What's The Spread? A Simple Explanation
Spread betting is the most common form of sports betting and can be found on and offline. The payoff in spread betting is based on the correctness of the wager, rather than a straightforward “win or lose” result, as in fixed odds betting. Even if the result of an event seems to be inclined toward one side or the other, online sports betting sites take advantage of the fact that the general idea behind spread betting is to generate an active market for both sides of a wager.
What a Spread! – Understanding the points
The most popular use of spread betting occurs in the line of sports. A bettor must have a concrete understanding of the point spread if he or she hopes to have a money-making season when it comes to betting on sports. For betting purposes only, the point spread is a handicap placed on one team by sports betting sites or bookmakers, and it is designed to give both teams in any game an equal chance of winning in the eyes of sports bettors.
This is how the sports betting spread is determined
If Team A is favored by 10 points over Team B, the point spread is 10, and Team A must win by 11 or more points for you to win your bet, called beating the spread.
In American football for instance, you see a + and - which indicates if a team will lose(+) or win(-). You can bet on either outcome. If you bet on the -, your team must win by more than that number. If it is exact, it is a push. If you bet on the +, your team must either win, or lose by less than that number of points. The spread is calculated by adding the points of the two combined teams and then adding or subtracting the expected difference in score.
Another example can be found in cricket. Imagine the West Indies is playing against Australia in a cricket Test match, and the spread is 240-260 runs. If Brian Lara is batting, and you think West Indies can easily make 300 runs, you should buy at the higher quote of 260 runs. If you buy at $2 per run, you win $2 for every run scored above 260. If they make 300 runs, you make $80. What a spread!
What sports use spread betting?
This kind of betting can be applied to a large selection of sporting events and matches at live and online sports betting sites. The bets are determined by the totals in certain numbers in sporting events from which winners are confirmed, for instance goals or touchdowns in football (depending where in the world you are), runs in cricket, points in rugby, and shots in golf and much more.
The point spread isn’t intended to be an exact representation of how much better one team is than another, but is designed to draw an equal amount of money on both teams, so that the sportsbooks are assured of a profit. The sportsbooks are aware that the smart sports bettor will wager more money on the average than a typical bettor, so the point spread is designed to beat these smart bettors.
Regardless of how uneven a match is, you can still use the sports betting spread to make a wager – it’s a great way for fans and bettors to gamble, with the chance to put money on your favored outcome from the first minute right through to the very end. You can change your mind and make additional bets at any time, or you can wait till the end of the game to see if you bet on the right outcome. With so many online sports betting sites to choose from, you can surely find a bet that suits your tastes.
