What does ATS (Against The Spread) mean in betting?

Contents:

1. What does “against the spread” actually mean?
2. How spread betting works in practice
3. Examples of betting against the spread
4. Example in football
5. NFL game example
6. Understanding ATS records and team performance
7. How spread betting appears in different sports
8. Football and college football
9. Basketball leagues (NBA and NCAA)
10. Baseball and hockey variations
11. Spread betting vs picking the winner
12. Pros and cons of against the spread betting
13. Pros
14. Cons
15. Tips for analysing spread trends
16. FAQs
17. What does ATS mean in sports betting?
18. What is an ATS record?
19. Is betting the spread different from moneyline betting?

If you are reading this, then this is likely your first time using a sportsbook and are trying to figure out what the “ATS” means on the line. Betting against the spread (ATS) is what modern sports wagering is based on. Unlike simply trying to pick the winner of the game, when you wager against the spread, you are attempting to pick which team will win by more points than the number that the sportsbook has listed. This allows for more competitive games between teams with drastically different levels of ability, and it also allows the sportsbook to create a more level market for the bettor.

Despite popular belief, many gamblers feel the moneyline is the way to go on heavy favourites. However, the moneyline odds are very unbalanced and when you compare the Athletic Spread (ATS) to them, you will see that it offers a far more even and very profitable contest. In fact, when you look at the long-term statistics, you will see that underdogs have won against the point spread in basketball, football and hockey almost 50% of the time. The following text is a primer on the ATS for basketball, football and hockey as well as tips on reading team trends to help any gambler get the best chance to come out with a profit when visiting any sportsbook.

In the sports betting industry, the term ATS stands for Against The Spread. It is a term that is used to describe the result of a game in basketball, football, baseball, or any other sport that can be played against a predetermined point spread. The point spread is a number that is given to a team before the game is played. This number is meant to equalise the chances of winning between two teams that are perceived to have different levels of ability.

Understanding the scope of the sportsbook industry and learning what ATS (Against The Spread) means is crucial to building a complete understanding of sports betting. So, let’s start with the basics. ATS is short for Against The Spread. Essentially, the point spread that is given to the team that is expected to lose the game by the oddsmakers is referred to as the ATS. In layman’s terms, the point spread that is given to the underdog and the points that are taken away from the favourite in a game is called the ATS. So, in every game there will be a Favourite and an Underdog. The sportsbook will give points to the underdog and take points away from the Favourite.

When PASPA was repealed in 2018, a whole new wave of sportsbooks like BetMGM and Pinnacle started to use the point spread in order to create a market where the action on each side of the game is equal. When we used to bet on the moneyline or against the spread (ATS), we were worried about the implications of our bet on the final record of the team we were betting. Now, when we are worried about the margin of victory, and only how the team we are betting on will perform against the spread. And that is a completely different conversation.

What does “against the spread” actually mean?

One of the common pitfalls that young gamblers fall into is mistakenly believing that “against the spread” (ATS) means to bet the underdog. This is simply not true. Betting a game “against the spread” merely means that you are betting the point spread, regardless of whether you choose the favourites or the underdogs.

When we talk about “backing the favourite to win against the spread”, we are saying that we believe that the Favourite will win by more points than the spread allows. Conversely, “backing the underdog to win against the spread” means that we believe the Underdog will win outright or by less than the amount of points listed in the spread. When communicating with casual non-technical bettors, the phrase “with the spread” is often used to describe the Favourite in a given matchup, but in the context of the larger conversation, “against the spread” is almost always the term of choice when discussing the Favourite and the Underdog. It is also important to keep this in mind when reviewing so-called “expert picks” and when building out your own models.

See also: What does Spread mean in Betting? Understanding point Spreads and how to bet them

How spread betting works in practice

The point spread of a game is listed at the sportsbook with special notation. The minus sign (-) is listed next to the point spread of the favourite, and the plus sign (+) is listed next to the point spread of the underdog. The minus sign indicates that the favourite must win by more than the spread in order for the bet to lose, while the plus sign indicates that the underdog can lose by less than the spread and still win the bet.

Knowing the point margin for the specific wager is only half the battle. Next, you’ll want to know the odds, which are also referred to as the juice or vig. Most of the time, for an ATS (Against The Spread) wager, the standard odds will be -110, which means in order to win $100, you have to risk $110. The vig is essentially what makes the sportsbooks money.

It’s quite common to see a “half point” line on sports, such as -6.5 instead of -7. The half point is the Sportsbook’s way of eliminating what is called a “push”. A push occurs when the final score of a contest ends up on the point spread. If you have a team favoured by 7 points and the game ends up 7 to 0 in favour of the favoured team, there is no winner, and the game has pushed. In this situation the bet is automatically returned to the original wager, and no action is taken.

