You will have to bet $122 of your own money to win $100. A bet on the Eagles to just win the game, regardless of the score, is somewhat less profitable than using a point spread. This also applies to other bets, which is why most of them involve a fraction, like 44.5 yards or 48.5 points.ĭon’t want to bother with points and just pick the winner? That’s called the money line.

You don’t win anything but you get your original bet refunded. (Odds and point totals are as of Friday from FanDuel, the official odds provider for The Associated Press.) The spread can change up until kickoff – and even afterward, during live betting, we’ll get to that later – but the number locks in once you make a bet.Ī spread with a whole number, say, 2 points, opens the opportunity for what’s called a “push” if the winning margin ties. Conversely, underdog Kansas City can cover by either winning the game outright, or losing by less than 2 points. Prices on Super Bowl bets can vary significantly, so it pays to shop around to get the lowest price you can before making a bet.īeating the spread is known as “covering.” For the Eagles to cover their spread of 1.5 points, they must win the game by 2 or more points. That way, the oddsmakers are guaranteed a profit through a cut of the action, called the vigorish, or “vig.” (Many books, hoping to sound less wiseguy-ish, call it “the price.”) Most sportsbooks will keep 10% or more of a winning bet before paying you the rest, but they keep 100% of all losing bets.

Rather, it is a number designed to generate as close to an equal number of bets on both sides as possible. Two of the most popular bets are on the point spread (the number of points by which a team must win the game in order for the bet to be a winner) and the total, also known as the over/under (the total number of points scored by both teams).Ĭontrary to popular belief, the point spread is not a consensus on how many points oddsmakers think one team will win by. We will deal here only with legal options from sportsbooks approved and regulated by government authorities in the US. Here is a guide to betting on the big game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. With sports betting ads blitzing the airwaves with come-ons and promotions, things might be a bit confusing, especially for first-time bettors or those who don’t fully understand how things work. Sports betting is now legal in two-thirds of the country, and more Americans than ever before have an opportunity to place a legal bet on Sunday’s Super Bowl.

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