How To Interpret And Use Nfl Lines To Your Advantage

By Author: Groshan Fabiola
Total Articles: 2678
Comment this article

As you probably already know, most of the NFL football betting action revolves around point spreads. Similar to straightforward wagers and other types of bets, point spreads too require researching and logging sports scores, analyzing statistics and checking the sports odds. Unlike other forms of sports wagering though, point spread betting places a strong emphasis on the movement of the sports lines. With that in mind, if you want to improve your success rates at beating the point spread in NFL football betting, you need to know the ins and outs of the NFL lines and make your wager decisions accordingly.

The following is an example of a regular NFL football point spread:

101 Team A +3 (-110)
41
102 Team B -3 (-110)

In case you are wondering what the 101 and 102 numbers stand for, find out that their sole purpose is to simplify the tracking of teams and introducing data in sportbook computer systems. Since it is much more convenient to assign each team a particular number rather than use its entire name, this model is being used both by online sports betting resources and brick-and-mortar ...
... bookies all across the country.

The numbers to the right of each team point out the anticipated corresponding odds: while the minus sign designates the favorite, the plus sign specifies the underdog. In our previous example, Team B is favored by 3 points, which means that if you were to bet this team to win, it would have to win the game by a minimum margin of 4 points. When the team you wager on manages to claim victory but fails to win by the threshold specified by the sportsbook, your wager is cancelled and you get a full refund of your money.

For novice sports bettors, the -110 numbers can also be confusing when reading the NFL lines. What they indicate is the so-called ‘vigorish', ‘vig', or ‘juice', which is nothing more than the fee deducted from the money you invest in your wager. In the given example, you must lay a wager of $110 to win $100. In the event of a win, you get to collect a total of $210 - the actual value of the wager plus your initial investment.

Next, let's discuss the meaning of the number 41 at the far left. With point spread betting, this is an indicator of the over/ under limit or total. If you choose to wager on the over option, it means the game must end with a combined score of at least 42 points. Using the same example as reference, winning with an under bet requires that the combined final score be lower than 41 points.

The final aspect you need to learn about the NFL lines is that the team placed at the bottom of the specified odds is playing on home ground. In the example presented above, Team B is the home team, which theoretically gives it the edge in the confrontation. For games played on neutral ground, the task of designating the home team goes to either sports league officials or bookmakers, and mostly as a formality.

For more resources about NFL Lines or about Sports Odds or even about Sports Scores, please review these links.