When it comes to basketball and football in particular, these three terms are displayed for almost every game: “Spread”, “Total” and “Money Line”. This article will explain in simple terms what is the difference between the three of them.
Moneyline bets
Generally, when we initially start thinking about placing a wager, we think in terms of who the winner we think will be (a team, a fighter etc.). This is the simplest and most straightforward type of wager, called a moneyline bet.
When you say “I’m betting on the money line”, it means that you will be betting on who will win the event. The money line odds could be displayed either in an American format or decimal format. If you need a refresher on how these odds formats should be read, check our article on it here.
The moneyline bet is available for almost all sport events and is the most basic wager in sports betting.
Spread bets
Spread betting requires a little more time to get used to. Football and basketball are the most popular sports that offer bets on the spread. Sometime, the sportsbooks will remove the option to bet on the moneyline but will always leave the option for the spread bets for these two sports.
Rather than giving the option to bet on the win/loss outcome of a game, with spread betting the margin of victory determines the outcome of your wager. The spread is sometimes referred to as “the great equalizer” because it’s designed to turn every matchup into a 50/50 proposition. The important thing to remember is that even if your team wins the game, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve won your spread bet.
To understand how it works, let’s see how the spreads bets are usually displayed and work through an example:
In this example we have the USA vs. Puerto Rico basketball game and the quoted spread is 13.5 points. If you pick USA and decide to “bet against the spread” it means that you are convinced that at the end, USA’s score is higher than Puerto Rico’s by more than 13.5 points. A good outcome for you would be USA 99 – 85 Puerto Rico. A negative outcome would be USA 99 – 86 Puerto Rico.
Another way to think about it is by deducting (or adding) the spread to the final score of the team you staked on. In our example, if you staked on the USA, at the end of the game you’ll need to deduct the 13.5 points and if USA still has more points than Puerto Rico, your bet is a winner. Conversely, if your bet was on Puerto Rico, to the final score you’ll add the 13.5 points and if Puerto Rico ends up with more than the USA, you’ve got yourself a winning bet.
Notice how the odds are the same (1.85) for each team. Remember that the spread levels up the playing field. Regardless which option you chose, in the case the outcome is favorable you’d win the same amount. For example for a $100 staked, you’ll receive back $185.
Similar to how the American odds are displayed, the “-” sign denotes the favorite team while the “+” sign denotes the underdog.
Here is another example of a spread bet but with the odds expressed in American format.
In this case, the spread is 2.5 points and the odds are “-110”, meaning that if you stake $100 agains the spread on the Rams, you will win $110 even if the Rams lose the game by less than 2.5 points.
Total Bets
When betting totals, you are no longer pledging your allegiance to one team. It doesn’t matter who wins the game or by how much, the only aspect of the game you are concerned with is the total score.
Total bets are also called Over/Under bets, generally outside the U.S.A.
With a totals bet, you’re betting on some numerical total that a sportsbook has posted for a sporting event. You’ll be betting in relation to the total combined score of a game or match. With this type of wager, you only need to decide one of two things. Your decision is if you think the total score of the game will be higher or lower than what the sportsbook picked.
To understand how it works, let’s see how the totals bets are usually displayed:
Here we can either wage that there will be more than 161.5 points scored in total by both teams or the opposite (wage that there will be less than 161.5 points scored). If you stake $100 on the total final score being higher than 161.5, your payout will be $190 if successful.
Conclusion
For two very popular sports, basketball and football, you’ll most likely be looking at three options for placing your bets: moneyline, spread and/or totals. Because all three are offered most of the time, your betting strategy can involve choosing one option or more. Regardless of how you choose to stake, always make sure you understand all the possible outcomes.
