Football Betting Lines Explained - Understanding NFL Odds

Football Betting Lines Explained
Understanding NFL Odds in Offshore Sportsbooks

Online sportsbooks offer as much excitement for your wagering dollar as virtually any other form of gambling. Putting $25 bucks down on a four team parlay can keep you on the edge of your seat for hours... and hitting for a big win is guaranteed to make you come out of your seat!

Perhaps the most confusing part of sportsbook betting is the variety of bets offered ... the types of wagers can get pretty creative. You can make bets for your team to win the game. You can bet on which team will win the Super Bowl (a "future"), you can make bets where you pick a number of games, (parlays) and much more.

You can get "points" which means after the game is over, you can add (or have to subtract) a certain number of points from your team's total score to see if you won the bet. This type of betting lets two teams that have different skill levels on the playing field be "even" on the "gambling field". These points are known as the "point spread".

The point spread, or "points" or "spread", is set by the "odds makers". These guys are very skilled at what they do. An important part of sportsbook betting is to understand the job of the odds makers. Their job is not to pick the winners and losers for the games.

Their job is to balance the bets so that the same amount is wagered on each side. A casino makes money on taking a percentage from the payoff of a bet. For example, if you make a bet of $100 and win, you'll get back your original $100, plus $90 that you won. The $10 share for the casino is known as the "vigorish" or "juice".

Good spread makers know things such as the public will bet more often on home teams and usually a 3 point advantage is needed to even out any home field advantage, in the eyes of the betting public. Knowing how the public will bet is a major requirement for a odds maker.

What the sportsbook hopes to do is to pay you $100 out of the $110 someone else lost by betting on the other team. In essence, they are being "middle men" for betting action. They do not want to gamble, although sometimes the casinos really take a beating when they don't get the amount of money evenly bet on both sides. In reality, you are not betting against the casino, you're betting against other gamblers, with the casino being the "broker".

The line can "move" or change, depending on current circumstances. Let's say the Rams are playing the 49ers next Monday night. The week before the line has St. Louis favored by 10 points, meaning they must win by 11 points or more to win the bet.

On Friday, the Rams announce that Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk ran into each other during practice and are both injured and out for the week. Obviously, these events will affect the outcome of the game. More importantly to the sportsbooks, these recent developments will also impact how we bettors bet the game. So, the sportsbooks adapt and now make the game even. The thinking is, to have people bet on the Rams after all the injuries, the casinos will now have to give some incentive for bettors to bet on the
Rams. This incentive is now the Rams only have to win, not win by 11 points or more.

We now have a 10 point "middle"! Had we bet the 49ers when getting 10 points, then bet the same amount on the Rams, after the spread dropped 10 points, then we bet them at even, only two things can now happen: We either win both bets, or we win one, and lose one! This is sportsbook heaven!!! Remember, your bet is paid on the spread at the time of your bet, not the spread at game time.

Overview of the more popular sportsbook wagers:

Straight Bets
Pick one team or one event

The payoff for straight bets for a team to cover the point spread is at a ratio of $10 for every $11 bet. This means a bettor needs to pick 52.4% of all games correctly in order to break even (assuming the bet for each game is exactly the same).

Straight bets can be made using either the point spread or the "money line".

Pointspread Bets

As stated earlier, the "line" is set for each game by the odds makers. Favorites will have a - (minus) sign followed by a number, while the underdogs will have a + (plus), followed by a number.

Here's an example NFL line:
Denver + 7
Kansas City -7

Denver is the favorite and must win by 8 points or more to win. If they win by exactly 7 points, the game is a "push" or tie, and you get the amount of your bet back. If Denver wins by 6 points or less, or loses the game, then those that bet on KC will win the money.

A lot of times you'll see a 1/2 point, for example Denver is -7 1/2 points. This eliminates "pushes" since a team can't score 1/2 a point.

Sometimes you'll see games where the spread is "Pick" or "PK". That means the line is 0 and no points are in effect...just pick the winner.

