Literally the more I learn about sports betting, the more confusing it gets. Over/under, covering the spread, whatever it is, i don’t understand any of it, it may as well be a different language. Thanks!
In: Mathematics
While we’re at it, can someone explain a parlay and situations where you can “buy points”?
There are a few different forms of betting you can use and will regularly see. in a game like basketball or football, you will most often see two types of betting, a point spread, and an over/under line. A point spread is how much the winning team is expected to win by.
E.g. The Pittsburgh Steelers are favored to beat the Miami Dolphins by 3 or more points, so if you put money on Pittsburgh to cover the spread, you are hoping they win by at least 3 points. If Miami wins, or Pittsburgh only wins by 2 points, you lose the bet.
The over/under line is the expected total points scored by both teams combined, so in the above example it wouldn’t matter who won the game, or by how much just so long as you correctly bet on if total points scored is above or below that line
Now, the other kind of bet you will see is called a money line. It will look something like -125/+115, and is most commonly used in boxing or other combat sports. The way it works is the favorite to win the match will be listed with a negative number and it represents how much money you would need to bet in order to get a $100 return. So if Floyd Mayweather is listed as a -350 favorite, that means you need to bet $350 to make a $100 profit. The underdog will (almost always. Don’t worry about it) be listed with a positive number like +275 and is how much money you would receive in profit with a $100 bet.
Hope this helps
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