To “cover,” the spread, Baltimore needs to win by at least eight points on the road. That means the Ravens are viewed as a full touchdown better than the Jets. The spread is an indicator of how many points a team is favored over another.įor instance, the Baltimore Ravens are -7 against the New York Jets in Week 1. This is a number used by sportsbooks to even the odds between two unevenly matched teams. Let’s start with perhaps the most widely known term in the sports betting vernacular, the spread.

In this piece, I’ll break down a few ways you can use the wise guys to your advantage.Ĭheck out BettingPros Premium: Get access to the best sports betting tools and insights Use the spread to predict game script Most importantly, we can use the odds sportsbooks put out to help us make lineup decisions. In betting, the focus is more on broader team performance, but that’s starting to shift with the emergence of more individual player prop wagers. In fantasy, we try to predict individual player performance when we set out weekly lineups.

And while these are both unique ways to get involved in weekly NFL action, there’s more overlap between the two than you might think.Īt their cores, both fantasy football and betting involve predicting outcomes. Many view fantasy football and sports betting as two exclusive entities.