HOW TO READ A BETTING LINE
The betting lines, wagers, and stakes are similar for football and basketball. Below are examples of each sport’s betting line. The detailed explanation for football holds true for basketball betting as well.

BET #
To wager on the Panthers, request bet #103, and for the Patriots bet #104.

LINE
The Patriots are seven point favorites. For the Patriots to win the bet they must win by more than seven points. For the Panthers to win the bet they must win the game outright or lose by less than seven points to “cover the spread.”
Were the Patriots to win by exactly seven points the bet is a push and the wager is refunded.

TOTAL
The game total, (or over/under) is 38 points. You can bet whether the combined final score (total points for each team including overtime) will be more or less than 38 points. The winner is irrelevant, only the total points scored.

Were the Patriots and Panthers to combine for exactly 38 points the bet is a push and the wager is refunded.

STRAIGHT WAGER PAYOFFS
Betting the point spread or the total is called a straight wager. Wagers are calculated based on a player betting $11 to win $10. For instance, a $5.50 winning bet pays $10.50 ($5.00 for the win plus the original $5.50 bet).

M / L
This stands for Money Line and is a bet on a team to win a game outright regardless of the point spread. Favorites are noted with a minus sign next to a number that represents what you have to bet to win $100. In the above example, a $240 winning bet on the Patriots pays $340 ($100 for the win plus the original $240 bet).

Underdogs are noted with a plus sign next to a number that represents what you win on top of your $100. A $100 winning bet on the Panthers pays $300 ($200 for the win plus the original $100 bet).

PARLEZ-VOUS PARLAY?
There is a key difference between the words “to” and “for”: 5-for-1 means you win $5 for every $1 you bet, whereas 5-to-1 means you win $5 for every $1 you bet plus you get back your original wager.