encounter if you were to watch the Kentucky Derby.

The number of the left (10) reflects how many times the operator expects the relevant outcome to fail. The number on the right (5) shows us how many times the outcome is expected to succeed. For example, let’s look at a soccer match in the English Premier League between Chelsea and Liverpool. The odds for Chelsea are 8/13. This means that if the game took place 21 times (8+13), Chelsea would lose eight times but win 13.

Therefore, the potential winnings are more significant when betting on Liverpool in this particular scenario. When you wager on the underdog in any sporting event, you risk less for a potentially greater total payout.

Additionally, in sports such as the NFL, you can choose different types of bets, such as a point spread, which gives players the chance to bet on which team will win by a specific number of points. The best sportsbooks will offer numerous sports betting options.

How To Read Vegas Odds

Las Vegas is known as the gambling mecca of the world. People flock from all corners of the globe to experience the Vegas strip’s bright lights and thriving atmosphere. Before you make the trip, it would be extremely beneficial if you have an understanding Vegas odds.

Odds in Vegas are typically displayed on massive boards, similar to something from the New York Stock Exchange. The boards are updated continuously, giving the bettor all of the up to date information needed to make a sensible bet. There are literally thousands of bets all listed above you as you.

These boards tell us the favorites, the underdogs, total payout, and where the decent money is. It is vital players know how to read Vegas odds in order to make a smart bet. You may think you know the sport you are betting on very well, and understanding how the odds work is equally as important.

The types of wagers you can expect to see in Vegas include:

• Moneyline
• American Odds
• Point Spread
• Totals
• Placing A Vegas Bet

So, you understand reading Vegas odds NFL and the time has come to lay your money down. You will notice another set of numbers on the big boards, and these are known as the rotation numbers. These numbers are assigned to a team so the bookmaker can distinguish one from the other.

They appear to the left of the sports and teams on the board, such as in the example below:

101 New York Yankees +350 212.5

102 LA Dodgers -440 -8(-110)

The numbers are there to help the sportsbook, and the player keeps track of the bet. This is required as there are so many sports, teams, and bets that are occurring at the same time. Ultimately, the action in Las Vegas doesn’t stop. We have mentioned above in this article how to read odds. You must take this knowledge with you if you are planning a trip to Las Vegas. The biggest difference here is the odds are displayed on huge boards rather than on TV screens in a sportsbook.

What US Sportsbooks offer the best odds?

This is always a tricky question as there are so many sports and so many operators now available. Some are better at offering the best odds on football, while another sportsbook may be best at offering the best odds on soccer. However, the two most used sportsbooks we recommend and use for the best odds are

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How To Read A Point Spread For Football Games

• Huge choice of sports
• Massive free bet offer

Now that you have the knowledge of how to read betting odds, you can go put them in to practice! Go check out our sportsbooks for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Colorado and see what you can do!

FAQs

How are sports odds calculated?

The operator will calculate the probability of each outcome happening and will subtract the margin. If the actual probability is 2/1 (3.0 in decimal, 200 in American), the sportsbook will subtract their 5% margin, and the odds offered will be 19/10 (2.90, 190).

How to Read Betting Lines

If your sports betting experience consists mostly of office pools during March Madness or a casual wager between you and a friend while you watch the Super Bowl, the transition to serious sports betting means learning how to read betting lines. The biggest difference between making the kind of casual bets mentioned above and placing wagers with online sportsbooks or at brick-and-mortar bookshops is the use of sports betting lines. Casual wagers usually involve each person in the bet picking one team to win, then wagering an equal amount, say $20 or $30. Professional bookmakers, online sports betting exchanges, and sports betting facilities in casinos have a more complex system for offering wagers on sporting events, in part to ensure profit on the part of the book, and in part to present a standardized representation of odds.

Let’s start with the basics: what do sports bettors mean when they talk about a ‘line?’ The word line, in the language of a sportsbook, can refer to either the odds and/or a point spread in any sports contest. Let’s take a look at an imaginary line the way you’d read it off the board sitting in a Vegas sports betting lounge or on the screen at your online book. Let’s imagine a game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. Your book’s NFL betting line might look something like this:

DAL -7.5-110 -405
NYG +7.5-110 +300
56.5 ov-110

What may look like a jumble of words, numbers, and punctuation is actually a precise and easy-to-read breakdown of the various odds and point spread details your book is offering. Here is a breakdown of each unit of information given above. Once you understand each part of the jumbled details above, you’ll be able to read a sports betting line with confidence.

