Can someone please explain the point-spread/over-under to me?

The spread is how many points a certain team is favored by. If Team A is favored by 10, but doesn't win by at least 10, then Team B "beat the spread" and everybody that bet on Team B wins. The favored team has to win by at least the spread in order to cover all the bets placed on that team. It only takes one late free throw for millions of dollars to swing one way.

The over/under is the number of combined points two teams will score. Let's say the over/under is 200 and you bet the over. If the two teams combine to score at least 200 points, you win. It's a lot harder to fix the over/under, because the two teams may have really bad shooting nights, or if you have a game like the Suns/Spurs, you never know which team will dictate the pace of the game.

 

Can someone explain what "point shaving" means?

 

That's usually when you have a player on the favored team, play poorly enough so that even though his team wins, the losing team "beats the spread" and wins in terms of betting. Say if Team A is highly favored and the spread is very high (over 10 points), a player on that team might "shave points" by missing crucial shots at the end of game, or commit turnovers so the margin of victory is lower.

 

subtracting/adding points to team(s), depending on the bet, so you win your bet. if you took the over on a game and with minutes left they teams are say 20 points under the over/under the ref will call fouls to met the over. if you take under then you don't call fouls and let time run out.

 

Gracias!

 

Is it the same for baseball and football that you have both the point spread and over/under bets?

 

LOL...have you watched ESPN? it's basically their M.O. to take a story and run with it, regardless if they have all the facts or not.

 

Thanks for the explanations. I think that must have been one of the first posts by A-Train I have seen in my 9 years here where he did not insert a funny or sarcastic comment .

 

Hmm good explanations thnx guys

 

You win if the team you beat on covers the spread.

Example - Rockets/Lakers game spread is Rockets -7.5. What this means is you take 7.5 points off the Rockets total at the end of the game.

Example:

Final score of a game - Rockets 110 Lakers 100
Final score in terms of the spread - Rockets 102.5 Lakers 100 Rockets still win in this case.

Same example, with a different score

Final score of a game - Rockets 107 Lakers 100
Final score in terms of the spread - Rockets 99.5 Lakers 100
Lakers now "win", so if you bet on the lakers you win and if you bet on the Rockets, you lose.

Favorites are represented by negatives such as -7.5, while underdogs are represetned by positives such as +7.5. So you can either subtract from the Rockets total, or add to the lakers total. Just not both at the same time. If the spread causes the game to be tied then it's considered a draw and all bets are returned. This is why you see spreads represented in half points, which is impossible in real life, but is needed so you don't have ties happening.

Point shaving usually involves a player, so if he wants their team to win the actual game, but lose on the spread, he will start bricking shots on purpose in order to not get too far ahead of the spread and allow the other team to make the game closer.

 

I bet the over/unders a lot, I always look for trends with refs for the overs, I have won a lot these last few years by researching which team's like to drive and get fouls and which defensive teams foul a lot, and which refs call them.

I rarely bet the under, I almost always bet the over, and win about 60-65% of the time.

DD

 

Football yes.

Baseball, hockey, and soccer are slightly different. Let's say a team is favored and paying out .85. If you bet on that team, and win, you'll get $1.85 back for every $1 you bet. If a team is the underdog, and are paying out 1.15, if they win, you'll get back $2.15 for every dollar that you bet on them. Typically, there's no over/under in baseball, hockey, or soccer.

 

This is very informative. Thank you!!

 

I would think the over/under would be easier to beat, especially in a playoff game because you can make them shoot a **** load of free throws, or none at all.

But yeah its all difficult.