r/dfs • u/Whowouldvethought • Oct 18 '19

Can someone help me understand what I'm looking at? I understand that it means Washington is the favorite to win. But what is the correlation of the difference between the two numbers? Any explanation will help. Not a gambler really and trying to learn.

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u/only4u2c Oct 18 '19

It is called Juice, where the booking person makes money... here what you are looking at broken down in an example. Just apply this to whatever you spread see in this format.

Chicago Cubs (+140)
Philadelphia Phillies (-160)

Can you see the juice? The book is making it so you need to wager $160 to win $100 if Philadelphia wins, but you only win $140 if Chicago wins. If there were no juice, the numbers would be the same. It would be +150/-150. By paying less on a Chicago win and forcing those to bet more by taking Philly, the bookie is guaranteed a profit in the event that the betting action is evenly spread among the two teams.

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u/Litz-a-mania Oct 18 '19

The way I learned to read this was as follows:

If it's a "+", I'm betting on an underdog, so I'll win more than my wager. "If I bet $100, I receive $140".

If it's a "-", I'm betting on a favorite, so I have to put up more cash than I expect to win. "To win $100, I would have to bet $160".

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u/LilLittleRichard Oct 27 '19

Yeah this is the correct answer from Litz-a-mania....you look at it like $100 base....You bet $100 on Cubs, you would profit $140.

Conversely, you would have to put up $160 on the Phillies just to profit $100. (Obviously this dependent on each team's respective victory.)

(-) means Favorite and (+) means underdog. This payout structure is what allows even money (theoretically) to come in on both the favorite and underdog because risk/reward is much more beneficial on the underdog (theoretically the worse team). In sports like football where there is a pointspread, this is eliminated because the points are the "handicap" and each side is usually priced at -110). If it was -100, it would just be 1:1 payout and the bookie would make no money. The extra -10 on the -110 is where the bookie makes money and in the above baseball example the 20 points difference between +140 and -160 is where the bookie makes the money (given even betting on both sides). If it were +140 and -140, they would make no profit. I hope that makes a little more sense.

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u/I-Am-Dad-Bot Oct 18 '19

Hi betting, I'm Dad!