What does the spread mean in betting?

An example

The favorite is -7 and the underdog is +7.

• The favorite wins 27 to 17. It won by 10 and covered the spread.
• The favorite wins 24 to 20. It won by 4, so the underdog covered.
• The favorite wins 27 to 20. The margin is exactly 7. That is a push, and all stakes are returned.

You don't need the right winner. You need the right side of the number.

The price

A point spread is made to bring the two sides level, so both are usually priced at -110: risk $110 to win $100. At that price you have to win 52.38 percent of your bets to break even. There is more in what -110 means.

The hook

A spread of -7.5 can't push, because the favorite either wins by 8 or more or the underdog covers, and bettors call that half point the hook. In football it matters most around 3 and 7, because games end on those margins more than on any others. Minus 3 and minus 3.5 look close. They are not the same bet, and I'd pay a little extra price before I'd give up the 3.

That is why I'd shop the number before anything else. Getting +7.5 where another book has +7 costs nothing and wins bets. Then I'd read the price, since minus 7 at -120 is dearer than minus 7 at -110, and bet the same amount on every game; most professionals keep one bet under 5 percent of their bankroll.

Other sports

Basketball spreads work like football's. Baseball and hockey are low scoring, so the spread is normally fixed at 1.5 and the price does the adjusting, and it goes by another name in each: the run line in baseball and the puck line in hockey. If you only want to pick the winner, that is the moneyline. The spreads guide covers how the number is made and why it moves.

The better team wins most of the time. It covers about half the time, which is the whole idea.