Pointspread
Definition
The pointspread, in sports gambling, is defined as the point differential between two teams in a sporting event, as defined by the oddsmakers.
How is it constructed?
A company called the Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the organization that creates the lines that the majority of the world’s sportsbooks use. These ‘oddsmakers’ study almost every sporting event and creates, or devises, pointspreads. They also mostly focus on all the major sports of professional and collegiate football, basketball, baseball, golf, and hockey. The line, or pointspread, is actually an interesting product of power numbers and public perception (the power number is the mathematical and statistical difference between two opposing teams). What the public believes and what the actual power number should be is almost always very different. It is here that fading the public comes into play. In high profile games, the oddsmakers try to make one side ‘the easy bet’. They dupe the public into taking this side, knowing that the public will vastly ignore the other side. Pointspreads are originally created to balance out action, but as more and more people are betting online and accessing tremendous amounts of information, pointspreads have to be more than a division marker.
Perception kills
In pointspread games, if more than approximately 90% of the general public is on one side, most often the side with 10% usually covers the game. This skewing is due in part to the difference of public perception and the real power number. Public perception is a killer of most people’s bankrolls; it is thus up to the savvy gambler to break this habit and play contrarian, siding with the sportsbooks (especially strong in high profile games).
Should I play the pointspread or the moneyline?
As stated in an earlier article, playing the pointspread for the favorites and playing the underdogs on the moneyline is the best option, as evidenced by the fact that most teams who win the game also covers them (except in high profile games). It is not very practical to play favorites on the moneyline, for a sports bettor has to lay more money to win less. For example for a –250 favorite, the moneyline bettor has to lay $250 to win $100.
Summary
In closing, the pointspread is the calculated differential between two teams in a sporting event as created by the oddsmakers. Public perception is a killer of most people’s bankrolls. Some pointspreads that look to good to be true, usually are. In all, betting the favorite on the pointspread and betting the underdog on the moneyline is the best way to play the pointspread and moneyline, respectively.