im doing betting with my friends in pro sports, real money, help me with the odds?

please use this to help me. -http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/odds;_ylt=AmYs2n6gnTbZH0BOM.vQeCVDubYF

im an expert in the nba and nfl and ncaab. sophomores have been betting and im joining. but i dont know how much i get if i win or lose.

Not sure what’s so tough to understand about that link. It’s just a list of today’s lines on the NFL games this weekend.

It shows a list of all the games, favorites in the left column and underdogs to the right. In the middle, you find two numbers: the spread when the line first came out (open) and the current line (today).

If you see a “NL,” that must means “no line” and can pretty much be ignored. Perhaps there were some variables (injuries, etc.) which prevented the oddsmakers from establishing the line for that particular game as quickly as for all the other games.

Example:

at New Orleans -3 -3.5 Tampa

Here New Orleans is the favorite (left side) and Tampa is the underdog (right side). When the line was released (last Sunday night or Monday), New Orleans was favored by 3, however today they’re favored by 3.5. This is because a majority of the money being bet on this game has been on New Orleans. The oddsmakers don’t care who wins or loses, but they want an equal amount of money bet on each team so they can collect their 10-15% commission (vig) on losing bets and come out ahead regardless the outcome of the game. Since people have been betting New Orleans, oddsmakers have moved the line .5 points to entice more people to bet on Tampa, hopefully balancing out the money.

As a general rule, bettors like to “follow the money.” That is to bet on the team most others have also been betting. In the above example, that would be New Orleans. I don’t always agree, however, as lines may be moved *too* far to compensate. Also keep in mind the oddsmakers know more than the bettors, so there’s usually a reason they set the line where they do. In fact, I’d be inclined to take Tampa for a number of reasons in this game.

I also like Cleveland (opened as an underdog, now are even – zero points). Here I am following the money, however it’s probably smart (or common sense) money.

And I like the Jets as 1-point underdogs against the still-perfect (winless, that is) Dolphins. I know, I know – may be a trap, but I’m biting, baby!

Good luck!

Authors@Google: Jeffrey Ma