Point Spread Betting Explained – How it Works | Odds Shark
A point spread in athletics is a figure set by oddsmakers to provide an advantage or disadvantage depending on the margin of victory or defeat for any particular team. The”favorite” group (tagged with a”-” sign) would be at the disadvantage since they’d have to win the game by a fixed variety of points while the”underdog” team (labeled with a”+” sign) will be given an advantage to never lose the game by a fixed number of points. The reason oddsmakers do so would be to provide betting interest for the two sides due to one team typically being better than the other.
Here is an example of an NFL game where point spreads are utilized and how it might look:
Dallas -4.5 (-110)
New York +4.5 (-110)
As you can see, Dallas is the 4.5-point favorite so that they would have to win the game by five points or more to win the bet. Conversely, New York is a 4.5-point underdog so that they would need to win or not lose the match by more than four points to win the bet.
If Dallas wins 20-17, then they win by three points and did NOT pay the 4.5 points, but New York has”covered the spread” since they stayed within 4.5 points.
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