TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — September 9th is the first day for legal sports betting in Arizona. So, before you place a bet, we wanted to break down the numbers you might see, what they mean, and how to decide where to place your money.
We'll deal with three common types of bets: the spread, the moneyline, and the over/under.
The Spread:
The spread is a number that represents how much a team is favored to win by.
Bettors can bet that the favored team will win by more than the spread, or bet that the underdog team will win the game or just lose by less than the spread.
Fanduel sportsbook puts the spread in the Brigham-Young University vs. Arizona game at 12.5.
BYU is a heavy favorite against the wildcats in this game.
The Moneyline:
The moneyline is the simplest way to bet on sports. Bettors just choose who they think will win the game.
The odds are based on increments of $100.
The favored team gets a negative number which represents how much money a bettor needs to wager to win $100.
Let's use the Arizona vs. BYU game again:
BYU: (-520) | ARIZ: (+370)
The negative number for BYU means a bettor would need to wager $520 to win $100 if BYU wins.
When looking at the moneyline the underdog is represented by a positive number. It shows how much a bettor stands to gain if they wager $100.
So, an Arizona fan could hypothetically bet $100 on the wildcats and if they pulled off an upset win $370.
The Over/Under:
This type of bet deals with the total number of points scored by both teams in a game. It can be in the single digits for games like soccer or in the triple digits for basketball.
Bettors wager on whether they think the total score of the game will be more or less than the over/under number.
For Arizona vs.BYU Fanduel lists the over/under as 54.5
A simple rule of thumb for this type of bet: If you think it will be a high scoring game bet the over. If you think it will be a low scoring game bet the under.
All of this of course happens before the game even starts. Gambling has gotten so advanced now that people can actually make bets while the game is going on.
We'll continue our coverage of sports betting in the week leading up to the first legal bets in our state.
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