What Is A Spread Bet In Football
Point Spreads – Unlike most sports on which money lines are the most popular way to bet, point spread bets are king in football. Both sides are generally set at -110 (Bet $110 to win $100), and bettors can bet the favorite while surrendering points (such as -4.0) or the underdog while receiving points (such as +4.0).
Easily the most popular type of betting for NFL football is “spread” betting or more commonly known as betting against the spread. Bettors who are new to NFL betting or betting in general may be a little confused with NFL spread betting, but it is pretty easy to understand once it is explained to you. We will explain what betting against the spread means below.
- Points spreads are a popular gambling choice in pro and college football as well as basketball. Here are some examples of ATS betting odds from the NCAA, NBA and NFL. NCAA Football Point Spread.
- Easily the most popular type of betting for NFL football is “spread” betting or more commonly known as betting against the spread. Bettors who are new to NFL betting or betting in general may be a little confused with NFL spread betting, but it is pretty easy to understand once it is explained to you.
What is Betting Against The Spread?
For each NFL game the oddsmakers set a number of points in which the favored team is favored by. Bettors can then either choose for the favored team to win by more than the number of points set, or bet on the underdogs to lose by less than the number of points they are underdogs by or win the game straight up. For example, the spread could be set on the favored team at 6.5 points. This would mean in order for a bet on the favored team on the spread to win they would need to win by more than 6.5 points (7 or more) in order to win the bet. It also means that a bet on the underdog team would win if the underdogs lost by less than 6.5 points (6 or less) or won the game outright.
Example of NFL Spread Bet
Below is an example of what NFL spread betting would look like:
Matchup
- TeamsSpread
- Dallas Cowboys -2.5
- New York Giants +2-5
The negative (-) sign indicates that the Cowboys are the favorites, while the positive (+) sign indicates that the New York Giants are the underdogs. With the spread set at 2.5 points, a bet on the Cowboys would mean that they would have to win by more than 2.5 points (3 or more) in order for you to win that bet. A bet on New York would mean that the Giants would have to either lose by 2.5 or less points (2 or less) or win the game outright in order for your bet to win.
Here is another example with a screenshot taken from 5Dimes.eu during Week 3 of the 2013 NFL season:
Here you can see that the Rams are +3.5, while the Cowboys are -3.5. So for this example the Cowboys are 3.5 point favorites, while the Rams are underdogs of 3.5 points. If you were to bet on St Louis you would need them to lose by 3 or fewer points or just win the game outright. If you were to bet on Dallas you would need the Cowboys to win by 4 or more points.
If the Cowboys were to win by 3 points, lets say 30-27, any bets on the Rams +3.5 would win. Even though the Rams didn’t win the game they covered the spread of 3.5 points.
Now if the Cowboys were to win by 4 points, lets say 31-27, the Cowboys have covered the spread and anyone who wagered on Dallas would win their bets.
Other NFL Spread Betting Information
You may often notice that the spread is sometimes set at an even number such as 3, 6 , 10, etc. In this case if the favored team won by the exact amount set for the spread the bet would be pushed, and all bets would be returned. For example, if the Patriots were 3 point favorites and they won by a FG (3 points) than this would results in a push, meaning no matter which side you bet on you would get your money returned to you.
The most common NFL spreads are usually set between about 2.5-10.5 points, but you will also almost always have games each week with spreads lower than 2.5 and higher than 10.5. In the event that the oddsmakers feel the game doesn’t need a spread, it would be set at 0 or what some call a pick’em (both teams are given even odds to win for this type of bet).
The odds given on the spread are usually -110 unless otherwise noted. It is not uncommon to see one side of the spread being -105, with the other side being -115. If you don’t see any odds listed for each side of NFL spreads you are supposed to assume the odds are -110 on each. Not sure how to read NFL betting odds? Check out our Sports Betting Odds guide.
Now that you know the basics of NFL spread betting you’ll want to check out our Sports Betting Strategy guide which has some great NFL strategy articles written by a professional bettor.
Football is the granddaddy of them all when it comes to wagering on sports, and with a week in between the bulk of the action every week, there is never any shortage of ways you can bet on it. Below is a look at the most common types of wagers placed in football.
Point Spreads – Unlike most sports on which money lines are the most popular way to bet, point spread bets are king in football. Both sides are generally set at -110 (Bet $110 to win $100), and bettors can bet the favorite while surrendering points (such as -4.0) or the underdog while receiving points (such as +4.0). If a bettor bets the favorite, the favorite must win by more than the amount of points it is giving up; if on the underdog, the underdog must either win outright or lose by less than the amount of points it is receiving. Point spreads in pro football usually range from +1.0/-1.0 to +14.0/-14.0, while college football point spreads can go high into the 30’s.
Over/Unders – Over/Under wagers in football is also very popular, where sportsbooks set a points total and bettors can bet on whether the combined score of both teams will go over or under the bookmakers’ set total. Totals in pro football usually range from about 35.0 in games expected to be low-scoring to 50.0 in games expected to be high-scoring. College football’s low range is about the same, but two offensive-minded teams can see totals high into the 70’s. 35 is a key number due to the fact that it amounts to five touchdowns scored.
Money Lines – While point spread betting is more popular, money lines (or simply wagering on a team to win outright) is still available. Money lines are most popular among underdog bettors and in games with small spreads. Bettors that feel that their underdog has a good chance of winning outright may opt to give up the points in exchange for a better payout on an outright win. In games with spreads of 3.0 or less, underdog bettors often feel that since they aren’t receiving many points, they are better off taking the better payout; favorite bettors on the other hand are sometimes willing to pay a little extra juice to bet their team on the money line to avoid being burned by a close win that fails to cover the spread.
Parlays – A football parlay is a wager in which two or more football sides are chosen, and all must win for the wager to pay out. Football parlays are extremely popular; some bettors like to parlay low-scoring teams with the under or high-scoring teams with the over (semi-correlated parlays) to try to make a bit more money on their sides. Other bettors like to bet big 10 or 12-team parlays, betting a small amount for potentially massive winnings if one of these “lottery ticket” bets happens to hit.
College Football Spread Bets
Propositions or “Props” – Proposition bets are also extremely popular as bettors can bet on various team and player statistics as well as specific game events. Common prop bets in football include which team will score first, which player will score first, whether a team’s first possession will be a touchdown, field goal, or turnover, and many more. Bettors can also wager the Over/Under on statistics such as a quarterback’s total yards or passing attempts, or a running back’s total yards or carries. With so many sportsbooks carrying so many proposition bets, if you can think of it, you can probably bet it.
What Is The Spread
Football Betting Systems – Some bettors like to take the guesswork out of where and when to place wagers, and opt to develop or follow football betting systems. Football betting systems look for specific statistics or game factors (unique to each betting system) that meet a certain criteria, and if that criteria is met, a bet is placed. For example, a bettor may decide that he wants to bet on every team coming off of a double-digit win every time they are at home against a road team with a losing record the following week. Each week, the bettor will look for situations like this, and if they are found will bet on them. Obviously enough, the success of betting systems varies depending on the system followed.
Teasers and Pleasers – Another common way to bet this sport is football teasers and pleasers. These are parlay bets that use alternative point spreads. In a teaser the point spread moves in your favor resulting in a lesser payout, in a pleaser the point spread moves in the bookmakers favor resulting in a higher payout.
A wager type similar to teasers, but also helpful in line shopping, is purchasing half points. You can learn about these on our page the contains our NFL Half Point Calculator.
More Advanced Articles:
Spread In Football Betting
Author: Jim Griffin