This page is loading — it needs JavaScript. The written page below is served without it.
Almost every game on a sportsbook carries the same three markets. The moneyline asks who wins. The spread asks by how much. The total asks how many points both teams score between them. Everything else on the game — including player props — sits alongside those three rather than replacing them.
A moneyline bet picks a winner. Margin does not matter, a one-point win pays the same as a forty-point win, and the whole of the difference between the two sides is in the price rather than in the terms. The stronger team is the favourite and costs more to back; the weaker one is the underdog and returns more.
That is why a moneyline on a mismatch is rarely as simple as it looks. The market has already put the difference between the clubs into the price, so backing the obvious winner buys a small return and backing the other side buys a large one, and neither is free. In a draw-possible sport the moneyline may carry three outcomes rather than two, and a two-way price is quoted only where a draw cannot happen.
A spread hands one team a margin before the game starts. A favourite listed at -3.5 has to win by four or more for the bet to land; the underdog at +3.5 covers by winning outright or by losing by three or fewer. The point of the device is to make a lopsided game into a roughly even bet, so the two sides can be priced close to each other instead of one of them being unbackable.
This is where the phrase "won the game, lost the bet" comes from, and it is the single most common surprise for somebody who has only ever bet a winner. A team can win by three and fail to cover a three-and-a-half point spread, and a late score that changes nothing about the result can change everything about the bet.
Half-points do the same job here as they do on a player prop: they remove the tie. A whole-number spread can land exactly on the margin, and that is a push — the stake comes back, and inside a parlay the leg drops out and the rest of the ticket is repriced without it.
A total, often called the over/under, is a number for the two teams’ scores added together. Take the over and you need the combined score above it; take the under and you need it below. Who wins is irrelevant, and so is how the points were split.
Team totals are the same market narrowed to one club, and they are the reason a game can go under while one side goes over — a defensive struggle at one end and a busy afternoon at the other is one game and two different answers. The scoring history this site publishes for a club is measured against thresholds in exactly that way: how often that team alone has finished above a given number.
Totals move on the things that change how a game is played rather than on who is better — pace, weather where it applies, a missing player who takes a lot of the shots, and a rest day for a rotation. A total shifting is not the market changing its mind about the winner.
What is worth knowing before combining them:
The research on this site is deepest on the player half — a player prop has one person’s game log behind it, which is a cleaner record than a team result. The team markets carry measured club history rather than a model of the game, and the difference between those two things is stated on the pages that show them.
The moneyline is a bet on who wins, with the difference between the teams expressed entirely in the price. The spread is a bet on the margin, with the difference between the teams expressed as a head start instead, so both sides can be priced close to each other. A team can win the game and fail to cover the spread.
It means that team is giving three and a half points away, so it has to win by four or more for the bet to land. The other side is +3.5 and covers by winning outright or by losing by three or fewer. The half-point exists so the bet cannot end level.
Yes for a game total — the total is the number and over/under is the choice you make about it. The same wording is used for player props, where the number belongs to one player rather than to both teams, and the mechanics are identical either way.
That is a push. The stake is returned rather than won or lost, and inside a parlay the leg drops out while the remaining legs are repriced as though the ticket had been built without it. It is the reason so many spreads and totals are set at a half-point in the first place.
The deepest research here is on player props, because one player’s game log is a cleaner record than a team result. Team markets carry measured club history — records, scoring against thresholds, home and away splits — and the pages that show them say plainly that this is measured history rather than a model of the game.
The fixtures the books have priced, with the team markets and the player props beside them. See tonight’s games and their markets.
You must be 21+ (or older, where your jurisdiction sets a higher age) to bet. If gambling stops being fun, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER for free, confidential help. All guides.
Odds and lines come from licensed data feeds and refresh on a schedule; hit rates, edges and grades are Parlay Builder’s own calculations.