Point Spread Betting Explained – How it Works | Odds Shark
A point spread in sports is a figure set by oddsmakers to offer an advantage or disadvantage depending on the margin of victory or defeat for any given team. The”favorite” group (tagged with a”-” sign) will be at the disadvantage as they’d have to win the game by a fixed number of points while the”underdog” team (labeled with a”+” sign) will be given an advantage to not lose the game by a fixed number of points. The reason oddsmakers do this would be to supply betting interest for the two sides due to one team typically being better than another.
Here’s 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 your 4.5-point favorite which means they would need to win the match by five points or more to win the bet. Conversely, New York is a 4.5-point underdog which means that they would have to win or not lose the match by more than four points to win the wager.
If Dallas wins 20-17, they then win by three factors and did NOT cover the 4.5 points, but New York has”covered the spread” because they remained within 4.5 points.
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