The point spread bet is a betting market most commonly wagered on the MLB, NBA games, and NFL games. You can also find them for soccer and the NHL, but because of the low-scoring nature of those sports, they’re less common. The point spread basically creates an even playing field for bettors with regards to the favorite and the underdog by ‘giving’ the underdog a head start on the scoreboard.
To get people to bet, sportsbooks have favorites ‘give’ points to the underdogs prior to the game. For example, say the Detroit Lions are big underdogs to the Green Bay Packers and are offering a +7.5 point spread. That means that if you bet on the Packers’ -7.5 point spread, you only win if they win by 8 points or more. If the Packers win by 7 or less or lose straight up, Lions spread bettors win.
Betting on point spreads is commonly called ‘spread betting’ for most sports, though when it comes to hockey it’s usually referred to as ‘puckline betting,’ and in the MLB it’s often referred to as the ‘run line’ instead of the point spread.
Next up, is the Moneyline wager, the simplest and most common of them all. This type of betting market can be found for any and every event you can think to bet on because it’s a simple, ‘Who’s going to win?’ wager. If you bet on the Moneyline for a given participant, and they win, then you’ve won your Moneyline bet.
When a participant is a favorite on the Moneyline, their odds will begin with a (-) minus symbol, if they’re the underdog their odds will start with a (+) plus symbol. If you see -200 odds, you’ll have to put $200 down to win $100 in returns, if you see +200 odds, you’ll win returns of $200 on a $100 bet. A Moneyline wager is also referred to as a ‘straight up’ bet.
Betting on point totals or over/unders is another very common pursuit in the world of sports betting. Similar to spread betting, these point total wagers are very common in higher-scoring sports like the MLB, NBA, and NFL, but they are also quite popular in other scoring sports such as soccer and hockey. This type of wager is a bet on how many combined points, runs, or goals will be scored by both sides in any given event.
For example, for a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks, the total sits at 220.5 points. Over bettors are hoping that the two teams combine to score 221 points or more, while under bettors are looking for the game to finish with 220 points or less. The same goes whether you’re betting on a game that keeps score with runs, goals, or points. Wagering on point totals is often referred to as ‘over/under betting.