How to Read Betting Lines

1. How To Understand Betting Lines On Football
2. How To Understand Betting Lines Against
3. How To Interpret Gambling Lines

If your sports betting experience consists mostly of office pools during March Madness or a casual wager between you and a friend while you watch the Super Bowl, the transition to serious sports betting means learning how to read betting lines. The biggest difference between making the kind of casual bets mentioned above and placing wagers with online sportsbooks or at brick-and-mortar bookshops is the use of sports betting lines. Casual wagers usually involve each person in the bet picking one team to win, then wagering an equal amount, say $20 or $30. Professional bookmakers, online sports betting exchanges, and sports betting facilities in casinos have a more complex system for offering wagers on sporting events, in part to ensure profit on the part of the book, and in part to present a standardized representation of odds.

Let’s start with the basics: what do sports bettors mean when they talk about a ‘line?’ The word line, in the language of a sportsbook, can refer to either the odds and/or a point spread in any sports contest. Let’s take a look at an imaginary line the way you’d read it off the board sitting in a Vegas sports betting lounge or on the screen at your online book. Let’s imagine a game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. Your book’s NFL betting line might look something like this:

How to read NFL odds and understand NFL betting lines? When you read NFL odds with the majority of online sportsbooks, the layout will be fairly. Bet Online, Casino and Sport Betting in CANADA with our webside 247ONLINEBETTING.CA is safe and secured for all players in Canada bet online Win big bonus. Most newspapers and online sports betting sites publish the line on a football or basketball game simply as a single number. In our example we will use Chicago against New York in which Chicago is favored by 4 points versus New York. Some bettors refer to this as the favorite laying 4 points, and the underdog getting 4 points.

DAL -7.5-110 -405
NYG +7.5-110 +300
56.5 ov-110

What may look like a jumble of words, numbers, and punctuation is actually a precise and easy-to-read breakdown of the various odds and point spread details your book is offering. Here is a breakdown of each unit of information given above. Once you understand each part of the jumbled details above, you’ll be able to read a sports betting line with confidence.

The Point Spread

Obviously, the first three letters on the top two lines of the three-line package of symbols represents a team in the game you’re wagering on; NYG stands for the New York Giants, while DAL stands for the Dallas Cowboys. The number next to each team’s name is known as the spread or the point spread. Wagers on the point spread are among the most popular sports wagers in the world. The reason this wager is popular is that it doesn’t matter which team wins or loses; what matters is the amount of points the teams score, and whether or not the team you place your money on beats the difference in points (the ‘spread’) or not.

Placing a point spread bet means gambling on how much a team will win or lose by. In our above example, the Cowboys are the favorite. How do we know that? The minus symbol in front of the point spread indicates that the bookmaker thinks the final score will have Dallas winning by 7.5 points or more. The underdog, in our example that’s the New York Giants, will always be indicated with a plus sign. If you wager on the Cowboys on the point spread, America’s Team will have to win by at least 8 points for your wager to pay off. Should the Cowboys win by less than 8 points, your bet is lost.

A wager on the Giants on the spread does not mean that New York has to win the game in order for you to win cash. All the G-Men have to do is come within 8 points of the ‘boys, and you’re a winner. You determine a winning or losing point spread by adding or subtracting 7.5 from the final score, depending on which side you laid your bet. If you’re confident that New York will at least come within a touchdown of beating the Cowboys, or beating them outright, then you’d wager on the spread in favor of New York.

A quick word on that annoying half point in the point spread – most lines you’ll come across will use half points, but it’s not standard practice across the board. When you see a line with a full number instead of a number with a half point, your wager could end up as a push. In our example, if the line were 7 instead of 7.5 and the final difference in points was exactly 7, your wager is returned to you, and neither you nor the book makes money.

What’s the function of the second number in the line?

The second number in our example (-110 for both teams) tells you how much you have to wager in order to win $100. It’s an easy way to calculate how much you’ll win if your bet pays off, presented in units of $100 at a time for simplicity’s sake. Most of the time, these two numbers will be the same, because oddsmakers want to set lines so that they get as much action on the underdog as on the favorite, guaranteeing them a profit. If a book gets a single bet of $110 (by a customer hoping to win $100) on the Cowboys and a single bet of $110 on the Giants, it will have taken in $220, but will only have to pay back $210 to whichever customer wins the bet. That’s a guaranteed profit of $10, and since sportsbooks take far more than a single bet in either direction, they stand to earn that seemingly small amount of profit many times over. The $10 difference between what you wager and what you win is known as juice or vig in the sports betting industry, and it’s the way books earn their bread and butter.

