The examples above were from basketball and football, which are high-scoring sports. Of course, line moves don’t come in a perfect and predictable pattern, but they are worth being aware of as you search for better bets. For example, the Giants opened at +9 with -110 odds and then started getting a lot of action, so the line shifted to -115 at +9, then +8.5 with -110 odds, etc. Typically, a spread won’t have odds of -120 for one side, so once a line reaches -115, the next move will be a move of a half-point or a full point in the spread. For example, in this game from 2020, the Giants opened as a 9-point underdog, but bettors continued to bet on the Giants, causing the line to shift in favor of the Giants.Ī line can move both in the odds and the spread. Sometimes a shift in the odds like this will come before a move in the spread. That’s why a bettor will have to bet $115 to win $100 on the Giants. The Giants staying within 7.5 points is slightly more likely than the Cowboys winning by more than 7.5 points. If the Cowboys won by eight, they would have covered the spread. If the Cowboys won by seven, the Giants would have won the bet, called covering the spread. Obviously, the Cowboys can’t win by 7.5 points because a half point is impossible, but that exists to remove the possibility of a push. In this NFL game, the Cowboys were a 7.5-point favorite. Those would be reasons why the Bucks would be a somewhat significant favorite.

Let’s say the 76ers entered this game with a better record than Milwaukee, but were on the road and without Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Seth Curry due to injury.

A bet on the 76ers means adding eight points to the 76ers score and comparing it to the Bucks score. If the final score is Milwaukee 117, Philadelphia 108, you win the bet because 117-108 is a nine-point difference, greater than the eight-point spread you wagered on. A bet against the spread for the Bucks means you are taking their point total from the game, subtracting eight points from it, and comparing it to the 76ers’ point total from the game. The plus sign before the 76ers’ spread number indicates they are the underdogs.

The minus sign before the eight indicates the Bucks are the favorites. The spread here shows the Bucks as 8-point favorites. We’re ignoring the total here, but it’s worth including because this is what you will see when looking for bets. A bet sheet for a game will usually look something like this.

Point spread explained nba