Betting Plus Minus Explained
Posted : admin On 7/21/2022Defining plus and minus, one of the most common gambling phrases. What does 'plus' and 'minus' mean as a sports betting term? Odds expressed in terms of money, with $100 being the standard. Defining plus and minus, one of the most common gambling phrases. What does 'plus' and 'minus' mean as a sports betting term? Odds expressed in terms of money, with $100 being the standard.
- Betting Odds Plus And Minus
- What Does Mean Betting Spread
- Betting Plus Minus Explain
- Gambling Plus Or Minus
- Sports Betting Plus Minus Explained
- Learn About
Learning how sports betting odds work can be intimidating at first, but our guide will teach you how to read odds in no time! This primer is designed for beginners who are curious about common wagering practices and terms.
Learn to Bet on Sports & Gamble Online & Offline
For starters, you will need somewhere to place bets. If you are in Vegas, great! You can bet at one of the sportsbooks in their casinos. As more and more states pass laws to legalize sports betting, you will also be able to place wagers at local casinos in your area. You could also find a local bookie to bet through, but we recommend betting online.
How Online Betting Works
We have an excellent list of the top places to bet online (that take U.S. customers). If you are looking to maximize your first deposit, we also have a great comparison of the best sportsbooks signup bonuses for you. Once you’ve read the primer below on reading the odds, you will have no problem navigating these sites.
Las Vegas Sports Betting at the Ticket Window
Betting sports in Vegas is likely going to be the option with the biggest learning curve. You will understand the odds after reading this article, but there are a few other rules and common practices you want to be familiar with that are specific to Vegas.
Many books now offer their own betting apps that make this process a little bit easier, however, the drawbacks are that you must make a deposit upfront for how much you want to bet with, plus you don’t get free drink tickets when you place bets on the app. We’ll step through how you would place a bet in person at the ticket window.
Step-by-Step Guide to Placing Sports Wagers in Vegas
“I’ll take number 403, Cowboys -8, for $110 straight up.”
- Use the rotation number/numbers and the name of the team/teams you want to bet on. The rotation number appears to the left of each team (see image above) and is used as a unique identifier so that there is no confusion about what you want.
- State the amount you would like to bet. This is how much you are wagering, not how much you want to win. Most books use -110 odds (more on this later), so if you want to win $100, you’d state $110 as your wager amount.
- Indicate the type of bet you are placing. For individual bets, just say “straight” or “straight up”, otherwise you will need to explain that you are taking a parlay or some other bet type.
- Repeat as necessary.
How to Read Sports Betting Lines
There are nearly infinite ways to bet sports. If you can think of something to bet on, there is a good chance you can find somewhere to bet on it. What we are going to focus on is the most common types of wagers: point spreads, over/unders (totals), and money lines.
What Does the Plus (+) and Minus (-) Mean in Sports Betting?
One of the first and most important aspects of sports betting every new player must learn is what the different symbols mean. A plus or a minus can mean different things in different situations. They are used for both point spread and money line betting, as well as for the price/juice of each bet.
This is explained in more detail below, but the most important thing to be aware of is that negative numbers represent favorites, while positive numbers represent underdogs. The same is true whether you are looking at a spread or a moneyline, but how these numbers are used is very different. You also need to know that prices on spreads/totals do not impact who/what is favored, it is used to determine how much the bet pays out. Read on for the complete explanation of each of these concepts.
Point Spreads Explained
The point spread is the projected number of points that separate two teams. A game with a spread will have a favorite (the team expected to win) and an underdog (the team expected to lose). A favorite “gives” points and is identified with a minus sign next to their point spread. The underdog “gets” points and is identified with a plus sign next to their point spread.
| Teams | Spread | Price/Vig |
|---|---|---|
| New York Jets | +7 | -110 |
| New England Patriots | -7 | -110 |
In the example above, the point spread is 7 points. Patriots are favored by 7 points against the Jets.
If you bet on the Jets +7, they must either win the game outright or lose by 6 points or less. If they lose by exactly 7 points, the bet is considered a push and is canceled.
If you bet on the Patriots -7, they must win the game outright by more than 7 points. If they win by exactly 7 points, it’s a push.
Bet Prices: What Does -110 Mean? If I Bet $100, What do I Win?
The 3-digit numbers to the far right are the listed prices for these bets. This is also called the odds, vig, or juice. An easy way to think of it is the amount you must risk to win $100 on this wager. In our example, -110 means you must risk $110 if you want to win $100. -110 is pretty standard, but you will find different options. We will cover those in more depth when we talk about money lines. The price of the bet has no impact on which team is favored. Only the plus or minus on the point spread matters. This is handled differently when you bet strictly on the moneyline.
What is the Money Line? (How Moneyline Betting Works)
A moneyline bet is on a team to win the game outright (without a point spread) at an adjusted cost. Just like with point spread betting, the favorite will have negative odds, while the underdog will have positive odds. The difference here is in the price or payout depending on which team you take.
| Teams | Moneyline |
|---|---|
| New York Jets | +240 |
| New England Patriots | -280 |
A favorite (e.g. Patriots -280) on the money line works just like our bet price example above. In our new example, the Patriots are listed at -280, meaning you would need to risk $280 for a return of $100 on them. It follows that a winning bet on the Pats pays $100 (plus your initial investment of $280 back). This added risk is why betting the spread is usually more popular, especially on favorites.
