Explaining the Details of Point Spread Betting
The goal of this section is to give you information about the point spread betting system. You are probably familiar with it. And even if you are, it does not hurt to take a look at this post to ensure yourself that you know everything there is to know about it. We will discuss the topic in detail shortly; we just want to hint at what we are going to talk about.
Imagine there is a sports match between team A and team B, and the bookmaker has set a point spread as follows: -9 for team A and +9 for team B. This states that according to the sportsbook, team A are the favourites and team B are the underdogs.
If you place a bet on team A, you will win only if they score at least ten points more than team B. And if you bet on team B, your wager will be successful if team B lose by less than nine points or, of course, if they get to win the game. Now, if team A wins the game by exactly nine points, this is called a tie or a push.
As far as the point spread betting strategy is concerned, there are balanced odds. This is one of the reasons why this system is so appealing to some bettors. We will give you more details about it and hopefully you will be able to use it to your advantage in the future. Let’s get started.
Point Spreads in Football
Football is one of the sports where point spread betting is widely used by punters. The best way to take advantage of this strategy when it comes to this specific market is to use teasers. To clarify – the latter is a type of betting that resembles parlays. What you do is you use modified point spreads, and each of them you choose goes in your favour by six points. To make this easier to process, let us give you an example. Let’s say you want to place wagers on A at -7.0, B at +7 and C at -3.5. If you choose to go with a teaser, you will get the following spreads: A at -1.0, B at +13, and C at +3.5.
Most trusted bookmakers for point spread betting
| Bookie | Review | Highlights | Cash Out | Bonus | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
bet365 |
|
|
In Free Bets £50 |
CLAIM BONUS | |
| Bet £10 & Get £50 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required #AD | |||||
Unibet |
|
|
Free Bet Money Back as a Bonus up to £40 if your first bet loses + £10 Casino |
CLAIM BONUS | |
| 18+ begambleaware.org. New customers only. Min deposit £10. Money back as bonus if first bet loses. Wagering requirements: all sportsbook 3x at min. odds of 1.40 (2/5), casino 50x. Unless forfeited the sportsbook bonus must be wagered before using the casino bonus. Bonus expires 7 days after opt-in. Full T&C's apply.. #AD | |||||
10bet |
|
|
Welcome Bonus 100% Up to £50 |
CLAIM BONUS | |
| New bettors; Code SPORT; Wager deposit & bonus 8x; Max qualifying bet stake=initial bonus; Valid 60 days; Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply; T&C apply; 18+ #AD | |||||
Betfred |
|
|
Free Bet Bet £10 Get £30 Bet |
CLAIM BONUS | |
William Hill |
|
|
Free Bet Bet £10 & Get £30 |
CLAIM BONUS | |
| *New customers using Promo Code P30 only, min £10/€10 stake, min odds 1/2, free bets paid as 2 x £15/€15 (30 days expiry), free bet/payment method/player/country restrictions apply. #AD | |||||
Now that the spread moved a few points in your favour, it is easy to get the selections right. However, try keeping in mind that if you want your bet to win, all of the selections have got to be correct.
There are other possible ways of getting point spread betting in football correctly. Here is another one worth mentioning. It suggests you should go with off market prices. What does that mean?
Imagine you are searching through numerous betting sites for point spread offers for an upcoming game between your favourite teams. You find that most sportsbooks offer +7.0 point spread for team A. But then you come across a bookie that provides +7.5 point spread for that team. It appears that this operator is out of sync with the other gambling portals. The chances are that there is a positive expected value here. Mind you, in this situation we are looking for bets that offer positive expected value. We are not searching for the best lines.
Another thing to take into account is if there is any correlation between the betting total and the point spread. A parlay bet would be a great option if there is such a correlation.
Now, if you want to use point spreading in football like a pro, it is a wise idea to learn how to buy half-points in football correctly. If you know the strategies, you will up your chances of getting your football point spread wagers successful. There are people who disapprove of the idea of using this method. However, we believe that it can be very profitable if used in the right circumstances. Of course, we are just giving you advice; we are not saying you should do it if you do not want to.
Point Spread Betting in Basketball
Another sport where the point spread strategy is used is basketball. Here it is possible to use half points as well. If you do a quick search, you will see that half points are sold for 10 pence each at the majority of online gambling portals. Let us give you an example. Imagine team A are given odds of 1.91 and a point spread of -6.5. They are the favourites. Here is what you can expect to see at different bookmakers:
- Team A at odds of 1.83 and a point spread of -6.0
- Team A at odds of 1.77 and a point spread of -5.5
- Team A at odds of 1.71 and a point spread of -5.0
Here is how you can best use point spread in basketball, according to the situation we presented above. You can try shopping a variety of online bookmakers looking for the best odds and go on to buy half points. Purchase as many as you can, and make sure they are not sold for more than 10 pence each.
Here is how often margins of victory occur when it comes to basketball: 3 points (5.35%), 2 points (5.58%), 9 points (5.77%), 4 points (5.95%), 6 points (6.03%), 8 points (6.03%), 7 points (6.59%), 5 points (6.63%), and other margins get 51.86%.
