Spreads in Soccer and Basketball

If you have had any experience with sports betting, you will know that there are two basic types of bets that can be placed. The first is the money line bet or fixed odds. In this type of bet, you bet directly that one team will win the game.

The problem with money line betting is that if it were the only kind out there, sportsbooks would never make any real money. It’s pretty easy for any sports fan to pick the team that will win a game; an informed fan will be right 75% of the time. To balance the books and the number of bets on each team on a given match, the books use what is known as point distribution.

Point distribution is a way for punters to predict the outcome of a match with some accuracy, rather than simply guessing who will win the game. To win, the bettor must select the team that will win the roll.

Winning the spread means selecting the team that will have the highest score when their total points, plus the points in the spread, will be greater than the other team’s total points. Confused? Well, let’s see how the distribution of points works in the two sports where it is most popular; basketball and soccer.

The points distributed in basketball

Because basketball is a sport where scores tend to be relatively high, point distribution is often the preferred method of sports betting. Not only do teams score frequently, but the value of those baskets are greater than 1. Here’s what a point distribution might look like in a professional basketball game:

Wizards of Washington +3.5
Memphis Grizzlies-4.5

The favorite team is always indicated with a minus sign. That may seem counterintuitive, but the reasoning is sound. If a person were to bet on the Grizzlies, the team must not only win, but beat the Wizards by at least five points. So to find out if you won, you’d take the Grizzlies’ final score plus minus 4.5 points from it. If that figure is less than the Wizards’ final score, they would lose the bet. If it is higher, you covered the spread (won your bet).

A point difference in football

Similar to basketball, point spread betting is the favored method of betting as, again, scores tend to be high and point value increases. Let’s look at a typical distribution of points in a professional soccer game:

Washington Redskins -3.5
Pittsburgh Steelers +3.5

In this example, the Steelers are the underdogs. If you bet on them, you are said to be taking the points (again, the plus sign indicates this). At the end of the game, the Steelers may have lost. However, if you bet the spread, you will win the bet as long as the Steelers lose by three points or less. He would also win the bet if the Steelers tied or, of course, won.

Note that in both of our examples, there is a half point attached to the spreads. Sports bookmakers often use the half point to avoid ties, in which they have to return all bets placed on the match.

In basketball and soccer, betting on the spread is by far the most popular type of bet. It allows those who participate in sports betting on these games to use a little extra knowledge and offers a higher rate of return than a simple money line bet when a team covers.