NBA Point Spread Betting When you play the point spread, you are not betting whether your favorite NBA team is going to win or lose a game; you are betting how many points they may win or lose. Point spread betting can make the most lopsided game interesting. A point spread is used by oddsmakers to even out a matchup from a betting perspective, assigning more or fewer points to a team’s final score. In order to win a point spread wager, a bettor must “beat the spread.” As a result of a more even matchup, point spread betting offers flatter payouts that are often even on both sides. A point spread is used in sports betting to even the odds between two unevenly matched teams. Each team is given a point total by the oddsmaker that can either be added or subtracted to the final score, thus factoring into if the bet was won or lost. An NBA spread also known as a point spread is how many points a team can either win or lose by to win a bet. For example if the NBA spread is -2 your team will need to win by at least three points to win the bet. If the team you bet on has a point spread of +4.5 it means the team can lose by four points and you can still cover.
NBA lines are easy to read! If you’ve ever bet on NFL action, you know that the National Basketball Association is a similar cash play on a straight pick, point total or ATS.
But wait – what if you’ve never wagered on football either? Or what if all of it seems confusing anyway?
Here are some basic explanations of how basketball lines work.
Betting the NBA Against the Spread
Let’s start off with an example of a pro hoops game with the point spread listed:
Chicago Bulls +6 (-110)
LA Lakers -6 (-110)
In these lines, Los Angeles is a 6-point favorite over the Chicago Bulls. Remember, the team with the minus (-) sign is the favorite and the number listed after is how many points they are favored by. That means you could bet on L.A. to best their opponent, but they must prevail in the contest by more than 6 points for your wager to pay off. ‘
If the Lakers prevail by less than 6 points, your bet would be a loser, and if Los Angeles prevails by exactly 6 points, your wager would be a “push” or tie, meaning your wager would be nullified.
On the other side of the ledger is Chicago at +6, this means the Bulls are “getting” 6 points (or are 6-point underdogs). A wager on Chicago would score for you if the Bulls either prevail outright, or lose by less than 6 points (e.g. Bulls 101, Lakers 105 would give you a winning bet if you took the Bulls +6).
The next number, after the point spread, represents the “vigorish,” or juice, that the book requires to place your bet. In the example above, both numbers are -110 (which is fairly typical). This means you must wager $110 to win $100 (or $55 to win $50, etc.). This number does change on occasion, so be sure you check it before placing a wager.
Basketball Money Line Odds and Betting
Betting the “ML” simply means picking who you think will win out-right. The only caveat is that you will need to wager more on a favorite to receive a substantial payoff, while a winning underdog comes with a better payout. Here’s an example:
Miami Heat -260
Charlotte Bobcats +220
The Heat are the favorites here, so a gambler would need to put up $260 just to win $100 on Miami. If she wanted to take on more risk for a bigger reward, she could bet $100 on the Bobcats. If the Bobcats prevail, payoff is $220.
National Basketball Association Over/Under Wagers
Bookies always set a number that represents how many points the teams will combine to score in the game, called the Over/Under, or O/U. You simply pick whether the final score will be greater than (over) or less than (under) the number the odds-makers set. Here is an example:
Atlanta Hawks vs. Miami Heat – OVER/UNDER 190.5
Remember that over/under bets will also always have some kind of vigorish (usually -110), so be sure to take that into account when placing this type of wager.
To determine what the scoreboard will look like after 4 quarters, take a look at schedules and injury reports for each side. If a team is in midst of a long road trip or suffering from injuries, they are more likely to have a slow-paced, half-court offense worked into their game plan. But if they’re coming in with fresh legs and/or playing at home, you can expect a lot more running than usual. It’s never a sure-fire prediction, but it’ll help get you above 50% accuracy.
Another scenario that leads to more fast-break basketball is when a coach is trying to play his team into shape in the earliest stretch of the preseason or regular season. However, that tends to happen more often in prep and NCAA basketball than in pro action.
Also, be sure to investigate both squads’ tendencies in “garbage” time. When a contest is a blow-out, pro coaches like to substitute their bench onto the floor. Depending on what type of youngsters are playing out the minutes and who is coaching them, there could be a lot of running – or a more low-scoring half-court game.
But if a strong defensive team manages to rout an opponent, the score will often be something like 91-72 – easily falling under the O/U line on most nights.
Nba Point Spread Explained Charts
Basketball bets are some of the most straightforward in Las Vegas, but still require skill and research to get your handicap above 50%. Happy stakes!
Spread Betting Explained
by Jason Shimberg - 01/15/2008
Doc's Sports offers spread betting explained in a way that is easy for even novice bettors to understand. The definition of point spread is the predicted scoring differential between two opponents as quoted by a sports book. The point spread is also called the line. If you have have bet a sporting event in the past, but have never bet on the point spread this will ease the process and explain how it works.
How the point spread works - When two teams meet on the playing field or on the basketball court, one team is typically better than the other or in a more favorable position because of factors like playing at home. If all you had to do were pick the winning team in a game, everybody would simply wager on the best team or the home team in a even matchup and bypass all the lines and collect their winnings at a high rate. Willy wonka games free.
A point spread - Lets take, for a hypothetical situation on one of the types of football bets (using the point spread), that the Kansas City Chiefs were visiting the Detroit Lions and Detroit was established as a six-point favorite at game time, which is commonly written as Detroit -6. Kansas City would be the underdog and displayed as Kansas City +6. If you bet the favorite, Detroit has to win by more than six points to win your bet. Remember, the Lions are favored by six points, so we subtract six points from their final score on a spread bet. If Detroit were to win 27-20, Lions bettors would win their wager. If the Chiefs were to win the game by any score and you picked the Chiefs you would win not including the extra six points. If the Lions were to win, 20-14, it would be exactly six and a push, so you would get your money back.
Nba Point Spread Explained Odds
Betting against the spread - In the sports betting industry the acronym ATS is used to label a team's record when betting against the spread. ATS records are a valuable tool in sports handicapping. A team may be playing great straight-up, winning a lot of games but at the same time they could have a dreadful ATS record because they are overvalued by the general public and the oddsmakers. And, conversely, a team could be losing a lot of games but playing in a lot of close games as underdogs and have a good ATS record going.
Bookmaker's interest - In order to guarantee a profit for the house, a bookie needs to create even action on both sides of a particular game. In a perfect world the bookie would have 50 percent of the handle come in on the underdog and 50 percent on the favorite. This ensures that the sports books are guaranteed a profit because of the 10 percent commission or 'vigorish' charged on most sports wagers. This is why there is 'movement' on the point spread. If one side on a game is being bet more heavily, the bookie must move the number in order to attract interest on the other side in order to balance action.
Spread betting is not convoluted - Many people decide that it's too arduous without ever giving it a try. In fact, once the simple concept has been grasped it becomes exceedingly painless to comprehend. Settle on if you think the oddsmakers' prediction is too low or too high. It's that straightforward. Learn the basics, so you and your wallet are not spread too thin.