Your not alone – At first it can seem a bit confusing. I promise though its pretty easy.
Bookmakers (bookmakers usually are people who will take a bet from you, be it online or in the general area of your residence) generally offer two types of wagers for a sporting event:
a – straight-up bet, sometimes called a moneyline
b – A point spead wager
first lets talk about – What is the money line/ straight-up bet?
Moneylines are usually used in America, mostly for sports that usually are decided by one point or so. So Baseball and Hockey are common money line sports. Usually You would see this on your betting ticket
Milwaukee Brewers -200
Chicago Cubs +180
Ok So you think the Milwaukee Brewers are going to win the game, you want to Put a $100 wager on the Brewers. Here is what the above numbers will mean to you. The Brewers are -200 . That means that you would you to put up $200 to win $100 . What ? Yep thats the money line.
Now way you think the Cubs are going to take it. The +180 means – Yep you guessed it . You bet $100 and if your team wins you get $180 . Really thats all there is to it.
Now lets talk about the spread bet . The spread is very simple. What ever dollar amount you bet you usually win or loose about the same amount. You bet $100 and win you win $100. However if you bet $100 and loose you will usually loose $110. Heres how the points work in the spread bets.
You either get points for a team or your team gets subtracted points.
ex: Your favorite football team Buffalo Bills are Playing the Miami Dolphins . The bookies have determined that Miami is the better team and should win the game by 7 point. That means that you will have to wager on Miami -7 or take Buffalo + 7 . Kinda basic, but maybe some dont know this. When the game is over if you picked Buffalo add 7 to the final score if its more then Miami has you win. However if its less then 7 you lose the bet. Ties and no one wins or loses its called a push. Wanna see an example? Your bet ticket would look like this.
Miama -7
Buffalo +7
Miami wins the contest. The final score is Miami 27 Buffalo18 – If you picked Buffalo you loose, Buffalo only scored 18 points , and they are only getting +7, and 18 + 7 = 25 . 25 is less then Miami scored which was 27. Now if you picked Miami the opposite is true. So there you have it, well thats the brass tacks of the betting scene.
One more short note – Most of the time you have available a money and a point line. I personally use a system that has hit 99% of the time and got me fairly rich betting baseball. The system uses the money line most of the time, it also allows me to buy some points. We will talk about that in another post.
Where you get points for a team or your team gets subtracted points. (ex: Your favorite football team Buffalo Bills are Playing the Miami Dolphins . The bookies have determined that Miami is the better team and should win the game by 7 point. That means that you will have to wager on Miami -7 or take Buffalo + 7 . Kinda basic, but maybe some dont know this. When the game is over if you picked Buffalo add 7 to the final score if its more then Miami has you win. However if its less then 7 you lose the bet)
