What is Point Spread Betting?

Betting against the spread means placing a wager on a sports event where one team is given a point spread advantage and the other team is given a point spread disadvantage. For example, if the point spread for a football game is -7 for the favorite team, betting against the spread means placing a wager on the underdog team to either win the game outright or lose by less than 7 points. This type of betting is popular because it levels the playing field between the teams and offers more options for bettors. Spread betting explained Your point spread bet wins when the team you choose to cover the spread does so. If you bet on the favorite, they need to win by more than the spread. If you bet on the underdog, they need to lose by less than the spread, or win. For example, let's say you place a College Football spread bet on the NC Tar Heels against Appalachian State. Since the Tar Heels are 7-point favorites, they'll need to win the game by more than 7 points for your bet to cash in.

Spread betting explained

Meanwhile, if you're new to sports betting, here are some handy tips that can help you stay on the right track. Point Spread Betting FAQ Football data analyst
Point Spread Betting Strategies

Bettors can typically also bet custom spreads. For example, if the spread is set at -6, but a bettor feels the favorite team is going to win by much more than that, they can bet -10 for increased odds. What is the spread in sports betting? Without spread betting, we could not bet on specific matches. Let’s say you have a game between the Patriots with prime Tom Brady on a 16-0 record against the struggling Miami Dolphins, who enter the tie with just 2 wins in 16 contests.

Betting spread meaning

The point spread bet is a bet designed to give each team an equal chance of winning a particular game. Obviously, not all teams are equal, so the sports-books have devised a mechanism to even up the teams, and that is by taking points/runs/goals off the team who is favored. The more a team is favored, the more the gambling site will take off them, enough to theoretically make the game a 50/50 chance. What is Spread Trading For every spread bet you make, you’ll pay a fee based on something called the spread. That’s the difference between the buy and sell price of a market, and the way brokers like us make money from our service. You may also pay additional fees, for example if you use a guaranteed stop-loss* or if you hold a trade overnight. As with all Capital.com instruments, you won’t pay any commission when you spread bet.