Sports betting is becoming legal in more places, and it’s really exciting as football season is now upon us. It can also be daunting at the same time. “spread”, “Moneyline”, “total”, “cover”, and “juice”. These are all common everyday terms to those who are used to the sports betting world. It can be a little overwhelming if you are new to it. We all start with that thought of, how do I bet on football?
So, first of all, welcome to being a sports bettor. You are going to love it here! Now, let’s walk through the basics of betting on football.
Best NFL Teams to Bet On: Every Team’s Against the Spread Performance
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How to Bet on Football: A Beginner’s Guide to Football Betting
The “Points Spread” and “Cover”
What is a points spread? It wouldn’t be fair to the bookmakers for you to just match the Kansas City Chiefs, the winners of the last two Super Bowls, against the Carolina Panthers, the worst team in football last year, straight up. Obviously, it’s much more likely Kansas City will win. So, instead, they use the “points spread” to decide how much better a team is.
Say the spread is set at -6.5 for the Chiefs, and you bet on them. Then, you need them to win by seven or more points. If the Panthers are +6.5 and you bet on them, they just need to lose by six points or less or win the game. If they do so, they’ve now “covered the spread.” So (-) means favored by that many points, and (+) means underdog by that many points.
The “Push” and the “Hook”
Sometimes, that aforementioned line will be set at -6.5. In football, a team cannot win by 6.5 points, so you will have a winner either way. The team will either win by seven or lose by six.
The half point is referred to as the “hook” number. The books use this to help drive action to either side of the bet. You’ll be surprised how many times you’ll get “beat by the hook,” where a team is favored by 6.5 and wins by six.
The “push” comes into play when there isn’t a hook set. Say Kansas City is now the favorite in this game by exactly six points, so Kansas City (-6.0).
If you were to bet on Kansas City to cover or Carolina to cover, and the final score ends with an exactly six-point difference, 17-11, for example.
This bet has been “pushed” and neither side wins. You’ll get your wagered money back as it was not a winner or loser. If you use a boost or bonus bet, depending on your book’s rules, you may just lose the boost or bonus, so check their rules.
The “Moneyline”
The Moneyline is an adjusted number that you can bet without the spread coming into play. So, let’s take the Ravens at Chiefs for Week 1 as the example here. The Chiefs are -2.5 point favorites, and the Ravens are +2.5 point underdogs.
If you don’t feel comfortable with the points spread, the money is another option. In this case, the Chiefs are -148, and the Ravens are +124 on their respective money lines.
The books have adjusted the numbers based on each team’s probability of winning. If you think the Chiefs will win, but maybe it’ll be a closer game than 2.5 points, you can bet their Moneyline. You just have to put more down to win less.
In this case, you’d have to bet $148 to win $100. If you think the Ravens will not only cover the +2.5 but also win the game, you can make a little extra money by betting their Moneyline. You’d only have to bet $100 to win $124.
In games with bigger spreads, these numbers will be even larger in either direction. Take the Patriots at Bengals for example, the Bengals are massive -9 point favorites making their Moneyline -440, it’s hard to bet a Moneyline like this because you’d have to bet $440 just to return $100, this is where the spread comes in handy.
On the flip side, if you think Drake Maye and the Patriots go in and pull off the upset, you can get them at +340, meaning a $100 bet would pay you $340, a nice return on your bet if they win.
The “Juice”
It is not O.J. Simpson in this case. It’s generally where the sports books get their cut back, as well as the amount of excess on either side of the bet. A lot of bets are -110 on either side, meaning if you place a $10 bet and win, you’ll win $9.09 instead of $10. This is where the books get paid.
It also comes into play for risk. The Bengals in the example above are “juiced” to -440 on the Moneyline. This is because the book wants to make its cut, and it is also calculating risk.
It’s much more likely the Bengals win that game outright, so “the juice” balances the risk and reward for both the books and you. On the flip side, it’s less likely the Patriots will win, so the juice is on your side, giving you more winnings if they actually pull it off.
The “Total”
The “Total” in a football game is pretty simple. It’s the total number of points scored between the two teams added together. Just like the spread or Moneyline, the books set a line on this for each game, and you can bet on it. It works the same way with the “hook” and “push” concept.
Taking a look at Week 1 of the NFL, the Ravens vs. Chiefs game is set at 46.5. So you simply choose a side whether the teams will score more or less combined points. In the Rams vs. Lions game on Sunday Night Football, it’s all the way at an even 51 points. Most of these totals are set at -110 either way, as far as the juice is concerned.