How it works

01Bet types

To win (moneyline)

Pick who wins the game. That's it.

Spread

A head start. KC −3.5 wins if Kansas City wins by 4 or more; BUF +3.5 wins if Buffalo wins, or loses by 3 or fewer. “Covering” means beating the spread. PK (pick'em) means no head start: just win.

Total (over / under)

The two teams' combined score. Over 47.5 (O 47.5) wins at 48 or more; Under 47.5 (U 47.5) wins at 47 or fewer.

Team total

One team's score, over or under a number, whatever the other team does.

Halves, quarters, periods

The same bets for part of the game: 1H is the first half, 2Q the second quarter, 1P hockey's first period, F5 baseball's first five innings. Second halves include overtime; quarters don't.

Player props

A bet on one player's stats: “Over 4.5 receptions” wins if the player catches 5 or more passes.

Push (tie)

The result lands exactly on the number, so the bet is refunded. Records on this site leave ties out.

02The price

Every bet has a price. −150 means you risk $150 to win $100. +130 means you risk $100 to win $130. Each price implies a win chance: −150 needs you to win 60% of the time just to break even. Different sportsbooks post different prices for the same bet, so we always show the best one.

Some books and apps write prices differently: decimal (2.50 means a $1 bet returns $2.50, stake included), fractional (3/2 means win $3 for every $2) or as a chance (40%). Type any of them to see it every other way:

03The chance it wins

Sportsbooks build a margin into every price, so both sides add up to more than 100%. We strip that out and average across books (betting people call this the “no-vig” price). Then we add two more opinions that have real money behind them: Polymarket and Kalshi, where people trade contracts that pay $1 if a team wins. A contract at 58¢ means the market thinks it's 58%. The chance it wins, everywhere on the site, is the average of whichever of those three exist.

04The edge

If a bet wins 55% of the time and the best price only needs 50% to break even, it returns about $10 per $100 on average. That's the edge: how much more the price pays than the bet's chances call for. Most bets have a negative edge. The good ones are small, usually a few percent. On Games, a green price has a positive edge.

05The best prices

The home page and the morning email rank every bet with a positive edge on games that haven't started. To make the list, a bet has to be priced between −300 and +300 and offered by at least four books, so long shots and thin markets don't crowd it out. We don't pick one for you. The ranking shows where the numbers lean, and the call is yours.

If you only have accounts at a few books (Polymarket and Kalshi count), pick them in Settings. Every best price, edge and trend price on the site then comes from those books, so a price you see is one you can bet. The chance a bet wins still uses every book.

06Trends

The trend board replays every line the books are posting against recent results. For a team: would it have won, covered today's spread, or gone over today's total in its last 5, 10 and 15 games, this season and last season? The same goes for each half, quarter or period and for team totals: would the Chiefs have led by 4 at halftime, or scored over 24.5? For a player: how often would “over 4.5 receptions” have hit in the same stretches?

Each trend shows how often it won (“10 of 10, last 10 games”) next to how often its price needs it to win. The list is ranked by its trend score, which rewards high win rates, more games and stretches that agree, and subtracts what the price already expects, so a 5-for-5 run doesn't outrank a 30-for-34 one. Roughly, the score is how many points more often the bet has won than its price needs, after discounting short runs: 15+ is very strong, 8+ strong, 3+ good, and below 0 it isn't beating its price. A trend ignores who the opponent is, and scanning thousands of lines always finds some that look great by luck. Treat it as a place to start looking, not a reason to bet.

07The ladder

Open “Details” on any trend to see its ladder: the same bet at other numbers. Kansas City +6.5 wins more often than Kansas City −3.5, so it pays less. The ladder replays each number over the same games, surest first, and shows the best price wherever a book offers that number. The price is green when the record beats what the price needs.

08Line moves and splits

Every line opens somewhere and moves as money comes in or news breaks. Line moves shows where each one opened and where it is now. Betting Splits shows the share of bets (each ticket counts once) and the share of money on each side: when a side has more of the money than the bets, fewer people are betting it bigger. Labels like “Books moved together” (five or more books moving the same way within 20 minutes) or “Moved against the bets” (the line moved toward the side fewer people are on) flag moves worth a second look. None of them is a tip.

09Games like tonight

Every bet's page has “Games like tonight”: one button for each way tonight's game looks (at home or on the road, the favorite or the underdog, after a win or a loss, a back-to-back, this opponent, a normal night's playing time). Tap one and the record and the ladder count only past games that looked the same. Small samples get small fast: 4 of 4 is a start, not proof.

Spreads and totals also show each past game's own closing line: “covered” there means the team beat the spread it actually had that day, not today's number.

10Situations

Situations count how a kind of spot has gone across a whole league this season and last: home underdogs, favorites coming off a loss, the second night of a back-to-back, the side with 70% or more of the bets, lines that moved toward a team. Each is graded against the closing line. Spreads and totals count at −110, which needs 52.4% to break even; “betting $100 each time” adds up what that would have won or lost. The list also names the games coming up that fit. A spot that won last season can stop winning this one.

11Vig, win either way and bonus bets

Every price has the book's cut built in: the vig. At −110 on both sides it's 4.5%. Put $50 on each side and you get $95.45 back whichever wins. Taking each side at whichever book pays most for it shrinks the vig, often to 2% or less. The Price finder lists the cheapest books and bets.

Sometimes the best prices on the two sides add up to less than 100%: split your money the right way and you win either way, a little. It doesn't last. Prices move within minutes, and books can limit an account or cancel a bet priced by mistake.

A bonus bet pays only the winnings, not the stake. To turn one into cash, bet it on a long shot at one book and cover the other side with real money at another, so you keep about the same whichever wins. The bonus-bet calculator finds the best pair; 70% to 80% of the bonus is a typical keep.

12Sharp money and futures

Sharp money lists single trades of $10,000 or more on Polymarket and Kalshi, as they land, and how much money is on each game. Trades there are public; sportsbook bets aren't. A big trade is someone's opinion with money behind it, not a tip.

Futures are season-long bets: who wins the title, a conference, a division, an award. The chance is the middle of what traders pay on Polymarket and Kalshi; the price is what it costs to buy now, fee included.

13Defense vs position and bets that win together

Defense vs position (NFL) adds up what every quarterback, running back, receiver or tight end has done against a defense, per game, and ranks it against the league's 32: “the 2nd most passing yards” is an easy matchup for a quarterback. Player pages show it for the next opponent, with the last ten players at the position to face it.

“Bets that win together” on player pages pairs a player's bet with teammates' bets: when one won, how often the other did, against its usual rate. Useful for a same-game parlay; it doesn't say why, and books price those parlays with the link in mind.

14The fine print

For entertainment. Not financial advice. 21+ only. Nothing here is a guarantee and past results don't predict future ones. Polymarket's main site is closed to US traders; the US exchange is polymarket.us. Prediction-market sports contracts are not legal in every state. If gambling stops being fun, call 1-800-GAMBLER.