Beginners Guide For How The Spread Works In The NFL

If a substantial amount of money comes in on one side of the line (called a steam move), the sportsbooks will have to adjust the line to entice bettors to take the other side. Sportsbooks always want to have as close to equal amounts of money being bet on each side as possible so they are not at risk of taking a huge loss. If one sharp is well known for winning consistently and bets a large sum on one side, that alone could compel the sportsbook to move the line.

With the rise of online betting, dozens of platforms now offer point spread markets for football games across major leagues. Popular options include Bet365, DraftKings, FanDuel, and William Hill, each with distinct features and promotions. Many sportsbooks provide live betting, allowing you to wager on spreads as the game unfolds, adjusting the spread in real time based on scoring and momentum. Mobile apps have become increasingly sophisticated, offering intuitive interfaces, in-play statistics, and cash-out options to lock in profits or cut losses. User reviews and independent audits can help you identify the best platforms with competitive lines and swift payouts.

What Is the Spread in Sports Betting?

The favored teams will come with a line that they https://officialpinupcasino.com/ have to cover for the bet to be a winning one. If they still win but go under the line, the bet is a losing one. The favoritecovers by winning by more than the spread; the underdog covers by losing by less than the spread—or winning outright. NFL spread betting is a type of spread betting that is specific to the National Football League (NFL). The opening NFL spreads for each week are set shortly after the Sunday night wrap up.

Anyone can pick between an underdog and a favorite, but you have to understand the odds to really know if the bet is worth it or not. Knowing how the odds will eventually help you to recognize the value in your bets and become an even more experienced bettor after some time. You will often see them in conjunction with various types of bets, moneyline bets, a spread, or wherever.

• In financial markets, spread betting is essentially speculating (or betting) on which direction a financial market may go, without actually owning said security.
• In tight games, that extra half point often makes the difference between winning and losing.
• While talking about American sports, the NFL is also an excellent option for spread betting and you can also follow some trends to help with your strategy.
• Taking advantage of line shopping across multiple sportsbooks allows you to secure the best possible spread and maximize your edge.

Advanced Strategies for Beating the Spread

Look for odds highlighted in blue – they represent the best value for a particular bet. Fractional odds are mostly used in the UK and Ireland and are often referred to as traditional odds. So, for example, 6/1 odds mean that you could win $6 for every $1 you wager. 6/1 is the ratio of the potential profit of your initial bet. This means that you can even place them at the start of the season, but you need to wait the entire year to see the outcome. The most popular future bets involve picking the Super Bowl winner, Conference winners, the best team in the regular season, teams to advance to the playoffs, etc.

Scores like 3 and 7 are common in the NFL, and are key to setting and betting spreads. With teams being fairly matched through the NFL, seeing double digit spreads are pretty uncommon. However, college football is know for having large spreads due to the disparity between talent. Knowing these trends can improve your betting success in football. The number attached to both spreads (110) is the most common odds you will see when betting on the spread.

Football spread betting works by playing on a ‘spread’ or prediction on the number of things to happen in a match. If Team A is beating Team B 14-0 with six minutes in the first quarter, you’re offered a brand-new point spread at that exact time. And if Team B was a 4-point underdog at kickoff, you could potentially bet on the same team but at +10 or +10.5 on the live line. For much of the 2022 NFL Conference Championship week, the Chiefs were 7-point favorites, before so many bets came in on Kansas City that the Chiefs moved to 7.5.

For example, during Week 14 of the 2021 NFL season, the 8-4 Tennessee Titans played the 2-10 Jacksonville Jaguars. If the sportsbooks had been taking bets on each side to win the game at the same exact odds, it would be a no-brainer for the bettor to place a wager on the vastly superior Titans. Common sense and analytics alike say the Titans will win that game well over half of the time, so it would be an extremely profitable bet if the teams were priced equally. As a new and aspirin football bettor, you have to understand football betting odds and their basic types. The ones that you are going to encounter first are moneyline bets, spread betting, and over/under bets. Moneylines just require your team to win the game outright — the winning margin does not matter in this type of bet.

Nevertheless, you should familiarize yourself with the other two, the decimal and fractional ones, just in case a situation occurs where you have to know how football odds are calculated. As we already said, there are three types of odds that operators usually use. As a US bettor, you are probably more acquainted with American odds, but you might come across other types, so you better be able to recognize them. A team on a win streak with poor efficiency might be inflated in the market; a losing team with solid efficiency may be a buy‑low ATS. There are other factors like injury status, current form, and overall talent in the game.

For ATS underdog bettors to win, the ‘dog must either (a) win or (b) lose by less than that amount. The first two numbers that new bettors will see when looking at a particular game, match, or event are the moneyline and spread. The moneyline is basic — it’s the straight-up winner, with corresponding odds that are shorter for the favorite and longer for the underdog. The spread, however, allows you to get short odds on the favorite or underdog.