Linemakers who work for the sportsbooks must put out lines that will entice the 'favorite' bettors to lay the points and take the favorite or entice the underdog bettors to take the points with the underdog.Īs an example, let's say you are looking to place your very first wager on the Super Bowl. Point spread betting is the most popular way to bet on the NFL and NBA, and it is a way for a sportsbook to generate betting interest on both sides. The easiest way for me to describe what all these numbers mean to you is to define it as point spread betting. It looks like a massive spreadsheet with negative and positive numbers beside each teams' name.
The same can be said for the online sportsbooks.
They also won't have a clue what any of it means. When a novice sports bettor looks at the massive digital signage, they will see a bunch of numbers, both positive and negative, some two digits, some three digits.
In an actual Las Vegas sportsbook, there is typically a lot of commotion and the odds and lines are displayed on a massive digital board for everyone to see. If you've never set foot in an actual sportsbook before or logged into an online sportsbook, the chances of you getting overwhelmed when you actually do is very high.