the 'juice') toward one team to attract some bets toward a certain side and help them balance their books. In some circumstances, oddsmakers will shade the vig (i.e.

When looking to bet an individual basketball or football game against the spread, you will traditionally have odds of -110. Conversely, betting on the underdog at +1.5 means that your team can lose by either one run or one goal, and your ticket will still cash. Betting on the favorite requires your hockey or baseball team to win its game by two or more runs. In hockey (the puckline) and baseball (the runline), the favorite is always -1.5 on the spread with the underdog at +1.5. Hockey and baseball also have point spreads, but they work a little different. Betting on the underdog with the point spread will allow that team to lose the contest, as long as it's not by more than the posted number. Betting on the favorite with the point spread requires that team to win the contest by a certain amount of points. Every football and basketball game will have a point spread associated with it. Who would want to bet on a football game between the best team in the league and the worst? The outcome gets a lot more interesting when you give the bad team a 20-point head start.

Guide to betting on sports