Examples of betting against the spread

If you have read some of the pages on this site you may be ready for some of the more advanced ideas that are applicable to spread betting. Again, though, we strongly recommend that you become familiar with the basics of the ATS by focusing on individual sports lines and trends using true games for reference. Examples from two of the most popular sports to wager are provided on this page.

Example in football

I want to examine a typical college football game between a heavy favourite and heavy underdog. To do this I choose a game that features the Ohio State Buckeyes at home against the Michigan Wolverines. Assume the following spread for this matchup:

• Ohio State -7.5 (-110)
• Michigan +7.5 (-110)

BET ON OHIO STATE TO WIN BY 8 OR MORE: If Ohio State wins by 8 or more points, your bet wins. If they win by only 7, then they fail to cover and you lose because of the half point.

If you were to take Michigan +7.5, there are a number of ways in which you can win. Michigan can win the game, or they can lose by one or two, three, four, five or six points. In the latter case you will be the underdog to win the point spread.

NFL game example

• Kansas City Chiefs -7 (-110)
• New York Jets +7 (-110)

This is a whole number. If you like the Chiefs, you want them to win by 8 or more. If you like the Jets, you want them to win outright or lose by 6 or less.

This week’s Chiefs-Bengals game will be the 11th time this season in which the point spread has been exactly 7. One of those previous instances was one in which the point spread was moved from 8 points from a key home game for one of the teams (the Chiefs). But the other 10 times this has occurred, including this week’s game between the Chiefs and Bengals, the teams have had two home games with the same point spread of exactly 7 and so a third possible score has been available. If Kansas City wins 28-21 in this week’s game against the Bengals, then the score will be 28-21, a margin of exactly 7 points. In that event, the game is a push.

See also: What does it mean to cover the spread? Understanding the concept in sports betting

Understanding ATS records and team performance

A team’s ATS record shows how many times a team has covered the point spread in a given time period. It has nothing to do with their actual win or loss record. It is just a record of how many times they have covered.

A SU record and ATS record are used often when describing a team’s performance against the point spread. An example of this reference would be if a team is 6-10 SU, but 11-5 ATS. Their 6-10 record means they have not had a very good season in terms of winning games on the field. But their 11-5 record against the point spread means they have been beating the spread often and therefore outperforming the number that was set by the sportsbooks and the opinion of the public of how they would fare in the contest.

An elite team may sit at 10-0 straight up, but 4-6 against the spread. We all know the public overvalues the best of the best, and that’s why the number is almost always increased to bring the point spread down to a competitive level. While betting strictly based on the ATS record of the teams involved isn’t the key to unlocking the sportsbook’s edge, it is a great place to start.

How spread betting appears in different sports

The concept of against the spread (ATS) betting is the same, but the applications vary widely from sport to sport. Different scoring systems, different game speeds and levels of randomness affect how the point spread is positioned by oddsmakers.

Football and college football

Football is by far the biggest market in spread betting. Football (Gridiron) has peculiar scoring rules: a touchdown is 6 points but with the possibility of two further points being added on for conversion or missed, which totals to 7 or 8 points per scoring action. Field goals are 3 points. As a result, key numbers have to be relied upon by the bookmakers to create the spread betting margin. These numbers tend to be 3, 7 and 10 points.

There is a huge discrepancy with respect to the level of talent between the teams that are involved in the game of college football, which contributes to some of the very large point spreads that we see on a weekly basis of 30 points or more. There is far less of a discrepancy between the talent level of the teams that play against each other in the NFL, which is why the majority of point spreads in the NFL tend to fall in the single digits to no more than 14 points.

Basketball leagues (NBA and NCAA)

Different ATS situations are created because of the high frequency of scoring and the relatively small units of change in the score. For example, in the NBA and the NCAA, the point spread generally falls in the four to twelve point range.

There are no real key numbers in basketball like there are in football with all the possessions and late-game free throws. Half points in basketball point spread moves are much more frequent in an attempt to eliminate any real chance of a push, which is almost unheard of in football point spread moves.

Baseball and hockey variations

Spread betting is a little bit different in lower-scoring sports such as baseball and hockey. Most spread betting action revolves around winning or losing, but the spread in baseball and hockey is called the point spread for hockey and the run line for baseball.

Most games are played for a single score so the run line is almost always posted at 1.5. Instead of a moving line, the point spread is in the form of odds. If the largest favourite is -1.5, but the odds are +130, then you are being paid to take the risk that your favourite wins by more than one run.

Spread betting vs picking the winner

The main distinction between ATS (Against The Spread) and moneyline wagers is one of risk and payoff. A moneyline wager is a simple pick of which team will emerge victorious in a given contest. It is easy to understand the concept of a moneyline wager, but the value of the payout for heavy favourites is often not so attractive (e.g. you must risk $300 to win only $100).

