Spread betting is a popular betting strategy where bettors wager on the potential outcome of an event, not just on the final result. One of the most common spread bets is the point spread.
Bettors who wager on a team to win by more points than their opponent are said to be “point spread bettors”.
The point spread is created by dividing the number of points scored by the number of points allowed by the bookmakers. For example, if a bookmaker is offering +120 for a game between two teams, and one bettor bets $100 on each team, then the bettor would have placed $1200 worth of bets.
The point spread would be $800 ($1200 divided by 2).
The point spread works as follows: if Team A is favored to win by 3 points, then the bookmaker will set the point spread at 3 points (-120). If Team B is favored to win by 4 points, then the bookmaker will set the point spread at 4 points (+100).
If Team A loses by 1 point, then the bookmaker’s point spread would be -1 (-120), and if Team B loses by 2 points, then the bookmaker’s point spread would be +2 (+100).
