Pointspread And Line Of Sports Betting

The Pointspread and Line.

In football, whether its in the NFL or the NCAA, employs the same pointspread and line. A pointspread will usually look like this:

-6.5 Oakland Raiders

+6.5 Minnesota Vikings

This means that the Oakland Raiders are the favorites to win this game against the Minnesota Vikings. If you bet on the Raiders, that means the Raiders would have to score more than just a touchdown (6 pts.) for your bet to win. If the Raiders win via a stupid field goal which will only give 3 pts., you still lose because you were not able to cover the pointspread (-6.5).

If you bet on the Vikings and they were beaten by Oakland by 3 pts., you still win your bet because you were still able to cover the point spread (+6.5). Think of it as this way, the Raiders are already down by 6 points and the Vikings up 6, even before the game started.

The .5 is there to avoid any ties that could and will happen. You see, bookies and bettors hate that.

Get it?

Got it?

Good.