Spread betting disperses risk. Using a point spread enables the sportsbook to make the odds relatively even for both sides of the contest. Here are the major factors that differentiate the two.

Feature	Spread Betting (ATS)	Moneyline (Pick the Winner)
Core Objective	Bet on the margin (will a team win by 5 or by 12 for example)	Bet on which team is going to win regardless of the margin
Standard Odds	-110 on both sides, or close to it.	Huge disparity in odds based on team skill, such as -250 on one side and +200 on the other.
Team Evaluation	Break down the team’s ATS record, as well as their scoring habits.	Game Outright Win Probability looks at the team’s chances of winning the game on a standalone basis.
Sport Variations	Wagers on a game can change dramatically (e.g., run line to point spread to over/under).	Basic rules and outright winner conditions remain constant.
Tie Prevention	Often uses half-point hooks to eliminate pushes.	Allows for standard draws in soccer.

Pros and cons of against the spread betting

Like any wager, betting on point spread has its ups and downs.

Pros

• Symmetrical Value: Another example of how ATS provides a more symmetrical value is in the fact that it allows the bettor to take heavy favourites without having to risk an arm and a leg. The -110 odds that we see with sportsbooks provide a knowable return on investment (ROI).
• Underdog Value: Underdogs who are expected to keep a game competitive in a losing position are good wagers. We have found that a couple of variables in our data models are unexpected and in one instance they have changed the underdog’s chance of covering by 5-10%. We have also determined that the favourite’s star player being injured is a small factor in the underdog being more likely to cover.
• Late-Game Engagement: A huge aspect of spread betting is keeping late-game blowouts relevant. I’ve seen situations where a team is down by 14 with only one minute to go and they throw a meaningless touchdown to make the score 14-10, giving you an ATS cover.

Cons

• High Variance: Injuries, emergence of unexpected players or any late-breaking injury news or any other event which is commonly known as bad beats, which should take your initial calculation and resulting decision completely out of the equation.
• Complex Research Required: Unlike basic research for the point spread, complex research is required for ATS betting. The handicapper must gather much more information, including the point spread movement, the percentage of public action on each side and a team’s past performance versus the ATS.

Tips for analysing spread trends

To become a profitable ATS bettor you must look beyond the surface level of basic stats. Sharp sports bettors spend thousands of hours a year scouring the online marketplace in order to gain an understanding of the various factors that may impact the point spread of the game. The fact is, the public does not have the time to gain the extensive knowledge required in order to outlast and outbet sharp sports bettors on a consistent basis.

Isolate Situational ATS Records: The first step in the process is to isolate situational ATS records. As I said earlier in this blog, in today’s sports handicapping era, everyone in a thousand handicappers can’t help but throw around the team’s overall record in terms of being against the spread (ATS). The Against the Spread term simply means the team against whom the majority of public money has been bet. The concept is nothing more than counting the number of sides that the public chose to win a contest. The overall record is often misleading in terms of ATS. In this initial step, we simply want to isolate the situational ATS record of each team that we plan on handicapping. Take the various teams that you intend to handicap and identify their performance in the following situations: At Home.

Advantage #2: Scheduling and Rest: Teams that are coming off a bye will almost always be a better choice to cover. Teams getting the second game in a back-to-back are some of the worst cover plays in sports due to fatigue.

And finally, you want to wean them from dealing with the public. It’s just so easy to make a $10 bet on the Lakers and the Packers because that is where the vast majority of the public’s money is going. All the books in the world are competing to take as much of this action as possible and the final number on a popular team or high-scoring matchup is usually more points than it should be. So many young gamblers dream of the day that their book of business will be so lucrative that they will be paid more than they pay out, but again, no one stops to think about the other things they will have to do in order to make this a reality.

FAQs

What does ATS mean in sports betting?

ATS is an acronym for Against the Spread. A wager in which the gambler is looking to have the selected team cover the point spread or spread that is laid by the sportsbook. Typically, an ATS wager can be made on either the favoured team or the underdog in any given game.

What is an ATS record?

An ATS record is a record of the number of times a team has covered the point spread in a given time period. This is an important stat for bettors to use when determining a team’s level of performance relative to the Vegas consensus, rather than looking at their overall win/loss record.

Is betting the spread different from moneyline betting?

Yes, they are. A moneyline wager is a simple wager where you pick which team is going to win the game. A moneyline wager is called an inverse wager because the odds given to each team are inverses of each other, and not in direct proportion to the true chances of each team winning. A spread wager is a wager in which you pick which team is going to cover the spread or point differential. The sportsbook is able to give about even odds to each side of a wager (usually close to -110) which makes the wager more even and therefore fairer.