Football Moneyline Betting
NFL or college football moneyline betting sounds like a fancy term, but its actually the simplest form of football wagering. You don’t have to worry about the point spread, you just need your team to win the game. And it has been the most popular way to bet on baseball and hockey for years, so its nothing new.
You are thinking, ‘Why doesn’t everyone just bet this way and win more money without the spread?’ Well, Vegas wasn’t built because casino operators like to lose or like to give away money. The deal with moneyline betting is that you have to risk more money to bet on favorites or you agree to accept less of a profit if you bet on favorites.
How does NFL moneyline betting work?
It goes like this. The moneyline values basically replace the point spread. With the spread, you need a team to win by a certain number of points, whereas the moneyline asks you to risk a little more money but you just need your team to win the game SU (straight up). The example below has the New Orleans Saints as favorites against the underdog Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
New Orleans -200
Tampa Bay +170
On the point spread, the Saints would be favored by about 4 points. That translates into a moneyline of about -200 for the favorite and +170 for the underdog. One of the best ways to visualize how the moneyline works is to put a $100 wager in between those two values:
-200 $100 +170
If you wanted to make a $100 profit by betting the Saints at -200, you would bet $200 to win $100. More risk for a smaller payout. If you bet $100 on the underdog Bucs, you would turn a $170 profit. Less risk for a bigger payout.
If you have $100 to bet, you would make a $50 profit on the Saints.