Point spread bets can be either "straight" or "parlay" bets.

Moneyline Bets

Here, the point spread isn't a factor, as you only choose the winners of games. Since not all teams are created equal, everyone would bet on the best teams. So, the casinos offer benefits for betting on bad teams, while giving a penalty for betting on the good teams.

These benefits and penalties are in the form of odds. Let's take a look at a typical money line for the Denver/KC game above.

Denver -175
KC +200

Notice the '+' and '-' signs. The '-' sign for Denver means if you bet $175 on Denver, as the favorite, you would only win $100 (plus your original bet). If you took the underdog, KC, and bet $100, if KC won, you'd win $200 (plus your original bet).

If everything was totally even, both the + and - numbers should be even. The differences in these numbers is where the casinos get their "rake", or profit. In our example, they are taking in $200, but only paying out $175.

Over/Under Bets

Here's a very popular bet among many football gamblers. You're betting on whether the total points scored by both teams will be more or less than the number posted.

For example:
Denver/KC: Total = 43

This means after the game, add up the total points BOTH Denver and KC scored. If the total is 44 or more and you bet the "over", you're a winner! But, if both teams scored less than that, you'll lose your wager.

Your payoff is also $10 for every $11 wagered, since over/unders are considered straight bets. However, you can bet an over/under as part of a parlay.

Parlay Bets

This is a bet where more than one event must happen in order for you to win your bet. Since it's harder to predict multiple events than it is for a single event, you'll get paid more than "even money" if you win a parlay.

A parlay is most often bet using the point spread for two or more games. Let's use the "lines" for the following two games:

Game 1:
Denver -7
KC +7

Game 2:
Dallas -3
San Fran +3

Our "two teamer" may be Denver for game one and San Fran for game two for our "two-team parlay". If Denver wins by 8 points or more AND San Fran either loses by less than 3 points or wins, then we'll win our parlay. Any other result, and we lose.

Over/unders can also be a part of a parlay. Say the over/under is 43 for the Denver game, we may make a parlay of "Denver and Over"...meaning if Denver wins by more than 7 points AND all the points scored in the game by BOTH teams is more than 43 points, we win our parlay. Or, we can have a four team parlay, betting only over/unders. Any combinations is fine...You want 3 over/unders and 3 point spread bets for a 6 teamer? It's all up to you.

It's very easy to get a couple of parlay's in for a single Monday Night Football game. Bet the point spread and over/under for the first half, then another parlay for the point spread and over/under in the second half. Yes...many online sportsbooks even have lines and over/unders for each half!!!

Usually, ties will cause you to lose a parlay, unlike straight bets, were ties are a push and you get your original wager returned. There are a few sportsbooks offering "ties win" parlay cards, but usually give slightly lower payouts in exchange.

Parlays can offer the gambler some serious excitement, since the payouts for a multi-team parlay can be very high.

Teasers

A teaser is very similar to a parlay and is played the same way. The big difference is that you get to add points to your team's point spread. In the case of Denver being -7 for a parlay or a straight bet, we get to add (usually) 6 points for a teaser. In this case it means Denver is now only -1, instead of having to win by 7 points.

In exchange for the extra points, Teasers don't pay odds as high as parlays give. This translates into more frequent wins, as compared to parlays, but for less money each win. If you're the type of person that just wants a little amusement, and wants fewer "ups and downs"...try a teaser. If you're looking for action and the "big score", play the parlays.

Future Bets

At the beginning of a season, the play-offs, or tournaments, sportsbooks will give odds for a team or player to be the ultimate winner.

In football, the Rams were about 4 to 1 at the beginning of the 2006 season to win the Super Bowl. What a difference a year makes! The year before, the Rams were something like 250 to 1 ... making them one of the biggest upset winners in history. Betting $100 on the Rams to win the 2000 Super Bowl would have won you about $25,000.

The odds will change as the season or tournament progresses...but the odds at the time of your bet will remain in effect.