Sports Fans have been focused on point spread sports for quite a while now. The NFL is winding down. And college football has finished for the season.
Basketball is in full swing – with both the NBA and college basketball in the middle of their regular seasons. All of these sports have one main thing in common. These are point spread sports: meaning that to even things up, the sportsbooks and oddsmakers use point spreads to try to even the money take on each side. For instance, at last check, the Eagles are favored by 1.5 points over the Chiefs.
Sports that have enough scoring can use point spreads to equalize things. However, certain sports don't have enough scoring to allow point spreads to work well. In these sports – such as MLB and the NHL, the oddsmakers use probabilities or moneylines to equalize things.
For instance, a good team like the Los Angeles Dodgers against a weaker team may have posted odds such as -180 / +160. This means that you need to bet in a ratio of 180 to win 100 if you take the favorite. If you bet on the underdog, you bet 100 to win 160. The odds are always keyed off of “100.”
You might ask: why is there a difference between the 180 and 160? This is the “vig” or commission that the sportsbooks collect to earn a profit and to help them manage risk.
Tuesdays are often a big day for the NHL. Our Members can login and see a play filtered by our systems.
And, since you took the time to read this far, we flagged a play. The sports marketplace numbers point to the Islanders over the Kraken. This is based on both contrarian data and evidence of sharps on the Islanders.