Question About Betting Lines-Grizzled Can Probably Help

Ya know, I’ve never bet on hockey. Other than office/school pools and the like, I’ve never bet on pro sports. Call me old-fashioned if you like, but I’ve never really felt right about betting on sports. It seems to me that it would kind of taint the innocent trill of the sport. So I can’t tell you anything about how it’s done.

If you want to know about the game of hockey, however, that’s another matter. Ask away.

 

Hockey lines basically work like this:

Money lines, puck lines, and totals.

A money line would be like:

Dallas Stars -150
Detroit Red Wings +130

If you bet on the Stars, you have to risk $15 to win $10 profit, for a total return of $250.

If you bet on the Red Wings, a bet of $10 would return $13 profit, for a total return of $23.

A puck line is like this:

Dallas Stars -0.5 -110
Detroit Red Wings +0.5 -110

The benefit of the puck line is that if you bet on the Stars, you only have to risk $11 to win $10 as opposed to $15 to win $10 in the above example, but you are also putting yourself at risk if the Stars tie the game.

Conversely, if you bet on the Red Wings, your return becomes less, but if there's a tie, you win the bet with the extra 0.5 puck.

A totals line is:

Dallas Stars/Detroit Red Wings total goals:
OVER 5 -110
UNDER 5 -110

This is simple, if you think it will go over 5 goals, you risk $11 to win $10, and vice versa.

 

Could you all explain the difference between lines which are +/-, and covering spreads, etc.

 

tozai,

the -110 would mean you have to RISK more than you want to win.

-110 means you have to risk $110 to win $100.

If you win the bet, you get back the $110 you risked, and an additional $100.

+110 means you risk $100 to win back that number that comes after the plus sign.

So if you risk $100, you will win back $110 if you win the bet.


So basically, -110 means you risk 1.1 units to win 1.0 units.

+110 means you risk 1.0 units to win 1.1 units.