Football Money Lines
Football money lines are often referred to as American odds. It is essentially a form of fixed-odds betting. Football money lines are expressed as either a positive or a negative number. Typically the favorite team to win the match will be quoted with the negative number and the underdog will carry a positive number. The negative number is used to connote that the gambler will have to put down money in order to secure a winning and paying bet. A positive number connotes that the gambler will receive a payout over and above his bet in case of a win for the underdog. Both numbers are expressions of how much the gambler will take home on a standard $100 bet from the football betting site, thus, the denominator for expressing the bet is 100. The $100 denominator is only used for better expressing the odds; the odds are suitable adjusted for a lower denominator in case of lower value bets like $5 or $10 bets.
Understanding Football Money Lines
Betting on the money line is popular in those kinds of sporting events where the margin of victory is often too small for a point spread to be justified. Football Money lines are particularly possible due to this because very often in a football game the margin of victory is fairly narrow. Another interesting aspect is that the money line bet is often a composite value that properly reflects the edge held by one team over the other, almost operating as a point spread bet would. For example, in case of a Arizona vs. Dallas match, the money line bets are being offered as +140 for Arizona and -220 for Dalla. In a straight bet scenario both teams should have been quoting at either 140 or 220. But due to the fact that money line bets take into consideration the perceived edge held by one team over the other, there is a defined difference in the odds quoted for each team. In the above scenario Texas is the strong favorite to win the match. Gamblers will need to bet $220 in order to win $100. Conversely, as Arizona are the underdogs, gamblers will need to bet $100 in order to take home $140, in the expectedly unlikely scenario of an Arizona victory.
Knowing What Team is the Favorite Through Money Lines
The variance in the odds quoted for both the teams in the money line bet will be more disparate depending on how strongly one team is favored to win the contest over the other. Closely placed money line odds indicate that the bookmakers predict a closely contested match. As in point spread betting, the disparity in odds while betting on the money line is simply to adjust for the skew in betting sentiment. Bookmakers lose out on commission in case every gambler places bets on the favorite side and the favorite side go on to win the match. Bookmakers have lucrative business only when the two sides to the betting equation are equally balanced. Thus, they device appropriate money line bets that draw gamblers equally to both outcomes. For example, in the above example if Arizona wins contrary to expectations, they will raise the $220 from Dallas supporters and pay off the Arizona supporters. The difference between monies raised will be their profit.
