Alternate spreads
An alternate spread is the same game at a different point spread, with a different price to match. Take fewer points and you pay more; ask for more and you get paid more. Alternate totals, or alt points, do the same thing with the over/under.
The same game, a different number
Every game has a main line, the spread the book works hardest on. Say a football favorite is -6.5 at -110 on both sides. That is the number covered on the spreads page, and it is built to be close to a coin flip.
An alternate spread lets you pick another number on the same game. You could lay only 3.5 points with the favorite, and the book will charge you a shorter price for the easier bet. Or you could lay 10.5 points, and it will pay you plus money for the harder one. Nothing else about the bet changes. It is graded the same way: apply your number to your team's score and compare.
So "alternate spread" means nothing more than a spread other than the main one, at a price that reflects how much easier or harder you made it.
What each point costs
Here is a ladder of the kind a book shows on one game. The prices are an example I built to show the sums, not any book's.
| Favorite's spread | Price | Implied probability | A $100 bet wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| -2.5 | -190 | 65.52% | $52.63 |
| -3.5 | -150 | 60.00% | $66.67 |
| -4.5 | -135 | 57.45% | $74.07 |
| -5.5 | -125 | 55.56% | $80.00 |
| -6.5 | -110 | 52.38% | $90.91 |
| -7.5 | +115 | 46.51% | $115.00 |
| -10.5 | +185 | 35.09% | $185.00 |
The implied probability is the price written as how often the bet must win to break even, and the method is on the implied probability page (the odds calculator does it for you). Read down that column and you are reading what the book thinks each point is worth.
The steps are not even. Going from -5.5 to -4.5 moves the break-even by 1.89 points. Going from -3.5 to -2.5 moves it by 5.52, because that half point carries you across the 3, and from -6.5 to -7.5 it moves 5.87, because it crosses the 7. Football games land on margins of 3 and 7 more than any others, and a well-made ladder charges for that. If you see a ladder where the 3 and the 7 cost no more than the 5 and the 6, the book has been lazy, and that is the one place I'd look hard.
Compare it with buying a half point at the counter. Paying -120 to move -6.5 to -6 moves your break-even from 52.38 to 54.55 percent, which is 2.17 points of win rate for half a point that crosses nothing important. That half point only matters when the favorite wins by exactly 6, and even then it turns a loss into a push, not a win. I wouldn't pay for it.
The margin on alt lines
The main line is where the sharp money goes, so it is the number the book has to get right. The alternate lines are worked out from it by formula, they take less money, and books usually build a wider margin into them.
You can measure it. On the main line, -110 both sides adds up to 104.76 percent, so the book's cut is 4.76 over a hundred. Now take the -10.5 alternate at +185 and the other side of the same number, the underdog +10.5, at -250. The +185 is 35.09 percent and the -250 is 71.43, which comes to 106.52. Same game, same book, and you pay more for the privilege of picking your own number. I'd add up both sides of any alternate line before I bet it, the same way I would the main one.
Alt points on the total
Alternate totals work the same way on the over/under, and "alt points" or "alternate total points" on a betting screen means just that. Say the main total is 44.5 at -110 each way. The book might offer over 41.5 at -150, which needs 60 percent to break even, or over 48.5 at +140, which needs 41.67 percent. It is graded the way any total is: add the two scores and compare with your number.
Football totals don't have key numbers as strong as 3 and 7 on the margin, so the steps on a total ladder are smoother. That also means there is less to gain from finding a step the book got wrong.
Why people take them
Most alternate lines I've seen written go into parlays. A bettor takes a favorite at -2.5 instead of -6.5, does that on four games, and builds a ticket that feels safe. It isn't. Each leg at -190 still has to win, and each one carries the book's margin, which the parlays page shows multiplying with every leg you add. Moving every spread your way by the same number of points, as a package at a set price, is what a teaser is, and it is worth comparing the two before building either.
The other use is a straight bet on a view the main line can't express. If you think a favorite wins big, not just covers, the -10.5 at +185 says that, and it says it at a price you can check. That is the use I respect. I'd only lay the extra points if I had a reason to think the margin would be wide, and I'd stake it the same as any other bet against my bankroll.
Before you take a ladder price, shop it. Alternate lines differ between books more than main lines do, because fewer people are checking them, and the line shopping page covers how. Each point on the ladder has a price. Your job is to know what it is.