Against The Spread (ATS) Guide

ATS Betting Guide

All teams are not made equal. That’s just a fact of life; someone is always better/worse than someone else. But if you just bet on the better team to win outright all the time…well, that’s no fun. That’s where point spreads and betting against the spread come in handy.

Point spreads level the playing field for bettors. It no longer becomes enough just to pick a winner. You’ve got to figure out by how much a team will beat the other or whether they lose by more or less than a specified number (the spread).

That’s a very basic, very general interpretation of what points spread are. Let’s go over them in more detail, specifically as they pertain to betting against the spread (ATS).

💡Point Spreads
❓What Affects the Spread?
💰Calculating Payouts
🔍Which Sports?

Point Spreads: What Are They and How Do You Bet On Them

Had you bet on the favorite to win outright in every NFL game over the last three years, you would have won roughly every two out of three bets (2022—66.5%; 2023—68%; 2024—71.1%). Sportsbooks know this, which is why the payout on favorites is less than on underdogs.

That’s how sportsbooks level the field regarding betting on outright winners. But our purpose here is to talk about point spreads.

Point spreads are another way in which sportsbooks level the playing field.

By definition, the point spread is the expected margin of victory in a game. How you bet on them depends on who you want to bet on. If you want to bet on the team perceived to be better (the favorite), winning the game is not enough. They’ll have to win by more than the point spread.

Consequently, if you want to bet on the team perceived to be the lesser of the two (the underdog), the spread gives you some wiggle room. If they lose by less than the point spread, you still win.

So, when you are betting against the spread, you are betting that a team will win or lose by a specified number of points. Let’s look at some examples using the closing line for a hypothetical game:

TEAM	POINT SPREAD	GAME TOTAL	MONEYLINE
Team A	-6.5 (-105)	O 48.5 (-115)	-120
Team B	+6.5 (-115)	U 48.5 (-105)	+100

Ex. 1 Betting on Team A at -6.5

If you bet on Team A at -6.5 points, you are betting that Team A will win by more than 6.5 points. Once the game concludes, the spread will be subtracted from Team A’s final score. Once the spread is applied, if Team A still has a higher score than Team B, you win.

If the final score was something like 38-26, 35-23, 21-14, you win. Just winning is not enough; you have to win by more than the point spread. However, had the final score been something like 38-35, 28-24, or 24-20, you would lose.

Ex. 2 Betting on Team B at +6.5

Bet on Team B at +6.5, and you’ll get to add 6.5 points to Team B’s final score. If the score once the spread is applied results in Team B having a higher score, you win the wager. But if they still have a lower score, you lose.

So, if the final score was something like:

Team A 35 Team B 31
Team A 28 Team B 24
Team A 16 Team B 10

But then you add 6.5 points to Team B’s score

Team A 35 Team B 31 +6.5= 37.5
Team A 28 Team B 24+6.5= 30.5
Team A 16 Team B 10+6.5= 16.5

You’d win. But if the score was something like the following and you added 6.5 points to Team B’s final score, you’d lose:

Team A 35 Team B 21+6.5= 27.5
Team A 28 Team B 21 + 6.5= 27.5
Team A 16 Team B 7 + 6.5= 13.5

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What Can Change the Point Spread?

Many will attribute line movement to factors such as player injuries, weather conditions, or other relevant information that comes to light in the days leading up to a game. The actual cause is none of those things, but more what bettors may do in response to them.

Here are some hypothetical scenarios that would impact an NFL prediction:

If Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson were to pop up on the Friday injury report as ‘doubtful,’ there is a very good chance bettors will flood sportsbooks with bets on their opponent. Because without those guys, the likelihood that their team will win goes down drastically.
Should the Dolphins or Buccaneers be playing in Green Bay or upstate New York in December/January, and an unexpected cold front swoops in the night before a game, bettors may bet heavily on the other team since both have dreadful records in cold weather games.

However, sportsbooks will not change the spread of a game in either because of the circumstances in the scenario. No, they’ll change it because of how the public bets in response to those circumstances.

Sportsbooks want to minimize their risk as much as they can. So, when the public floods one side of a game with bets, they’ll move the line to encourage bettors to take the other side. The more balanced betting is for a game, the less risk sportsbooks take.

Calculating Payouts Against the Spread

The payout for a bet against the spread is calculated just like any other wager. You can use a special calculator to calculate your payout, but the general rule of thumb is this: If the odds for your wager are -110, then it will take a bet of $110 in order for you to win $100.

Point spreads rarely have plus money odds, but if they do, follow this rule of thumb—If the odds for your wager are +105, then a $100 wager will result in $105 in winnings.

Which Sports Have Spread Betting Options?

Several sports have point-spread betting as an option, but the chief among them are football and basketball. However, there are a few that use something basically the same, but they call it something else: Baseball—run line, Hockey—puck line, and Soccer—goal line.

What Does It Mean to 'Cover The Spread'?

To ‘cover the spread’ means to win by more than the point spread or lose by fewer points than the spread. The term is more commonly used in regard to favorites than underdogs.

What does it mean to ‘lay the points/take the points?’

When you ‘lay the points, ’ you are betting on the favorite to win by more than the spread. ‘Taking the points’ refers to betting on the underdog and adding the spread to their score at the end of the game.

There you have it! All you need to know to start making ATS bets on your favorite sports. While spread betting is most popular with football and basketball, the spread is available for betting on several sports and remains one of the most popular betting markets around.