Reduced Juice – popular US betting site on game day offers point spread bets at -105 base. The -115 means risk $1.15 to win $1 and the -105 means risk $1.05 to win $1. In this case the bookmaker feels the Hawks are slightly more likely to cover. In some cases the lines will be specified. What’s the line? “ten and a hook Atlanta is the favorite”.Īll Lines Have a Price – unless otherwise specified all point spread bets are -110 (risk $1.10 to win $1.00). In the used example the Atlanta Hawks have a line of -10.5 (spoken, “minus ten point five” or “minus ten and a half”) and the Orlando Magic have a line of +10.5 (spoken: “plus ten point five” or “plus ten and a half”). Let me now explain some terminology and details you should be familiar with:īetting Line – understand when someone asks “what is the line” they are referring to the point spread. As you can see the odds are much closer to even, and I already explained how the point spreads work in the opening paragraph of this article. The -110 is the price and means for every $1.10 you stake you’ll profit $1.00 if your bet wins. With this in mind, for the same game the bookmakers will likely set the point spread odds as Atlanta Hawks -10.5 -110 / Orlando Magic +10.5 -110.

The problem with moneyline betting is most gamblers prefer closer to an even money wagering proposition. If you click that link you can learn more about betting on teams to win straight up. This type of wagering is called moneyline betting. The bookmaker might set odds on this game as Hawks -700 (risk $7 to win $1) / Magic +500 (risk $1 to win $5). To give an example let’s say in the NBA the Atlanta Hawks are one of the best teams and are playing at home against the Orlando Magic who are not a very good team and have injuries. It is possible to bet just on which team will win with no point spread involved. The first thing to understand is point spread betting is only one of many ways to bet on a game from any sport. Note: If you are experienced with sports betting you may wish to skim past or skip this section where I cover the very basics for the benefit of readers who are brand new. There’s an old saying in sports betting “I know far more winning line shoppers than I do handicappers”. For example, if three sites have an NFL team -3, and you find another having -2.5 obviously you should make the bet at the site that is offering -2.5, so long as the odds are the same. Because the point spread lines used often varies between online bookmakers it makes sense to shop the lines at all four bookmakers listed above.

Nba point spread explained