Deposit Instantly Using Your Credit Card at Sportsbook.com!

Understanding Football Odds

Written by Jimmy Boyd

Before you get started with any college football betting this season, understanding college football odds is key to having a successful betting experience. You must know exactly how football betting works so you are not wasting your money by making incorrect wagers. As an added bonus this season, you can get a $500 sign up bonus with BetUS to start your season off on the right foot.

Point Spreads – As far as betting is concerned, college football point spreads are the most popular way to bet, as well as the easiest to understand. Simply put, the point spread is a number assigned to each team based on how many points one of the teams “should” win by. Whenever you are talking about point spreads, you will see a positive and a negative number. The team with the positive number is always considered the underdog, while the team with a negative number is considered the favorite. For example, if you see a line like UCLA +10, that means that UCLA is a 10 point underdog. In order to have a winning bet on UCLA, they would need to win the game outright or lose by less than 10 points. On the other side, you would see something like USC -10, in which case USC is favored by 10 points and would need to win and win by more than 10 for a bet on USC to be considered a winner. If USC ended up winning the game by exactly 10 points, this game would be considered a push and both players on both sides, whether they took UCLA or USC, would simply receive their money back for their wager.

Totals – All football sportsbooks also offer totals or “over/unders” on college football games. This number is simply an estimate of the combined total points scored in a game. For example, if you saw a line that was Michigan/Ohio State OVER/UNDER 45 and the final score was Michigan 21, Ohio State 28, the total would have ended at 49 total points, meaning a bet on the over would have been a winning bet, while a wager placed on the under would be considered a loser.

Money Line Bets - The moneyline isn’t as popular as point spreads or totals, but it is still an option that most sportsbooks offer. Here you are simply betting on which team you think will win the game straight up, while you receive positive odds for underdogs and negative odds for favorites. Money line wagers are normally show based on a $100 bet as a reference point. For example, Notre Dame -220 would mean you would need to bet $220 to win $100 if you thought Notre Dame was going to win. On the flip side, if you saw something like Colorado +300, that would mean that a $100 wager would win you $300 if Colorado ended up winning the game outright.

Parlays & Teasers - Most books also have the option to combine your wagers into parlays. The payouts are greater on parlays, but keep in mind that all of your wagers must win for a parlay to be a winning bet, meaning the risk is much higher as well. Teasers are similar to parlays, but they allow you to buy points on each game. This increases your odds of winning, but it also decreases the payouts significantly as compared to parlays.

If you want a little help this season, be sure to check out the college football picks that our handicappers put out all season long.

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in: