By Bettorsworld.com
FOOTBALL BETTING BASICS
Welcome to the first in a series of articles that will examinesome of the finer points in sports betting for newcomers to theidea of trying to get the edge on the bookie. Many of the ideaswill be applicable to other sports, but we'll be focusing onfootball. Much of this stuff will be old-hat to old-timers but Ihope many people will get at least a few ideas from the articles.
***This series of article was written for Bettorsworld by longtime contributor "Shawn".
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This Week: Q & A ABOUT "THE LINE"
1. "What the Line means - and what it doesn't."
Suppose you have a local bookie who lets you bet the lineprinted in your local newspaper's sports section. On theWednesday before the NFL season kicks off you open the paper andunder "NFL Lines" you see:
(Favorites listed first, home team in CAPS)
JETS 6.5 Patriots
OK so what does this mean? This means you can call your bookieand bet $11 on the Jets. If the Jets win by 7 points or more youget the $11 back plus $10 more. If the Jets win by 6 or less, orthe Patriots win, you lose the $11. Or, if you like thePatriots, you can bet $11 on them. If they win, or lose by sixor less, you cash in, getting your $11 back plus $10 more. Ifthe Jets win by 7 or more, your money on the Patriots is gone.Of course you can bet more than $11 to win $10. You can bet $55to win $50, $110 to win $100, or more. Generally you risk $11for every $10 you want to profit...that's the standard and itvaries little.
A line is also called a "point spread" or "spread".
So what does it REALLY mean? The number 6.5 is the head start inpoints the line-maker gives the Patriots. He thinks, and yourbookie is very much hoping, that if that's the head start giventhe Patriots for wagering purposes, half of the bookie'sclients' dough will be bet on the Jets and the other half on thePatriots.
Why is this important? The smart bookie doesn't want togamble-he wants a sure thing: a guaranteed profit from hiscustomers. Consider the simplest case where a bookie has justtwo bettors, you and me, and this number of 6.5 does its job.You bet $11 on the Jets and I bet $11 on the Patriots. One of uswins. Let's say it's me...I hate the Jets. I get my $11 back,plus $10 of your money. The extra $1 you put in stays in thebookmaker's pocket as his small, guaranteed profit (it's called"vig" or "juice").
What does the Line NOT mean? It does not mean, under anycircumstances, that oddsmakers think the Jets will win by about6 or 7 points. It's your job to predict who will win and by howmuch...the line-maker doesn't want to do your job for you. Heworks for the bookies. He and the bookies don't care who wins orloses or by how much-they just want the same amount of cash oneach side so the bookies can get juice. The line-maker tries tocome up with the handicap of points that will put half thepublic's money on the Jets, and half on the Patriots. As long asthe money is split evenly, the bookie "wins" in his own way, andthe result of the game is of no importance to him.
2. "Whoa. The Line is different today from yesterday. What'swith that?"
So the next day in the paper, it's now
Jets 7 Patriots
instead. Now if you like the Jets they've got to win by 8 ormore for you to cash in. If you like the Patriots, they can winor lose by 6 or less and you'll win. (If the game lands on a Jetwin by exactly 7, anybody who bet while the line was 7 just hastheir money refunded...you get the line at the time you bet,even if it changes later.)
The Line moved because the line-maker consulted with some bigsports books and the money wasn't balanced when the number was6.5-there was more coming in on the Jets than the Patriots. Sothe line-maker and bookies changed the number to try toencourage more bets on the Patriots to even things up and getthat juice.
(Line movement is complicated and these are only the basics.Detailing line movements and other things a bookie can do to"even up" the betting would take pages. One thing that thebookie could do instead of moving the line is to say "It's still6.5 but Jets bettors have to lay $11.50 to win $10 and Patriotsbackers can lay only $10.50 to win $10." This is called "movingthe money instead of the line". Think about this one. It'sespecially common when the line is exactly 3 points, a footballwinning margin that actually occurs a lot.)
3. "Why do different places have different Lines on the samegame?"
Suppose you have access to several bookies (this is a good ideaand we'll talk about it in a later article) and you find theyhave different lines, like:
Bookie A: Jets by 6.5 (from the Newspaper)
Bookie B: Jets by 6
Bookie C: Jets by 7
Canbet: Jets by 6.5
Victor Chandler: Jets by 7
Bowmans: Jets by 6.5
Everybody but the bookie who blindly follows the paper is tryingto balance the Jets bets with the Patriots bets. Maybe Bookie Bis in Boston so he is a little lopsided on people betting forthe Patriots -- so he's trying to entice Jets bettors to stepup. Maybe Bookie C is in the Bronx (so he has too much money onthe Jets at 6.5), and maybe Victor Chandler's clients betfavorite teams a lot instead of underdog teams, so they'relooking for more money on the Patriots right now.
In the above example if you like the Jets you'll take yourbusiness to Bookie B because if the Jets win by exactly 7 you'rea winner, and if the Jets win by exactly 6, it's the only shopat which you don't lose. If you like the Patriots, in thisexample Bookie C or Victor Chandler are the places to playbecause the Patriots get more points as a head-start there. Moreon line-shopping in a few weeks.
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
