Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Point Spreads And What They Mean

By Simon M Skinner

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

People who are new to betting and college football spreads may not necessarily know what these numbers mean. Point spreads are interesting because many sports analysts will talk about these point spreads on television, although there are limited areas in the US where you are allowed to gamble.

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.

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 sports teams are never equal in skills, playing ability and competition experience. One team will always have a chance of being winning the game and this difference is represented by a poiint spread.

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.

Because it is often obvious that there is one team that is much better than another, there is the point spread. If you were allowed to simply bet on the better team, then 50% of the time all bettors will win. The point spread means that the team has to win the game by a certain number 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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