Point Spread Betting Explained – How it Works | Odds Shark
A point spread in athletics is a figure set by oddsmakers to offer an advantage or disadvantage based on the margin of victory or defeat for a particular team. The”favorite” team (labeled with a”-” sign) would be at the disadvantage since they’d need to win the match by a set variety of points while the”underdog” group (labeled with a”+” sign) will be given an edge to not lose the game by a set variety of points. The reason oddsmakers do this is to supply betting interest for both sides due to one team typically being better than another.
Here’s an example of an NFL game at which point spreads are used and how it would look:
Dallas -4.5 (-110)
New York +4.5 (-110)
As you can see, Dallas is your 4.5-point favorite so they would need to win the game by five points or more to win the bet. Conversely, New York is a 4.5-point underdog which means 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 remained inside 4.5 points.
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