What does the last number in the line mean?

The last number in the top two rows of our sports line example is known as the money line. If you’re not interested in betting on the point spread, you can wager on a team to win outright. The plus sign next to the underdog (in our case, the Giants) indicates how much money you’ll earn for every $100 you bet on the money line. Conversely, the minus sign next to the favorite’s line tells you how much you have to wager in order to win $100. In our example, a $100 wager on the Giants earns you $300 should they pull off the upset, while a bet of $405 on the Cowboys will net you an extra $100. Representing odds in units of $100 makes placing different size bets easy; if you want to bet $10 on the Giants, you stand to earn $30 if they win, while a $40.50 bet on the Cowboys will net you an additional $10.

What does the bottom row of numbers and letters mean?

The final line of information in our example line is the over-under. Wagers placed on the over-under have nothing to do with which team wins or the difference between the points they score, but rather the combined number of points both teams will score in the game.
The first number (56.5 in our sample line) is the book’s predicted total score, while the second number (110 in our Giants/Cowboys rivalry game) is how much a punter has to bet in order to win $100. If you were to bet the over-under on this game, you’ll have to decide whether you think the combined score of both teams will be higher or lower than the number put up by the book. Let’s say you bet the over, assuming the game will be a shootout between two talented offenses, you’re hoping that the final score will be anything that totals 57 or more. It could be Dallas 54, New York 3, or any other point combination that adds up to 57 or more and your bet will win. Betting the under means that the two teams cannot score more than 56 points combined, or else you lose your bet.

Reading sports betting lines becomes easier with practice and experience with different sporting events. What looks like a jumble of letters and numbers actually gives a lot of information in a tiny amount of space. Different sports have different types of wagers available, such as the run line in baseball or the puck line in hockey, both of which replace the money line found in our football example. The more experience you have watching and gambling on different sports, the faster you’ll be able to read betting lines.

• Learn About

Learning how sports betting odds work can be intimidating at first, but our guide will teach you how to read odds in no time! This primer is designed for beginners who are curious about common wagering practices and terms.

Learn to Bet on Sports & Gamble Online & Offline

For starters, you will need somewhere to place bets. If you are in Vegas, great! You can bet at one of the sportsbooks in their casinos. As more and more states pass laws to legalize sports betting, you will also be able to place wagers at local casinos in your area. You could also find a local bookie to bet through, but we recommend betting online.

How Online Betting Works

We have an excellent list of the top places to bet online (that take U.S. customers). If you are looking to maximize your first deposit, we also have a great comparison of the best sportsbooks signup bonuses for you. Once you’ve read the primer below on reading the odds, you will have no problem navigating these sites.

Las Vegas Sports Betting at the Ticket Window

How To Understand Betting Lines On Football

Betting sports in Vegas is likely going to be the option with the biggest learning curve. You will understand the odds after reading this article, but there are a few other rules and common practices you want to be familiar with that are specific to Vegas.

Many books now offer their own betting apps that make this process a little bit easier, however, the drawbacks are that you must make a deposit upfront for how much you want to bet with, plus you don’t get free drink tickets when you place bets on the app. We’ll step through how you would place a bet in person at the ticket window.

Step-by-Step Guide to Placing Sports Wagers in Vegas

“I’ll take number 403, Cowboys -8, for $110 straight up.”

1. Use the rotation number/numbers and the name of the team/teams you want to bet on. The rotation number appears to the left of each team (see image above) and is used as a unique identifier so that there is no confusion about what you want.
2. State the amount you would like to bet. This is how much you are wagering, not how much you want to win. Most books use -110 odds (more on this later), so if you want to win $100, you’d state $110 as your wager amount.
3. Indicate the type of bet you are placing. For individual bets, just say “straight” or “straight up”, otherwise you will need to explain that you are taking a parlay or some other bet type.
4. Repeat as necessary.