Underdogs (e.g. Jets +240) work a bit differently. Instead showing how much you need to risk to win $100, this line tells you how much you stand to win on a $100 wager. That means if you bet $100 on the Jets, and they win, you would win $240. If the Jets lose, you are only out your original $100 wager.
Totals: What Over/Under Means in Sports Betting
The terms “total” and “over/under” are synonymous when placing wagers. This type of bet is on the sum of the points scored by both teams in a game. The bookie sets the number for the total, then you predict whether they will score more or less points than the set number.
| Teams | Total | Price/Vig |
|---|---|---|
| New York Jets | Over 42.5 | -105 |
| New England Patriots | Under 42.5 | -115 |
The over/under in this example has been set at 42.5. If you project the Jets and Patriots to combine to score more than 42.5 points, you would place a wager on the over. If you think they will score less than 42.5 points, you would bet the under. Let’s say the final score of this game is Patriots 27, Jets 24. Which bet would lose and which bet would win? The sum of all points scored is 27 + 24 = 51, so an over bet wins and an under bet loses.
You may also note the bet price is not -110 like we have seen before. It is common practice by sportsbooks to adjust prices on or around key numbers for spreads and totals, especially in football.
Understanding Sports Betting
We hope this short beginner’s guide to understanding and interpreting odds will give you the confidence to get out there and start making winning bets. Our experts are here to help you on this journey, so do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you have about sports betting! We have only scratched the surface on reading betting lines, but this is an excellent place to start.
One sport that has a few extra quirks is golf. I wrote up a guide to golf betting that explains these unique features so you can feel comfortable wagering on PGA events too.
Welcome to the Sports Betting Odds section of The Sports Geek. If you are new to sports betting and don’t understand how to read betting odds (+150, -110, +2200, etc) we will lay it all out for you and help you learn how the betting odds work.
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Betting Odds Plus And Minus
Sports Betting Odds Explained
Many people don’t know how to read or calculate sports betting odds, so below we have done our best on explaining how betting odds work. The most common type of sports betting odds used in North America are the American style odds which we explain below.
American Style Sports Betting Odds
Most online sportsbooks will list their odds in what is called “American Odds”. There are a couple different versions of sports betting odds, but these American Odds are the most common odds used. Reading and understanding sports betting odds can bet a little confusing to beginners, so we have provided an example below using two NFL football teams:
American Odds
- Matchup Odds
- New England Patriots +120
- Pittsburgh Steelers -140
The number shown in the bracket represents the odds. The American Odds have two components to them, the first being the positive or negative sign, and the second being the number that follows the sign.
The sign in front of the number indicates whether placing a wager on that outcome will pay out more money then you have wagered or less money then you have wagered. If the odd is negative (-) it means that outcome is more likely to happen and placing a bet on that outcome would payout less than the amount you wagered, while a positive (+) odd shows that the outcome is less likely to happen and it would pay out more than the amount you wagered.
The next step is figuring out exactly how much the bet pays out, which is where the numbers in the odds come into play.
A listed odd with a – sign in front of it, such as the -140 in our example above, shows us how much money you would need to wager in order to win $100. So using the -140, this would show us that you would need to bet $140 in order to win $100 in profits. You can easily substitute the $100 bet for a $10 bet by moving the decimal place over one spot, showing us that you would need to wager $14 in order to win $10 in profits.
Examples:
A listed odd with a + sign in front of it, such as the +120 in our example above, shows us how much money you would win on a $100 bet. Using the +120 odds, it shows us that a $100 bet on that outcome would pay out $120 in profits. Again this can easily be converted into smaller or larger size bets. A $10 bet on +120 odds would pay out $12 in profits.
Examples:
Below is an example of NFL betting odds taken from an online betting site.
In this example you can see Los Angeles is listed at +130 ($100 bet pays $130 plus of course your original wager back) and New England is listed at -150 ($150 bet pays $100).
What Does Mean Betting Spread
The great thing about betting online is that the online sportsbooks will do the calculations for you before you place your bet. You can click on the outcome or team you would like to bet on, and then input the amount you wish to wager and it will show you your potential pay out before you confirm your bet.
Ready To Start Betting?MyBookie and BetNow are my two favorite sportsbooks and make betting very easy. You will also get a Free Money Bonus at each sportsbook if you follow either link above.
Decimal Style Sports Betting Odds
Betting Plus Minus Explain
Decimal style odds are used mostly in Europe, and are pretty easy to understand. To calculate the decimal style odds all you will need to do is simply multiply the amount you wish to wager by the decimal odds shown and you will get your payout. For example it may look something like this:
Gambling Plus Or Minus
If you wanted to place a $10 wager on the USA at 2.40 you would simply need to multiply your $10 wager by the 2.40 odds (10 x 2.40) to find out that the payout is $24. It is important to realize that with decimal style odds it includes the amount you wagered, so to find out profits you would need to subtract your wager ($24 – $10) to find out your potential payout is $14 in profits.
If you wanted to place a $10 wager on Brazil you would again just multiply $10 x 1.55 to find out that you would win $15.50 total or $5.50 in profits.
Sports Betting Plus Minus Explained
Decimal style betting odds are very simple to understand, but you won’t see them displayed in many North American sportsbooks. With that said, most online betting sites will allow you to chose the style of betting odds you want displayed, with American odds set as the default.