NFL and NBA
betting
The two most popular ways to bet on sports in the US are the
money line and the spread. The money line is basically about
guessing the winner. The balancing of various matchups is done
through the different payout rates that the favorites and the
underdogs carry. The two most popular betting markets, the NFL
and NBA are about spread betting though. Betting on the spread
is quite probably the easiest and simplest of all formats, and
it is a hell of a lot better odds-wise than just about any of
the systems used for betting on soccer games.
How exactly does spread betting work
though?
The spread is basically a points differential introduced by
the bookmaker with the purpose of being able to balance the
game. One of the teams (the favorite) is given a handicap at
the start of the game. It's as if this team began the game a
few points down. If it fails to win at a points differential
bigger than the spread, it is said that it fails to cover the
spread, and all the wagers placed on it will be declared
losers. If the favorite manages to cover the spread, then all
those who wagered on it will be winners.
The underdog’s is an easier job, at least as far as the
betting aspect of the game is concerned. All the dog has to do
is to prevent the favorite from covering the spread. What this
means is that if the underdog loses at a points differential
smaller than the spread, it becomes an ATS winner, despite the
fact that it loses SU.
Here's an actual example. Suppose the Miami Heat are 10
point favorites over the Golden State Warriors. That means that
the Heat start the game 10 points down. In order for them to
become winners at the books, they need to beat the Warriors by
more than 10 points. If they fail to do so, they will still get
a mark in the W column, but bettors who wagered on them will
certainly not. If the Heat beats the Warriors by more than 10,
all those who wagered on the favorite will win. Bettors who
have action on the Warriors only need the Golden State boys to
not lose by more than 10, in order to win their wagers.
Why was the spread ever introduced?
I'm not 100% percent certain, but it’s probably got to do
with the way the bookmaker balances its games. The bookie uses
the spread to turn an obviously uneven game into a perfectly
balanced 50-50 proposition, both sides of which are equally
attractive to would be bettors.
A perfectly balanced game is one that carries absolutely no
value for bettors on either side. Balance is just what the
bookmaker needs to make risk-free money (by paying the winners
with money dropped by the losers and keeping the juice to
himself), and he uses the spread to achieve it. The bookmaker
dreads unbalanced games because they force him to make an
uncomfortable choice. He can elect to cover the eventual
winners from his own pockets, or to move the line around in
order to reestablish the balance by attracting additional
bettors onto the slighted side of the matchup. This is the
exact reason why savvy bettors need to be experts in tracking
the movements of the line.
In football and basketball betting, pretty much everything
revolves around the spread. Beating the negative long-term
expected value created by the bookmaker's juice is only
possible through the hidden value. Of course, online bookmaking
services offer their members sign-up bonuses as well, and these
should always be taken full advantage of. Bonuses and loyalty
deals work the same way they do in online poker. Rakeback deals
are some of the best yield loyalty deals in poker. Sign up to
rakemeback.com to take advantage of the
best rakeback deals available anywhere. For those looking
for a bigger bang, pokerprops.com offers the alternative of
poker prop deals, which are basically extremely generous
rebate deals, that – unlike square rakeback deals - come
with a few strings attached.
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