In moneyline sports (baseball and hockey are the main American ones), you're betting on which team will simply win the game, rather than the expected margin of victory.

Reading moneyline odds is very similar to reading the vig, with the only difference being the numbers can be far more distant from even. 115, for example), that team would be considered a very slight underdog, as that would mean it would take a $105 bet to win $100, as opposed to a $115 risk for the other side. If one team's vig was lower, however (-105 vs. In such a game, assuming the vig is once again -110 on each side, there is no underdog. In some cases, though, the teams will be seen as even matches, and the spread will be zero points (called a pick'em). In other words, regardless of which spread you choose to take, you'll have to risk $110 to win $100 (or $11 to win $10, etc.). That number is simply to denote the vig (tax) taken by the sportsbook. You'll notice that both spreads are listed in front of a minus number (-110). If they were to lose by 12 points or more, Sacramento bettors would lose their money. That means that in order for a Kings bet to win, they'd need to lose by no more than 11 points, or win the game outright.

In the case above, the Kings are seen as 11.5-point underdogs against the Lakers. The greater the spread, the bigger the underdog. This allows bettors to make bets on how close a game will be, as opposed to simply betting on the winner and loser. The ' spread' is the difference between the two teams in play in terms of their expected points to be scored in the game. In both spread and moneyline betting (using American odds), the underdog is the team listed in front of the number with a plus sign (+). And oddsmakers have two ways of quantifying how big an underdog is: the spread and the moneyline. In the example above, the underdog would be the Kings, as they'd be expected to lose against the Lakers, who would be the favorite.

In sports betting, an underdog is a team or player expected to lose a given game or event. Teams and players rarely have the exact same level of talent, so when, say, the 11th-place Kings have to play the first-place Lakers, we aren't expecting Sacramento to come away with a win.Īnd while that may not be the most complicated concept to understand, it's a fundamental one when it comes to sports betting - the underdog. In just about any game - professional sports or otherwise - there's going to be an expected winner and an expected loser.

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