Friday, October 30, 2009

Point Spreads - An Explanation

By Simon M Skinner

Every major sport that people bet on has a point spread system.

People new to betting may not understand the point spread system Point spreads make the sport more interesting and increase understanding of the teams because sports analysts on TV often refer and compare teams' skills by discussing point spreads. Of course one must remember that although point spreads are widely discussed, betting is not legalin all US states.

If you want to add a little spice to your understanding of the game and to your betting enjoyment then a good understanding of point spreads will certainly help.

Understanding college football spreads means that you have to understand sports betting in general. All sports have a point spread or line associated with them. These are determined on a game-by-game basis between the two teams that are playing each other.

Let me give you an example, if the University of Oklahoma is playing the University of Texas then there will be a point spread associated with that game.

Any two teams are rarely equal in skills and experience one team will therefore have a better chance of winning the game depending on the teams this can be a large number.

In a game between OU and UT, then the spread is going to be lower because the teams are relatively close to each other in terms of skill and competition level.

It is usually pretty clear that one team is going to be better than the other, that is why we have point spreads if it was just a matter of betting on a game on the better team then on average 50% of bettors would win. The point spread changes the odds and means that a team has to win by a certain amount of points.

Another example would be if OU is favored by 10 over UT, then OU would have to win by 11. If they win by 10 then it is called a push. You wouldn't lose or win any money if they won by 10 points.

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