| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |  | | | Point Spread Gambling
- Wednesday, 19 Oct 2005
There is more to sports gambling than just picking the winner. If you intend to place wagers on sporting events online, you must first gain an understanding of all the different types of bets you are allowed to make. Let’s start with the basics; the most common type of sports gambling is called a Straight Sports Bet, which is a wager on the outcome of a single game. When gambling on basketball and football there are usually three types of a Straight Sports Bet you can make: Point spread, Moneyline, and Game Total. During the course of this week, we’ll focus on all the different types of sports gambling. Today, we’ll start with point spread gambling.
Gambling on a point spread is wagering on the margin of points in which the game was decided. When making this type of wager, you need to pick either the favorite or the underdog. The favorite to win the game is indicated by the minus sign (-), and the underdog with the plus sign (+). In the event you are gambling on the favorite, a point spread of -7, means that the favorite team needs to win by more than 7 points for you to win the wager. If you have picked the underdog, a point spread of +7 means that the underdog must lose by less than 7 points for you to win the bet.
Let’s examine the following example: The point spread on the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings is -4 in favor of the Packers. If you pick Green Bay, the Packers will have to win by more than 4 points for you to win the wager. In this case, Green Bay manages to cover the point spread. Alternately, gambling on the Vikings would mean that in order for you to win the bet, Minnesota must either lose by less than 4 points, or win the game. In the event the Packers won the game by exactly 4 points (Vikings lost by 4), it’s rendered a “tie” or a “push” and you get your money back. | |
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