The Point Spread

Obviously, the first three letters on the top two lines of the three-line package of symbols represents a team in the game you’re wagering on; NYG stands for the New York Giants, while DAL stands for the Dallas Cowboys. The number next to each team’s name is known as the spread or the point spread. Wagers on the point spread are among the most popular sports wagers in the world. The reason this wager is popular is that it doesn’t matter which team wins or loses; what matters is the amount of points the teams score, and whether or not the team you place your money on beats the difference in points (the ‘spread’) or not.

Placing a point spread bet means gambling on how much a team will win or lose by. In our above example, the Cowboys are the favorite. How do we know that? The minus symbol in front of the point spread indicates that the bookmaker thinks the final score will have Dallas winning by 7.5 points or more. The underdog, in our example that’s the New York Giants, will always be indicated with a plus sign. If you wager on the Cowboys on the point spread, America’s Team will have to win by at least 8 points for your wager to pay off. Should the Cowboys win by less than 8 points, your bet is lost.

A wager on the Giants on the spread does not mean that New York has to win the game in order for you to win cash. All the G-Men have to do is come within 8 points of the ‘boys, and you’re a winner. You determine a winning or losing point spread by adding or subtracting 7.5 from the final score, depending on which side you laid your bet. If you’re confident that New York will at least come within a touchdown of beating the Cowboys, or beating them outright, then you’d wager on the spread in favor of New York.

A quick word on that annoying half point in the point spread – most lines you’ll come across will use half points, but it’s not standard practice across the board. When you see a line with a full number instead of a number with a half point, your wager could end up as a push. In our example, if the line were 7 instead of 7.5 and the final difference in points was exactly 7, your wager is returned to you, and neither you nor the book makes money.

What’s the function of the second number in the line?

The second number in our example (-110 for both teams) tells you how much you have to wager in order to win $100. It’s an easy way to calculate how much you’ll win if your bet pays off, presented in units of $100 at a time for simplicity’s sake. Most of the time, these two numbers will be the same, because oddsmakers want to set lines so that they get as much action on the underdog as on the favorite, guaranteeing them a profit. If a book gets a single bet of $110 (by a customer hoping to win $100) on the Cowboys and a single bet of $110 on the Giants, it will have taken in $220, but will only have to pay back $210 to whichever customer wins the bet. That’s a guaranteed profit of $10, and since sportsbooks take far more than a single bet in either direction, they stand to earn that seemingly small amount of profit many times over. The $10 difference between what you wager and what you win is known as juice or vig in the sports betting industry, and it’s the way books earn their bread and butter.

What does the last number in the line mean?

The last number in the top two rows of our sports line example is known as the money line. If you’re not interested in betting on the point spread, you can wager on a team to win outright. The plus sign next to the underdog (in our case, the Giants) indicates how much money you’ll earn for every $100 you bet on the money line. Conversely, the minus sign next to the favorite’s line tells you how much you have to wager in order to win $100. In our example, a $100 wager on the Giants earns you $300 should they pull off the upset, while a bet of $405 on the Cowboys will net you an extra $100. Representing odds in units of $100 makes placing different size bets easy; if you want to bet $10 on the Giants, you stand to earn $30 if they win, while a $40.50 bet on the Cowboys will net you an additional $10.

What does the bottom row of numbers and letters mean?

The final line of information in our example line is the over-under. Wagers placed on the over-under have nothing to do with which team wins or the difference between the points they score, but rather the combined number of points both teams will score in the game.
The first number (56.5 in our sample line) is the book’s predicted total score, while the second number (110 in our Giants/Cowboys rivalry game) is how much a punter has to bet in order to win $100. If you were to bet the over-under on this game, you’ll have to decide whether you think the combined score of both teams will be higher or lower than the number put up by the book. Let’s say you bet the over, assuming the game will be a shootout between two talented offenses, you’re hoping that the final score will be anything that totals 57 or more. It could be Dallas 54, New York 3, or any other point combination that adds up to 57 or more and your bet will win. Betting the under means that the two teams cannot score more than 56 points combined, or else you lose your bet.

Reading sports betting lines becomes easier with practice and experience with different sporting events. What looks like a jumble of letters and numbers actually gives a lot of information in a tiny amount of space. Different sports have different types of wagers available, such as the run line in baseball or the puck line in hockey, both of which replace the money line found in our football example. The more experience you have watching and gambling on different sports, the faster you’ll be able to read betting lines.