Sports Betting Tips
Point Spread Wagering In Football And Basketball
Perhaps the most important advance in sports wagering occurred in the 1930's and 40's, when the "point spread" became popular. Prior to the invention of the point spread, sports wagering was similar to horse racing, in which complicated odds were posted on the basis of a particular team winning the game outright, (or, in betting parlance, "straight-up".) While this method of betting works fairly well on evenly matched teams, it is less than satisfactory when one team is clearly superior to the other.
For example, over the last 10 years or so, Notre Dame has clearly outclassed Navy in college football. Without a point spread, to bet on Notre Dame might have required betting $5, $10 or even $15 just to win $1. Betting on Navy might offer more attractive odds (betting only $1 to win $10), but the fact is that Navy has not defeated Notre Dame once in the last 10 years. Therefore, betting on games that were not evenly matched held limited appeal for the public.
With a point spread, winning the bet is not determined by which team actually wins the game, but rather by the final score of the game. Here's how to do it: Take the score of the team favored to win and subtract the number of points posted on the board (ie., the point spread). The team with the most points after this subtraction is the team that wins for betting purposes. (You can get the same results by adding the point spread to the score of the underdog.)
Let's use the 1993 Notre Dame/Navy game as an example. Because the bookmakers knew that Notre Dame was clearly the superior team, and they posted a point spread of "Notre Dame -34" (or "Notre Dame minus 34 points.") Using betting parlance, if you bet on Notre Dame you were betting "the favorite at minus 34," or "laying 34 points." If you bet on Navy, you were betting "the underdog at plus 34 points" or "taking 34 points."
The actual final score of this game was Notre Dame 58, Navy 27. However, if you bet on Notre Dame you would have lost the bet. Since the point spread was "-34," we would subtract 34 points from the 58 points Notre Dame actually scored and come up with 24. Since Navy actually scored 27 points, Navy was the point-spread winner, 27 to 24. Betting parlance would say the Navy "failed to cover the spread". In fact, over the past 10 years, although Navy lost all their games "straight-up" verses Notre dame, by betting on Navy and "taking the points," you would have won your point spread bet 7 out of 10 times!
Another name for the point spread is "the line". If the score of a game comes out to be a tie (after the subtraction of points), the game is said to be "a push", and all players get their money back.
A sports bettor needs to realize that the point spread on a game is NOT a prediction by an oddsmaker on the outcome of a game. Rather, the odds are designed so that equal money is bet on both sides of the game. If more money is bet on one of the teams, the sports book runs the risk of losing money if that team were to win. Bookmakers are not gamblers--they want to make money on every bet regardless of the outcome of the game.
Here's how the sports book makes money out of the deal. When placing a bet, a player pays a fee called the "vigorish" or "vig", which is usually 10% of the wager. Whether you bet on the favorite or the underdog, you would bet $11 to win $10, or $110 to win $100 and so on. In our example, a person who bet $11 to win $10 on Navy would collect $21 on his winning ticket, while the bettor who bet $11 to win $10 on Notre Dame would collect nothing, losing his $11 bet.
Remember, the bookmaker is trying to get almost exactly the same amount of money bet on both sides to assure he makes a profit. To understand how this works, let's assume that the bookmaker accepted only two $10 bets on the Notre Dame-Navy game, one bet on the favorite and one on the underdog. Since he charged $11 to both bettors, he collected a total of $22. After paying the underdog better $21, the bookmaker has made $1 "profit" on the whole deal. This "$1 profit" represents one of the lowest wagering margins of all betting propositions available in Las Vegas. If you do the arithmetic, you would discover that the winning percentage you need to break even is 52.38%.
You can also bet on the total points that were scored during the game. To bet on a total, the player examines the number of "total points" posted on the board. This can also be called the "totals line" or the "over/under line". If the player thinks that the actual total points to be scored by both teams (added together) will be MORE than the posted "total points", the player bets the "over". Otherwise, the player bets the "under".
It is possible to bet two or three games as part of the same bet. This is called a "parlay" bet. In order to win a parlay bet, all of the items must win. The attraction of the parlay bet is that the amount to be won is much higher than that for playing a single game. To bet on more games as a single bet, players can bet a "parlay card". Parlay cards have big payoffs for selecting several winners. Many parlay cards also have winning payoffs for "almost wins", such as 9 out of 10 winners. Be sure to read the information printed on the parlay cards for payoff rates and rules for handling ties, etc.
A special type of point spread bet is a "teaser" bet. A teaser bet offers the player a more advantageous point spread in exchange for a lower payoff. Many books offer "teaser cards" for betting combinations of teaser bets.
Many sports books run contests in which gamblers compete with other players for prizes.
|
