One of these days I plan to get to Vegas, and I’m sure the kind folks that run the casinos would be more than happy to explain the various bets I could place, and what they meant, but that won’t be for a while. If I never get to Vegas, this would still be useful to me, if for no other reason, than I will know what ESPN’s Sports Guy is writing about, and understand what the lines mean in the newspaper.
The things I don’t understand: What is a “parlay”? What does “teasing” one game with another game mean? What is the over/under? How do lines work? For example:
Away Team
Home Team +3 1/2
Away Team
Home Team -3 1/2
What is the difference in the two things above? What is the purpose of the half point? (I think it’s to make sure the casino wins, but not positive.)
I’m sure a real pro will be along in a minute, but the short version:
For any game, the casino/bookie will decide who they think will win, and by how much. Ideally, there will be equal bets placed on both sides, with the house taking its vig off of all bets. To make sure that the betting is equal, they will establish a line. If USC is the underdog, and the bookies think that UCLA will win by a touchdown, then they will set the line at UCLA -7/USC +7. If you want to bet on the favorite, then you have to spot the underdog 7 points. For you to win, UCLA will have to win by more than 7 points. The over/under is the best guess as to the total number of points scored by both teams. If you bet the over on a game that was set at 45, and the total score is 47, then you win. Parlays and teasers are ways of getting bettors to bet more than one game at a time. The casino will offer a better line, perhaps, or increased payoffs, but you have to win all of your games to collect.
Oh, the house uses halfpoint spreads to avoid ties.
A parlay is when you link two bets or more together. When you do this, the casino will give you better odds on each bet, but you have to win both of them to collect. For example, if you’re betting on tonight’s late baseball games, you’ve got:
NYY (-1.5) at CWS
StL (-1.5) at HOU
(Caution: Odds are wild guesses - I don’t follow baseball closely enough to bet on it!)
Say in the first game you’ll take the Yankees and give the runs, and in the second game you’ll take Houston and the runs. You win the first bet if the Yankees win the game by 2 or more runs, and you win the second if Houston wins the game OR if Houston loses by one run. Basically, you get to add the spread to the score of your team.
If you want to parlay the two bets together, then you might get another run in your favor on both bets, but you’d have to win both to collect. You win your parlay if the Yankees win by any margin (because you got an extra run on the spread) AND Houston wins the game or loses the game by 2 or less.
There are all kinds of other bets you can make - over/under, which team scores first, which player scores first, accomplishments of individual players… you can find a bet on pretty much anything you can think of. But the spread is the thing you really need to understand before you put any cash down.
As Silenus says, an important thing to remember is that the line is really set by the house to try and get the public to bet on each team at a 50/50 split.
In other words, in a perfect world (from the casino’s standpoint), 50% of bettors will bet on Team A and 50% on team B. The money transfers from the losers to the winners and the house keeps their vig on each.
If the house sees that too many people are betting on one team, they move the spread to get more people to bet on the other. The spread really says nothing about who the oddsmakers think will win, just who they think the public expects to win. Admittedly, that may be a distinction without a difference, but the whole point of all is to ensure that the house always wins over the long term.
On a handicap market, the purpose of the half point is simply to eliminate the possibility of a draw. I often bet on football (soccer), and the normal (non-handicap) market will look something like this (if team A is the favourite… these odds are for Man Utd v Liverpool tomorrow)
Man Utd win: 2.0
Draw: 3.4
Liverpool win: 4.7
As I say, the handicap eliminates the draw, making it a “two-horse race”:
Man Utd -0.5 goals: 2.0
Liverpool +0.5 goals: 1.95
Because the handicap adds or subtracts “half a goal”, the draw is impossible.
So for instance, if you bet on Man Utd - 0.5 goals, then if it’s a 2-2 draw then you lose, because the adjusted score is 1.5-2.
So a -0.5 handicap is the same as a win bet, whereas the opponent +0.5 covers the win and draw.
Similarly, a -1.5 goal handicap means you are betting on the team to win by at least two goals.
You are sooooooooo lucky.
I’m a supervisor in a race and sports book in Las Vegas.
Come see me at the Monte Carlo sports book and I’ll answer any questions you may have. Ask for Craig.
The answers you have received so far are technically correct but there are so many aspects to sports gambling that a few lines can’t possibly answer all your questions.
I’m on vacation until next Thursday April 29th.
After that I’m there ever day except Tuedays and Wednesdays.