According to this information, it appears that a great deal of games (almost half of them actually) end with one of the point margins from above. Due to end game strategies, some of these margins are likely to occur more often than others. For example, you can often see the losing team fouling on purpose and the winning team doing their best to keep the ball away from their opponents.
Now, let us tell you a secret. Well, it is not a secret. You can see it above. The margins of victory that occur more often than the others are considered to be options 7 and 5. This means that you ought to target those point spreads if you want to be successful using point spread in basketball. However, there is one more thing to be aware of.
The majority of online bookmakers will only sell a few half points at 10 pence, and then they will simply charge you more for each piece. Let us give you another example to illustrate what this means and how you can overcome it.
Imagine the odds on team A to win are 1.91, and there is a point spread of -8.5. This means that there is 50% chance of winning and 50% chance of losing. Let’s say you buy a few points, and you manage to move the spread a little until it becomes -6.5, and the odds become 1.67. In this situation, you will win 6.59% of the time bettors win by 7, and 6.24% by 8. Adding the figures together, we get 12.83%. And if we add the original proposition too, i.e. 50%, we get 62.83%.
Using an odds converter, we can see that odds of 1.67 have got implied probability of 60%, meaning that if you want to break even, you have got to win 60% of the time. But judging by the figures we get above, there is a 62.83% probability. Hence, if we bet £150 to get back £100 in return, here is what would have happened. We would lose £150 37.17% of the time, and we would win £100 62.83% of the time. Which means for every £150 we risked, we would get a profit of approximately £5.95.
Point Spread Tips
Different people will tell you different things about point spreads and how they can be put into effect to increase your bankroll. To be honest, since sports and leagues are plentiful, one should use different strategies for making point spread wagers. However, it is also true that there are some universal tips for all of these categories. So, here is what you can do about it.
Go for Multiple Bookmakers
One of the things to be aware of when it comes to point spreads is that they can vary from site to site. If you want to take advantage of the best spreads, you need to look around and compare them. This means that you should have got multiple betting accounts, so it is easy to spot a favourable point spread.
Imagine there is an upcoming sports event where two teams are to compete against each other. At your preferred bookmaker – we will call them Bookmaker 1 – team A is given a point spread of +7, whereas team B is given a point spread of -7. However, you do a quick search, and you find out that there is a slight difference in the point spreads at another sportsbook – we will call them Bookmaker 2 – team A has got +7.5, whereas team B receives -7.5.
If team B is the one you want to bet on, your best bet would be to go for Bookmaker 1. If they are successful by more than seven points, each of the two sportsbooks will help you win. However, if they are successful by exactly seven points, you can only win with Bookmaker 2. Now, if you like team A more and you think they have got better chances of winning despite the point spread, your best option will be Bookmaker 2 because a team A loss by seven points will mean victory for you if you choose Bookmaker 2, and a push if you go for Bookmaker 1.
Make good use of Bonus Offers
Every online sportsbook tries to tempt new customers with lucrative welcome offers. A promotion usually comes in the form of bonus to spend on different activities, which allows you to practice using none of your money. So, you can easily spend that bonus practising on point spreads. You can expect that this strategy can meet the wagering requirements associated with the sign-up bonuses. Hence, there is nothing to worry about. Not only will you be able to see how point spreads work, but you can also come out ahead and win some money from this whole thing. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Now, imagine you have got multiple betting accounts, and you take advantage of multiple bonus offers. This would mean bigger potential returns. The only thing that you need is a bankroll and a list of reputable online bookmakers. We can take care of the latter. Just go through our site, and you will see which sportsbooks we recommend.
Make Sure You Understand Key Numbers
If you want to use the point spread strategy efficiently, you should make sure you know what the key numbers mean. It is important to remember that they are quite significant in football. You should know that the majority of games are decided by seven or three points in NFL football. This means that the difference between -5.5 and -5.0 is smaller than that between -7.0 and -6.5. Also, some of the games may be priced differently due to the odds at some sportsbooks.
For instance, you may come across a game between team A and team B with odds of 1.95 and a point spread of +7 for team A. This is different than the standard odds of 1.91 (which is -110 expressed in the moneyline odds format). It means that instead of risking £1.10 to get a return of £1.00, you will be risking £1.05 to get a profit of £1.00 (without the money staked).
As you can see, the odds are a little bit better with the second option. However – now, this may come as a surprise to you – it may be better to accept the odds at another bookmaker because team A might lose by seven points, which will result in a push.
Beware of the Favourites
This happens especially to beginners. They tend to bet on the favourites because they are more likely to win, but they forget to take into consideration the impact of the advantage that the bookmaker always has over bettors. This is not to say that you should not bet on the favourites. However, you should always keep in mind that with point spreads, if you back the favourite, they have got to win by a set amount of points determined by the bookmaker. This is not a regular bet where you say who is going to win. With point spreads, you have got to tell by how much they will win or lose.
So, we tried to explain how to use point spread in football and basketball, and we also gave you a few examples to help you understand the whole concept. We hope that all of the information we put together for you will make things a little bit clearer so that you can use spreads to your advantage rather than to your detriment.
Other Types
If you are a new bettor, we advise you to get acquainted with all the betting types.