Betting Odds Explained

Point Spread – The point spread is a prediction of how much one team is favoured over another team and is mostly used in football and basketball. An example of point spread odds would be

• Green Bay Packers +3
• New York Giants -3

This means if the New York Giants they would need to win by more than 3 points for you to win your bet anything less you lose and if it lands exactly on 3 it would be a push and you would get your money back. If you bet on the Packers you would need them to either win the game outright or lose by less than 3 points so they could still lose by 1 or 2 points and you would still win your bet. Also if you had the Packers and they lost by exactly 3 points it’s considered a push and again you get your money back.

Money Line – The money line is different from a point spread in that it’s not a prediction of how many points a team will win by but how often they will win. The money line is most commonly used for betting baseball and hockey. An example of money line odds would be

• New York Yankees +125
• Boston Red Sox -135

Now the way the money line works is if you bet the Yankees +125 you would win $125 for every $100 you bet so if you bet $100 and the Yankees won you would win $125 and if you bet $500 you would win $625. To bet the Red Sox you would need to bet $135 for every $100 you want to win so to win $100 you would have to bet $135 and to win $500 you would have to bet $675.

Total (over/under) – The total also commonly known as the over/under is a bet on how many points will be scored by both team in the game. So you would bet on if you think the total points scored will over the predicted number or under that number. You can bet the total in all major sports. An example of total odds would be

• New York Knicks o185
• Boston Celtics u185

This may look slightly different from one sportsbook to another but this is the main idea. So we are going to bet on if the total points scored by both the Knicks and Celtics will go over 185 points or under 185 points. If we bet the under then for us to win both team would have to score a combined total of less than 185 and if we bet the over both teams would have to score over 185 points combined. If both team combine for exactly 185 points it’s a push and you get your money back.

Run Line – The run line is used in baseball kind of like the point spread except the spread is always 1.5 runs. This is most commonly used instead of the money line when betting on heavy favourites so you don’t have to lay as much chalk or get smaller live odds.  An example of run line odds would be

• Pittsburgh Pirates +1.5 +110
• Philadelphia Phillies -1.5 -120

On the money line the Phillies would probably be around -250 so instead of laying $250 to win $100 the spread of 1.5 runs is added and now you only have to bet $120 to win $100. Using our example if we bet the Phillies we would bet $120 to win $100 and for us to win our bet they would need to win the game by 2 or more runs, if they win by just 1 run then we lose our bet. If we bet the Pirates we would bet $100 to win $110 and to win our bet they can either win the outright plus they could lose the game by 1 run and we would still win.

Puck Line – The puck line also known as the Canadian line is used in hockey and works basically like the run line in baseball except we use goals instead of runs. An example of puck line odds would be

• Toronto Maple Leafs +1.5 -140
• Detroit Red Wings -1.5 +130

The first thing you might notice is that even though the Red Wings are a big favourite probably around -200 on the money line they are +130 on the puck line. This is because there are fewer goals scored in hockey with makes the 1.5 goals worth a lot. Using our example if we bet the Red Wings we would bet $100 to win $130 and to win our bet they would need to win by 2 goals or more. If we bet the Maple Leafs we would need to bet $140 to win $100 and to win our bet the Leafs could either win the game outright or lose by 1 goal.