Odds Primer

In sports betting, an oddsmaker's job is to calculate the odds, or probability, of one side winning against the other. The odds are presented showing a favorite and an underdog, a point spread or moneyline, and a total, each of which is used to make various types of wagers.

In football and basketball, a point spread - also called "the line" or "the spread" - is used to level the playing field between two teams for betting purposes, and is designed by the oddsmakers to draw even money on both sides of the game. The oddsmaker predicts that the favored team will win by a certain number of points.

• The favorite is always indicated by a minus sign (e.g. -5.5) and the underdog by using positive numbers (e.g.5.5).
• If you bet on the favorite, you win your bet if the favorite wins AND their margin of victory is greater than the point spread.
• If you bet on the underdog, you win if the underdog wins, ties, or if the favored team wins but fails to exceed the point spread.
• If the favorite wins the match by exactly the amount of the spread, the result is declared a push and money is neither won nor lost (the wager will be returned). Spreads are often given as something-and-a-half (35.5, 10½ , etc.) so that the result will necessarily fall above or below the spread, thus avoiding a push.
• Example: imagine that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 7 point favorites against the Atlanta Falcons. The final score is Tampa Bay 18, Atlanta 13. In this case the favorite, Tampa Bay, won "straight up" against the underdogs, since they beat Atlanta… but they did not win against the spread (ATS), because they won by fewer than 7 points. If you bet on Tampa Bay, you lost your wager; if you bet on Atlanta, you won.
• It is standard for point spread bets in most sports that you wager $110 to win $100.

A money line, used in baseball and hockey, takes the place of a point spread. Money line betting is simply wagering on the contest based on a given price rather than a point spread. The team wagered on has to win the game outright, regardless of the score. The minus sign (e.g.-130) always indicates the favorite and the amount you must bet to win $100. The line without the minus sign (e.g.120) always indicates the underdog and the amount you win for every $100 bet. Using this example, therefore, you would bet $130 to win $100 on the favorite, while for the underdog you would bet $100 to win $120.

The total, or over/under (O/U or o/u), is the number of points oddsmakers expect will be the total score for the contest (both teams combined, overtime included). It doesn't matter who wins or loses.

• You bet on whether the total points scored will be over or under the predicted number.
• Using as an example our Bucs-Falcons game, imagine that the predicted total for the game is 29.5. The final score of Tampa Bay 18, Atlanta 13 gives a result of 31. If you bet on the over in this game, you are a winner.
• If the total score is exactly the same as the predicted total, the result is declared a push and money is neither won nor lost (the wager will be returned).
• As with point spread bets, you must generally wager $110 to win $100.

Betting on a point spread or money line is sometimes called betting "sides" - that is, betting that one side or the other will be the winner - while betting the over/under is referred to as betting "totals".

How to Read Covers' Odds Tables

The order in which the teams are listed shows AWAY at HOME; for example, the first game below shows Kansas City (away) at Minnesota (home). The favorite is indicated by a minus sign.

Football

4:30 PM ET WSEX Sportingbet       Carolina St. Louis 45 -7.5 45 -5.5

At WSEX, St. Louis is favored by 7.5 points; at Sportingbet, they are favored by 5.5. If you wanted to bet on the favorite in this case, you'd have a better bet at Sportingbet, where the favorite only has to win by 5.5. If you wanted to bet on the underdog, on the other hand, you'd be wiser to bet at WSEX, where there is more chance of the favorite not covering. At both books the O/U is 45 -- you could place a bet on whether you thought the total score would be over or under this figure.

7:30 PM ET WSEX Sportingbet       Boi. St. TCU 59 10.5 58.5 10.5

Here we have Boise State favored by 10.5 points at both sportsbooks. For the O/U, the 58.5 given at Sportingbet eliminates the possibility of a push (where the total adds up to exactly the number given). At WSEX, a total score of exactly 59 would mean the bet does not win or lose -- it is simply returned. The bettor's own preferences deternine whether they find an advantage in choosing one sportsbook over another.

Basketball

7:00 PM ET WSEX Sportingbet       New York Toronto 181.5 -6.5 OFF -6

Toronto is favored by 6.5 at WSEX and by 6 at Sportingbet. WSEX is offering an O/U of 181.5, while Sportingbet does not have a total offered at this time.

Hockey

7:00 PM ET WSEX Sportingbet       Toronto Washington -0.5 100 5o-130 -0.5 -105 5o-135

In hockey you will often run across a "puckline", which in essence combines a moneyline and a spread. You'll see a line of -0.5 or -1.5 with an associated price next to it.. In the example above, Toronto is the favorite (as indicated by the minus sign) and the price at Sportingbet is -105, which means you'll pay $105 to win $100. At WSEX they are offering "even money", shown as 100. You would pay $100 to win $100. The half-point given ensures that the game won't end up as a push. With the O/U, you are shown which result is favored -- the over or the under. In our example, the "5o" indicates that the O/U is 5 and the over is favored. The price shown next to it is the amount you will pay to win $100 if you bet on the favored result. Here we see that at WSEX you'd pay $130 to win $100 on the over, and at Sportingbet you'd pay $135. If the table showed "7u-140" it would mean that the O/U is 7, the under is favored, and it's going to cost you $140 to win $100 on the under.