The Point Spread


	Football and basketball straight bets are made against the point spread. Wagers are made in increments of $11 to win $10, and most casinos will accept bets of $5.50 to win $5. Always take care to bet in units of $11 ($11, $22, $110, etc.). Casinos will accept any wager and usually pay to the nickel, but youâll look like a goob if you bet an amount that results in an uneven payoff. All thatâs left for you to learn now is how to decipher the information on the betting board. The quick primer that follows will show you how itâs done. 1003 St. Louis Rams 41-1/2 1004 Chicago Bears -5


		This ãlineä provides all the information you need to place a wager. The team listed second is the home team. An easy way to remember this is to think, top city at bottom city. In the football example, St. Louis is playing at Chicago. Chicago is the favorite, listed at minus 5 points. This means that you give up (ãlayä) 5 points when you bet on the Bears. For you to win this bet, the Bears must not only beat the Rams, they must beat them by more than 5 points. Often, thereâs no number after the underdog, but the relationship is symmetrical. When you bet the Rams, you get (ãtakeä) 5 points. You win your bet when the Rams win the game or if they lose by less than five. With a final score of Bears 30 - Rams 28, a wager on the Rams would win because the Bears did not ãcoverä the 5-point ãspread.ä The ãtotalä is the number on the right (41-1/2). This is a separate bet on whether the combined points scored by both teams will go over or under the posted number. In the case of a 30-28 score, a bet that the total would be over 41-1/2 points would win. Use the numbers preceding the team names to make your bet. Tell the ticket writer the number of the team you want to bet, and the amount you are betting. Example: ãNumber 1004 for $11ä means youâre betting $11 on St. Louis +5 (taking five points). If you bet a total, give him the number of either team and specify either ãoverä or ãunderä the total. If you donât see a number in front of the team name, check the time (the sports book is about the only place in the casino that youâll see a clock in plain view). The game has probably already begun and itâs too late to wager. Other particulars: If the score were to end Bears 33 - Rams 28, the bet would be a tie (ãpushä). A tie is a tie; all money is refunded. Points scored in overtime always apply to the final outcome. If you see the designation PK instead of a number (-5 in our example), thereâs no favorite, and therefore no point spread. The game is called a ãpick.ä If your team wins, you win your bet regardless of the margin of victory. You still must bet $11 to win $10 on the team of your choice. The minus symbol is sometimes dropped. If you see a line posted with a number and no minus sign, mentally insert the minus symbol in front of the number. The team with the number beside it is always the favorite. The whole point-spread process is the same for basketball. If youâre betting for the first time, walk into any sports book and try it out mentally. Scan the teams on the board; you should be able to figure out the terms for betting any team up there. When you feel comfortable, walk up with your money and youâre in business. If you donât quite get your courage up by game time, or are just late getting there, youâll have a second chance if you wait until halftime (of football games). All the books now put up halftime lines on sides and totals. Money Lines Baseball and boxing are bet differently than football and basketball. For these sports, a money line is used and a point spread doesnât apply. The money line handicaps the chances of either team (or fighter) winning the contest outright. You simply have to choose the winning team to win your bet. In money-line betting, you donât put up $11 to win $10 as you do in point spreads. The amount you bet is determined by whether you take the underdog or the favorite and by the odds on the favorite. A money line for a baseball game might look like this. 409 Minnesota Twins Radke +120 410 Baltimore Orioles Musina -130 The Twins are the underdog, denoted by the ã+ä sign. You wager $100 to win $120 (since the underdog is not expected to win, you get paid more when it does). You can bet more or less than $100 and youâll be paid at the same ratio, e.g., $10 to win $12. Again, itâs convenient (and itâs considered slick) to size your bets so that payoffs will be in round numbers. To do this, just remember to bet in increments of $10 when betting the underdog. If you want to calculate the payoffs on winners, youâll have to compare your wager to the ratio designated by the line. In this example, $10 returns $12, $20 returns $24, $450 returns $540, etc. You say you want an easy formula? (I knew youâd say that.) Move the decimal point in the line two places to the left (+120 becomes +1.20) and multiply by the amount of the wager. Example: $450 X 1.20 = $540. Your original wager will also be returned with your winnings when you cash your ticket. The Orioles are the favorite, denoted by the ã-ä sign. You must wager $130 to win $100 (since the favorite is expected to win, you wager more than you get back). Again, you can bet more or less than $130. To size bets for even payoffs on favorites, divide the line by 10 (if it ends in zero, just drop the zero), and make your wager a multiple of that number-in this case, $13, $26, $221, etc. Winning bets win $10 times the multiple that you chose$13 wins $10, $26 wins $20, $221 wins $170. To calculate the amount you win for any bet on a favorite, move the decimal point in the line two places to the left again, but instead of multiplying, as you did for the underdog, here you divide the amount of the wager by that number. Example: $221/1.3 = $170. Your original wager will be returned with your winnings when you cash your ticket. Other particulars: Again, the team listed second (Orioles) is the home team. Pitchers are so important in baseball that each teamâs scheduled starting pitcher is listed. The numbers preceding the team names should be used to make your bet. An over/under (runs scored) line is also posted here. Itâs connected to its own money line. Unless you specify otherwise, youâll have ãteam action,ä meaning that your bet stands even if one or both starting pitchers is changed before game time. You might see a money line for almost any contest, including football and basketball. In the football example we used above, the money line might appear as: Rams +180 Bears -200 The same information applies. If you take St. Louis, you bet $10 to win $18. If you take Chicago, you put up $20 to win $10. Boxing lines work essentially the same way, though they tend to look different due to greater disparities between the abilities of fighters. A boxing line might look something like this: Tyson -700 Holyfield +600 The formulas I gave you above still work. You can bet $10 on Holyfield to win $60, or $70 on Tyson to win $10. Hockey So this guy calls his bookie on Saturday and bets 12 college football games. At dayâs end, he wins 1 and loses 11. On Sunday he calls again, bets the full slate of pro football games, and goes 2 and 12. Monday comes and he calls again. ãGimme the Raiders and over.ä The game comes Jets and under. Finally on Tuesday he calls his bookie and says ãI need action. Whatcha got today?ä The bookie responds, ãWell, footballâs over until next weekend, but thereâs a hockey game tonight.ä The gambler thinks for a minute and says, ãHockey? I donât know anything about hockey.ä For a long time, no one seemed to know anything about hockey. But now the game is gaining in popularity and youâre much more likely to find a line. Hockey lines are strange because they often combine a money line and a point spread (goals scored). Hereâs an example: Rangers +1-1/2 +110 Calgary -1-1/2 -150 Here, you can take the Rangers with 1-1/2 goals and get $110 for every $100 you bet. Or you can lay Calgary giving up 1-1/2 goals and betting $150 to win $100. If you really want to bet hockey, find a writer whoâs sitting idle and ask him to go over it with you. Continued...