Over Under Betting Football
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I have to admit, I’m one of those sports fans who if I don’t know what something means, I have no shame in asking. Except when it comes to things that I should technically “already know”.
That is the problem that I continuously run into the problem of when I hear the terms “cover the spread” or “I’ll take the points”. I do what a lot of girls do, shake my head and smile to give off the perception that “yeah she knows what she’s talking about”.
Many girls feel somewhat afraid to ask questions when it comes to sports.
Usually they are laughed at for not knowing things that seem very simple to the avid sports fan. Avid fans seem to forget that you could spend dozens of years learning about so many rules, stats and the history of each sport and still not know everything.
Over Under Betting is the second most popular type of NFL betting, just behind spread betting. Over Under Betting is also known as “Game Total Betting” and you will often see it be referred to as either. Simply stated, it is the total of the points scored by both teams. While all sports employ an over/under betting option, by far the most money wagered on this bet is in football and basketball.
But that’s also what makes sports so much fun to watch and learn.
I decided instead of asking someone what “covering the spread” means, I would just take the simple route: When it doubt, Google it. And I’m pretty sure, the search engine won’t be laughing at me!
- OVER/UNDER betting is also called a totals bet. The total in any given sporting event is a combined score of both teams. The total for these games is an amount that is set by oddsmakers based on how they envision a game will unfold from a scoring perspective.
- Betting on the over/under point total of a game is quite popular when making a sports wager. Bettors tend to really like betting on over/under because they don't really have a rooting issue for one team or the other, but rather offense or defense.
- Totals wagers are more commonly referred to as an Over/Under bet. The name of the wager is interchangeable and both are used in sportsbooks and in the media. A totals bet is one of the easiest and most popular bets to make in the sportsbook. The only more popular bet is picking winners.
Read on to find out what a point spread, covering the spread, against the spread and over/under mean….
The “spread” is the difference in points scored by opposing teams in an athletic competition. The spread is also known as “the line” or “morning line”. This provides the basis for wagering : points may be “given” or “taken” to equalize a bet, or bets may be made that the difference will be larger or smaller than the estimate.
In simpler terms its when one team is the favorite over the other… so the spread is how many points the favorite has to beat the underdog by.
The spread is the difference in points between the two teams when the game is over. It’s what oddsmakers come up with to determine the winner and margin of victory of a game.
For example: the Lakers are the favorite over the Spurs by 5 points. So the Lakers must beat the Spurs by 5 points to cover the spread. This is how it will be written out in a Sportsbook
Lakers -5
Spurs +5
If one team is minus, then the other team is plus of the same number, so really you only need to see one of the numbers, to know the other.
If the line on the Lakers was -5.5 instead of -5, you would have to bet 6 (and have the Lakers win by that much) in order to collect on a bet. If you bet just the -5 then some betting sites would at least give you your money back or a credit towards future use.
A bet where you try to determine which team will cover the spread; not necessarily which team will win. It’s also known as ATS.
Over Under Betting Lines College Football
Example: Ned bet against the spread that the Patriots (-7) would beat the Eagles. That means the Patriots would have to win by more than 7 points for Ned to win his bet.
Over/Under means the odds-makers picked the most likely total combined score of both teams. For example in an NFL game with the Jaguars vs Dallas the over/under is 37. You can either bet on either “over” or “under”. Over, is if the two scores added up at the end, total to over 37. Under is if when you add them together, they’re less than 37. If the total is 37, it’s a tie, or “push” again.
If your anything like me and math is not your strongest suit, you will have to read that a couple dozen times to fully understand it. It took a while to find a clear answer on these questions but saved a lot of time from pretending to understand and trying not to look confused if someone were to explain this to me in person.
Totals wagers are more commonly referred to as an Over/Under bet. The name of the wager is interchangeable and both are used in sportsbooks and in the media. A totals bet is one of the easiest and most popular bets to make in the sportsbook. The only more popular bet is picking winners. Betting totals are available for most major professional sports such as football, basketball, baseball, and hockey.
In most cases, when wagering on a total the bettor is simply choosing whether the total number of points scored by both teams will be over or under the listed total of points to be scored. That’s it. The winner and loser of the game don’t matter in a totals bet. The only thing that matters with this kind of bet is the number of points (runs, goals, etc.) scored.
Before a game begins betting over or under the total points scored is usually a -110 wager. Bettors will wager $110 to win $100 for a pre-game totals bet. If bettors wager a lot more on one side of the total, the moneyline might change before the actual point total moves. At a certain point, the sportsbook will reset the total and the moneyline will move back to -110.
Here’s an example from the upcoming Chiefs vs. Buccaneers Super Bowl game.
The over/under, or total, for this game is points. Bettors who wager on the Over need the total score to go over that number to win their bet. Anything under that number would be a winner for Under bettors.
If a bettor wagered on a total of 44 and the final score added up to exactly 44 points (24-20, for example) the bet would be a “push” and bets would be refunded.
Like all kinds of sports betting options, totals bets have expanded. Betting a total is no longer only available for pre-game bets. There may be totals available for partial games (quarters or periods), individual teams, and during in-play and live wagering. A partial game total might be a wager on how many points will be scored in a certain time period. Meanwhile, in-play bets could just be an adjusted total for the entire game.
ALSO READ: 5 Fun Super Bowl prop bets to consider wagering on
Over Under Betting Football
Over/under bets
Even though Totals and Over/Under may be used interchangeably for scoring, there’s another way to make Over/Under bets. An Over/Under bet can also be a proposition bet where there’s a wager made on a specific occurrence. A boxing match is a good example since scoring isn’t quite the same as the major sports:
Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor
The fight will last 9.5 rounds
- Over (-110)
- Under (-110)
Floyd Mayweather defeated Conor McGregor by technical knockout in the 10th round and over bettors won this wager. Had either fighter won the match earlier the under would have cashed since the result would have happened in the ninth round or sooner.
Today there are Over/Under bets available for a number of sports beyond the major North American sports. Fights often have how many rounds will be complete while auto racing might have the number of laps finished by a driver. The possibilities for Over/Under wagers are prop bets are seemingly only limited by the imagination. Sportsbook operators continue to expand their betting menu with unique bets that include new Totals and Over/Under options.
Explain Over Under Betting Football
