Basketball Betting Terms
Basketball Betting Terms. The lucrative sport of betting has brought mountains of profit to people from all walks of life. You will often hear these people, who have been long engaged in this activity, throw words such as parlays, money line, and spread among other things as well. Not knowing what these terms mean can cost you your confidence. May 13, 2020 Common with point spread and game total betting in basketball and football. American odds: American odds are in a “big three” group that also includes fractional and decimal odds.
Basketball Betting Terms. The lucrative sport of betting has brought mountains of profit to people from all walks of life. You will often hear these people, who have been long engaged in this activity, throw words such as parlays, money line, and spread among other things as well. Not knowing what these terms mean can cost you your confidence. A losing bet is quite simply you betting on the Cowboys -4.5 and they only win by four. You lose the money that you placed on that bet. A push wouldn’t happen in the example above because a team can’t win by a half point. It is very common, though, to have a betting line of +3/-3. Let’s say a favorite wins by exactly three. Sports betting lingo can be confusing, especially those new to the industry. The glossary below contains many of the most commonly-used terms, concepts and strategies that you will see on this site and across sports betting as a whole.
“Wait, why does this NFL team have a -235 next to its name? What’s with New England Patriots (-15) vs. Miami Dolphins (+15)? Help! HEEEELPPPP!”
If that sounds like you, we’re here to assist you. If you’ve stared at a board at a sportsbook or just seen spreads and moneylines on the Internet and been utterly confused, don’t worry. It’s not just you. Those numbers can be confounding.
But hopefully, once you’re done reading this, you’ll completely understand how they work. As you prepare to dive into the world of sports betting, here’s a breakdown of how the lines work, starting with …
Spreads
It would be really easy to bet on a game if you could put money on a heavy favorite to win.
That’s where point spreads come in. Let’s look at an example:
Philadelphia Eagles (-4.5)
New York Giants (+4.5)
In this case, you can bet on either two outcomes: you can put money on the Eagles to win the game by 4.5 points OR MORE, which makes them the favorites. Or you can bet that the Giants will either win or lose by LESS THAN 4.5 points. They’re the underdogs.
Now, sometimes the spread “moves” during the days leading up to the game. Perhaps the Eagles’ spread ends up being -3.5 (in which they must win by 3.5 points or more to give you a victory in your bet). Your bet all depends on whichever spread you bet on, whether it was when the Eagles were favored by 4.5 or 3.5 points.
If you ever see “PK” or “pick” next to a team, it means there’s no spread and you can bet on who will win, no matter what the score is.
Moneylines
Let’s take that same example above but use moneylines:
Philadelphia Eagles (-200)
New York Giants (+150)
The team with a minus symbol is the favorite, and the number is how much money you would need to bet to win $100. In this case, you would have to bet $200 on the Eagles in order to win an additional $100.
The Giants are the underdogs. If they’re +150, that means you could bet $100 to win $150.
Note that you can bet any amount you want, but those numbers are always calculated and posted the same way, either in how much money you would need to wager to win $100 or how much money you could win by wagering $100.
Odds
If you’re betting on something like the team who will win the Super Bowl in the future, you might see it look like this:
Basketball Betting Terms 2020
New England Patriots — 3/1
Baltimore Ravens — 5/1
Kansas City Chiefs — 8/1
Basketball Betting Terms Definition
If you were betting on the Patriots and their 3/1 odds, you would win $3 for every $1 you spend. So if you bet $50 on the Pats and they ended up winning the Super Bowl, you’d win $150 (plus your original wager) back.
Basketball Betting Terms Against
Good luck!