The Basics of Betting Spreads

Betting on college football involves understanding various betting concepts, the most common of which are point spreads. The point spread is a way for bookmakers to level the playing field, giving each team a supposed equal chance of winning the bet. When you bet on a spread, you’re not just betting on which team will win the game, but by how much they will win or lose.

What Is a Point Spread?

A point spread is a number set by oddsmakers to provide an advantage or disadvantage to each team. In other words, one team will have points subtracted from their score (the favorite), and the other team will have points added to theirs (the underdog). For example, if Team A is favored by 7 points against Team B, the point spread will be listed as Team A -7 and Team B +7.

How to Read and Interpret Spreads

When you see a point spread, what it’s essentially doing is indicating the number of points by which the bookmaker expects the favorite to outscore the underdog. If you bet on the favorite (Team A -7), they need to win by