Understanding Nfl Odds
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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Understanding NFL Super Bowl odds is important for every budding sports bettor. Sportsbooks use a host of different factors to include in NFL odds. Such as strength of schedule, previous season success, additions on the roster, and past history to show the likelihood to win the big game. Odds expressed in terms of money, with $100 being the standard. If the odds are minus (–), then that amount of money must be wagered to win $100. –150 means you must bet $150 to win $100.).
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.
Understanding Nfl Odds Against
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).
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.
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Decimal Style Sports Betting Odds
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:
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.
Understanding Nfl Odds Predictions
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.
NFL football and betting go hand-in-hand: Despite the denials ofNFL and especially NCAA officials, betting and football have been inextricablylinked since the dawn of the big league in the Roaring 20s. And as footballsteadily gained in popularity until finally becoming the USA’s favoritetelevised sport, the influence of betting on the NFL has changed the very waywe discuss and analyze all major sports – not to mention untold billions ofdollars changing hands.
Three major developments led to the dominance of NFL betting linesover North American sport. Seminal to betting today are the “point spread” and“over/under” bets. The creation of standardized forms of these bets is creditedto Charles K. McNeil, a small-time gambler who was quite deft with mathematics.
Whereas prior to McNeil’s innovations of the late 1930s, the would-be NFL bettor would propose a bet to a bookie, say a certain team wins by a certain number of points, and the bookie would offer odds. McNeil’s creation of pointspread – and later the over/under – represent an agglomeration of all odds on all reasonable possible wagers on a given game. But never mind the mathematics: The point (so to speak) here is that in NFL betting (and quite a few other sports), the most popular bets week to week all begin “I’ll take team X plus/minus the points…” and “I’ll take the over on…”
The second key event took place on the field: The 1968 NFLChampionship Game (in which the Baltimore Colts entered as 3½-point favoritesat the New York Giants). This game is still, even in our age given to rampantsports hyperbole, considered one of the greatest NFL games ever played. Thisgame also helped show the American audience the appeal of the point spread inpredicting games – though the college game had offered pointspread betting fordecades, the ’58 game moved professional football up to the level of popularityenjoyed by college ball.
Finally came the Supreme Court decisions regarding theconstitutionality of banning sports betting in early 2018; with these rulingsallowing individual states and Native American nations to decriminalize andregulate online sports betting. Just as a handful of European nations simultaneouslygot to passing legalization laws in time for the 2010 World Cup, the statesearliest to legalize sports betting (Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey and WestVirginia) all did so by the 2018 NFL season’s opening game; the West Virginiastate legislature managed to get the bill enacted into law just one week beforethat season’s first TNF game.
Why this stampede to decriminalize? Statistics have estimated thatup to 80% of all betting in the U.S. is done on NFL and college football games.Estimates of non-regulated gambling alone in the U.S. were estimated atanywhere between $95 billion and $150 billion per year as of 2017. So, yeah.
NFL Betting Lines: The gold standard forsportsbook bets
This combination of streamlining football betsand marketability of football has resulted in the NFL betting lines we all takefor granted today. As an example, here’s the full standard line from a recentinfamous NFL game:
New England Patriots -2.5 -130 56.5
Los Angeles Rams +2.5 +120 56.5
The recent rise in the popularity of sports betting has evolved NFL betting lines in the public consciousness from incomprehensible cipher to a standard employed by virtually every other sport; even soccer with its low scores employs pointspread bets, very often set at +/-0.5 goals. When the standardization of NFL betting lines to present the popular wagers in the order of point spread, money line (i.e. the odds on a team to win a given game straight-up), over/under, but few deviations of this presentation may be found.
The only drawback to usage of what is now called the “Americanodds format” for the money line is its relative counterintuitive-ness andfrequent lack of easy calculability. In the NFL betting lines shown above, thePatriots have a money line of -130, meaning that if one bets $130, the win is$100. So if I’m wagering $500, the return is…$384.61. Of course.
However, even this tiny bit of complexity is a recent innovationto NFL betting lines that has come with technology that allows transactions –and changes to the odds – in a fraction of a second, and thus more precision tothese lines has resulted in the 21st century.
Understanding Nfl Odds Against
So check out the up-to-the-minute NFL betting lines available forthis week’s games at any NFLbets-partnering sportsbook site today!