Wager Wire | Betting Types

Sports Betting Types | Buying Points

Buying points allows you to improve the Point Spread or Totals odds of a football or basketball contest by actually buying points for the team you want to wager on.

Buying Points allows you to move the point spread in your favor by paying a surcharge. You can only buy points on football and basketball point spreads and totals.

You can normally buy an extra 1/2 point by laying -120 instead of the standard -110.

Buying points on or off key points or magic numbers is more expensive. Three is usually the key point in football. Although there are no standard key points in basketball, we may set key points on certain games.

After you buy a point and place your bet, check your betting ticket to see the new price on the event.

Example: Let's assume you wish to place a bet on the Denver Broncos. You like Denver in their game against the Green Bay Packers and think that they can win the game and you've got $100 to bet with. The line on the contest appears as follows:

GREEN BAY by 5 Denver 46

The point spread is shown as "by 5" meaning that Green Bay is favored and expected to win by 5 points or more. The number 46 refers to the Total Score and is a separate wager.

While placing your $100 wager you decide that you would feel more comfortable if you got to add 6 points to Denver's score rather than 5. Choosing Denver to win, entering the bet amount, and then choosing the "Buy Point" drop down menu, you proceed to place your wager.

The game ends with the following results:

GREEN BAY 31 / Denver 26 FINAL SCORE

It's a good thing you bought that extra point, even though Denver lost the game you would have won the bet, winning $176.92 ($76.92 won + $100 bet). By adding the 6 points to the Bronco's final score, the final betting score becomes:

GREEN BAY 31 Denver (26 +6 =) 32 FINAL SCORE w/ POINT SPREAD