Why you would buy points in sporting events
It has been said that competition brings out the best and worst in man. In the case of sports and sports betting, it has certainly induced the creative juices of bettors and bookmakers, such that there are now so many available options on wagers to be made rooting from just a single sports event.
One such variant is buying points. The phrase is pretty much self-explanatory, since basically a wager on this involves buying certain point spreads over those that have initially been established for the teams. To refresh, basic betting in sports involves a bookmaker determining the team more likely to win over another, and by how many points, or the spread. Buying points then helps to widen or narrow that spread.
Newcomers to the betting world may wonder why anyone would do that. The answer may be anything from gut feel or instinct, or a scientific and mathematical supposition based on the teams' past performance, or even merely a show of support to a favored team. Whatever the case though, this choice is available to the bettor.
What does buying points mean to the gambler? Its effect is still based on the premise that the higher the risk, the higher the yield, and conversely, the lower the risk, the lower the yield. Thus, buying points to widen the gap would favor the bettor as the added challenge results in a higher pay out. This is because the favored team would have to do better and score more to cover the spread, while the underdog would have a wider range in terms of by how many points it can stand to lose. Using the same logic, buying points to narrow the spread would result in smaller winnings as the chances increase for the bettor since the favorite would just have to win by a smaller number of points over the other. Thus, this betting type may also be utilized to influence the possible pay outs.
This form of sport betting is currently available for most major sports events such as the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL), college football and college basketball.
