Moneylines, point spreads, and totals — everything you need to actually understand what you're looking at on a sportsbook.
Walk up to any sportsbook and you'll see a wall of numbers with plus signs, minus signs, and decimals. To someone who's never bet a game before, it's intimidating gibberish. But once you decode the three main bet types — moneyline, spread, and total — the whole wall makes sense. Here's the plain-English guide.
Every game on a sportsbook offers the same three basic bet types: moneyline, spread, and total. Once you understand these, you understand sports betting. Everything else — parlays, props, teasers, live betting — is just a variation on these three ideas.
The simplest bet in sports. Pick the team that wins the game. No points, no spread, no complications. The difference is how much you win based on which side you pick.
Dolphins +240 vs Bills −290
Betting $100 on the Dolphins (underdog, +240) wins you $240 profit if they win.
Betting $290 on the Bills (favorite, −290) wins you $100 profit if they win.
The minus sign means favorite: risk more to win less. The plus sign means underdog: risk less to win more.
The spread levels the playing field by adding or subtracting points from each team's final score. The favorite must win by more than the spread (called "covering"). The underdog wins the bet if they win outright — or lose by less than the spread.
Dolphins +6.5 vs Bills −6.5
If you bet Miami +6.5, you win if the Dolphins win outright or lose by 6 or fewer points.
If you bet Buffalo −6.5, you win only if the Bills win by 7 or more.
A loss by exactly 6.5 is impossible — the half-point ensures no ties.
Spread bets are almost always priced at −110 on both sides (risk $110 to win $100). That's the sportsbook's cut.
A bet on the combined final score of both teams. The sportsbook posts a number; you bet whether the actual combined score will be higher (over) or lower (under).
Dolphins vs Bills · Total 48.5
If the final score is 28–24 (combined 52), the OVER wins.
If the final is 20–17 (combined 37), the UNDER wins.
Like spreads, totals are typically priced −110 on both sides.
You don't care who wins the game — you only care about total points scored.
Here's what you'll actually see on a sportsbook app for a single game. Every number falls into one of those three categories.
Reading the board above, Mets are favored to win by 1.5 runs. Betting them outright (−165) requires you to risk $165 to win $100. Taking the Marlins on the spread (+1.5) means you win if the Marlins win or lose by exactly 1 run. Under 8.5 means you're betting the teams combine for 8 or fewer total runs.
−110 is the standard "juice" on point-spread and total bets. It means you risk $110 to win $100 — a 9.1% premium the sportsbook takes for matching you with the opposite side. Understanding this number unlocks a lot about how sports betting really works.
This is such an important concept we wrote a whole article about it. It's called the vig, and it's the hidden cost baked into every sports bet.
US sportsbooks mostly use "American odds" — the plus and minus system. Here's how each price translates into actual dollars and implied probability.
| American Odds | Bet $100, Win... | To Win $100, Bet... | Implied Probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| −300 | $33.33 | $300 | 75.0% |
| −200 | $50.00 | $200 | 66.7% |
| −150 | $66.67 | $150 | 60.0% |
| −110 | $90.91 | $110 | 52.4% |
| +100 (EVEN) | $100.00 | $100 | 50.0% |
| +110 | $110.00 | $91 | 47.6% |
| +150 | $150.00 | $67 | 40.0% |
| +200 | $200.00 | $50 | 33.3% |
| +300 | $300.00 | $33 | 25.0% |
The "implied probability" column is how often the sportsbook is saying that outcome needs to hit to break even. If you bet −150, the team needs to win 60% of the time for you to profit long-term. If you bet +200, only 33% — but the wins need to be rare enough to justify the smaller price.
A parlay combines multiple bets into one. All legs must win for the parlay to cash. Payouts multiply, which sounds great — but so does the difficulty. A 3-team parlay with three −110 bets pays about 6-to-1 at true odds; sportsbooks typically pay closer to 6-to-1 back. The more legs you add, the more the house edge compounds.
A parlay where you "buy" points on the spread (usually 6 or 7 points in your favor) in exchange for reduced payouts. Popular in football. All legs must still win.
Side bets on specific events within a game — player points, first touchdown scorer, coin toss result. Fun, not usually profitable — the juice is typically much higher than on main markets.
Placing wagers during the game as odds shift in real time. Adrenaline-driven. Often much higher juice than pre-game — the sportsbook is pricing fast and needs a safety margin.
The line for the same game can differ between sportsbooks by half a point on the spread, or 10-20 cents on the moneyline. That's real money over a season.
If you have access to multiple legal sportsbook apps, check the number on all of them before placing the bet. Taking Dolphins +7 at one book vs Dolphins +6.5 at another is the difference between a push and a loss on a 7-point defeat.
As of April 2026, Florida's only legal licensed sportsbook is Hard Rock Bet operated by the Seminole Tribe. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and others aren't licensed in-state. Line shopping in Florida is mostly limited to comparing prop/futures markets across allowed platforms. Check hardrockbet.com for the current rules and eligibility.
Every number on a sportsbook is answering one of three questions: who wins, by how much, and how high-scoring. Learn to spot which question each line is answering, and the wall of numbers becomes readable.