Friday, October 30, 2009

Point Spreads And What They Mean

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.

A knowledge of point spreads will increase your understanding of the sport and of the teams and this will also increase your chances of maximizing your betting wins.

If you understand sports betting in general then you will be able to grasp the concept of point spreads more easily. All major sports have some form of point spread. Point spreads change regularly as they are determinged on a game by game basis.

For example, if the University of Oklahoma is playing the University of Texas then there is going to be a point spread associated with the game.

The two teams are rarely exactly matched in skill, so you are going to find that one will have a better chance of winning the game. In college football spreads this can be a very large number depending on who the two teams are.

In a game between OU and UT, the point spread is going to be less because the teams are pretty well matched in regards to skills 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.

For example, if OU is favored by 7 over UT, then they will have to win by 8. If they win by 7 then it is considered a push. You would neither win nor lose your money if they won by 7.

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