How to Read Sports Betting Lines

There are nearly infinite ways to bet sports. If you can think of something to bet on, there is a good chance you can find somewhere to bet on it. What we are going to focus on is the most common types of wagers: point spreads, over/unders (totals), and money lines.

What Does the Plus (+) and Minus (-) Mean in Sports Betting?

One of the first and most important aspects of sports betting every new player must learn is what the different symbols mean. A plus or a minus can mean different things in different situations. They are used for both point spread and money line betting, as well as for the price/juice of each bet.

This is explained in more detail below, but the most important thing to be aware of is that negative numbers represent favorites, while positive numbers represent underdogs. The same is true whether you are looking at a spread or a moneyline, but how these numbers are used is very different. You also need to know that prices on spreads/totals do not impact who/what is favored, it is used to determine how much the bet pays out. Read on for the complete explanation of each of these concepts.

Point Spreads Explained

The point spread is the projected number of points that separate two teams. A game with a spread will have a favorite (the team expected to win) and an underdog (the team expected to lose). A favorite “gives” points and is identified with a minus sign next to their point spread. The underdog “gets” points and is identified with a plus sign next to their point spread.

In the example above, the point spread is 7 points. Patriots are favored by 7 points against the Jets.

If you bet on the Jets +7, they must either win the game outright or lose by 6 points or less. If they lose by exactly 7 points, the bet is considered a push and is canceled.

If you bet on the Patriots -7, they must win the game outright by more than 7 points. If they win by exactly 7 points, it’s a push.

Bet Prices: What Does -110 Mean? If I Bet $100, What do I Win?

The 3-digit numbers to the far right are the listed prices for these bets. This is also called the odds, vig, or juice. An easy way to think of it is the amount you must risk to win $100 on this wager. In our example, -110 means you must risk $110 if you want to win $100. -110 is pretty standard, but you will find different options. We will cover those in more depth when we talk about money lines. The price of the bet has no impact on which team is favored. Only the plus or minus on the point spread matters. This is handled differently when you bet strictly on the moneyline.

What is the Money Line? (How Moneyline Betting Works)

A moneyline bet is on a team to win the game outright (without a point spread) at an adjusted cost. Just like with point spread betting, the favorite will have negative odds, while the underdog will have positive odds. The difference here is in the price or payout depending on which team you take.

A favorite (e.g. Patriots -280) on the money line works just like our bet price example above. In our new example, the Patriots are listed at -280, meaning you would need to risk $280 for a return of $100 on them. It follows that a winning bet on the Pats pays $100 (plus your initial investment of $280 back). This added risk is why betting the spread is usually more popular, especially on favorites.

Underdogs (e.g. Jets +240) work a bit differently. Instead showing how much you need to risk to win $100, this line tells you how much you stand to win on a $100 wager. That means if you bet $100 on the Jets, and they win, you would win $240. If the Jets lose, you are only out your original $100 wager.

Totals: What Over/Under Means in Sports Betting

The terms “total” and “over/under” are synonymous when placing wagers. This type of bet is on the sum of the points scored by both teams in a game. The bookie sets the number for the total, then you predict whether they will score more or less points than the set number.

The over/under in this example has been set at 42.5. If you project the Jets and Patriots to combine to score more than 42.5 points, you would place a wager on the over. If you think they will score less than 42.5 points, you would bet the under. Let’s say the final score of this game is Patriots 27, Jets 24. Which bet would lose and which bet would win? The sum of all points scored is 27 + 24 = 51, so an over bet wins and an under bet loses.

You may also note the bet price is not -110 like we have seen before. It is common practice by sportsbooks to adjust prices on or around key numbers for spreads and totals, especially in football.

Understanding Sports Betting

How To Understand Betting Lines Against

We hope this short beginner’s guide to understanding and interpreting odds will give you the confidence to get out there and start making winning bets. Our experts are here to help you on this journey, so do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you have about sports betting! We have only scratched the surface on reading betting lines, but this is an excellent place to start.

How To Interpret Gambling Lines

One sport that has a few extra quirks is golf. I wrote up a guide to golf betting that explains these unique features so you can feel comfortable wagering on PGA events too.