Avid fans of the National Football League, or ‘NFL’, have probably come across what you call NFL Picks Against the Spread. In the simple language of betting, this means that you choose any match between two teams in which there is a favorite and an underdog. The favorite is the team most likely to win the match, while the loser is the team most likely to lose. The beauty of Picks Against the Spread betting is that the bookies (the person handling the bets) can collect the bets placed on the point spread, not necessarily which team will win or lose.
If players only bet on the winning team, there would be no point in betting because everyone would win. To create a betting scenario, you would have to bet on the point spread between the winner and the loser. In Picks Against the Spread bets, a bookmaker sets the ‘line’, which is usually a negative number (eg “-5”). This number denotes the minimum number of points the favorite has to win the opponent, or the maximum number of points the underdog has to lose by. To get these numbers, you’ll have to choose from weekly picks against the spread.
Let’s say you pick a game from the Picks vs. NFL spread this week. The bookie sets the line at -5. If you bet on the favorite team (say, Atlanta), they will have to win by at least 5 points or you will lose. If you bet on the underdog (say, San Francisco), they can lose up to 5 points and you still win. If you lose the game by 6 points, you lose the bet. This is how NFL Picks Against the Spread betting works. So are you ready to bet? Then choose your choice.