To my understanding it's a way for the bookies to make money. It's the number of points at team must win by in order to get the gambling payoff. It's kind of a handicap where a very good team must beat very bad team by X amount of points in order for those who are betting to win.
Say the point spread is 10 points. Team A (the favorite) must win by at least 10 points over team B in order for the gamblers to pay out. If Team A wins by 9 points, they still win, the team fans still get bragging rights, but the $50 you bet on Team A will be kept by the bookie because team A didn't beat the spread.
Most groups use it as a way of judging the relative strengths and weakensses of a given team.
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To my understanding it's a way for the bookies to make money. It's the number of points at team must win by in order to get the gambling payoff. It's kind of a handicap where a very good team must beat very bad team by X amount of points in order for those who are betting to win.
Say the point spread is 10 points. Team A (the favorite) must win by at least 10 points over team B in order for the gamblers to pay out. If Team A wins by 9 points, they still win, the team fans still get bragging rights, but the $50 you bet on Team A will be kept by the bookie because team A didn't beat the spread.
Most groups use it as a way of judging the relative strengths and weakensses of a given team.