my picks cover the spread? Not a good start for my bracket.Jim

Can you explain that ?
i don't understand you..

Romano
Here in the US, we all get brackets for the NCAA tournament (a single elimination tournament). Everyone enters their annual office pool where you complete the entire bracket, projecting who will advance through each round until you have a final champion.

CB's suggestion is merely a joke, indicating he picked several upset victories that came close but did not happen. His teams he picked covered the point spread, but did not advance in the tournament.

For those of you who do not know the real meaning of the point spread, let someone who grew up helping his grandfather sort out sports parlay cards (illegal at the time) fill you in.

The spread has nothing to do with the number of points the oddsmaker feels the favorite will win by. It's set to the number of points the oddsmaker feels will result in the public betting an equal amount of money on each team. Since the bookies make their money on the "vig" (a misnomer for their service charge) - they want to have enough coming in on the loser to cover their payout, after service charges are deducted, on the the winner.

The reason the line changes (or "moves") up until game time is reflective on the amount of money bet on each team up until then. As one team gets a lot of "play", they adjust the odds to make it more attractive to bet on the other team. Remember - the objective is to get an equal amount bet on each team. When the betting is way out of balance, they lay off bets with other bookies to cover the possibility of taking a bath.

If you think bookies lose a lot of money when there is a huge upset (a common misconception), you're wrong.

BTW - the real "vig" (short for "vigorish") is the interest rate a loan shark charges, usually just a liiiiiitle above prime. ;)

I always forget that everyone out there didn't grow up with gambling. But thanks for the lesson anyway, Mark.
Now if you would just come out here to Nevada you could bet those parlay cards legally!
And you are exactly right about how the line gets adjusted. A bit more detail for you: each casino out here has their own sportsbook and their own threshold on when to adjust the spread. They differ based on the size of the casino. For example, it takes $300,000 to move the spread a point at the Hilton, but only $50,000 at some of the smaller casinos in the area. So if you pay attention to the move since the line opened you can see what the general public's view of the game is.

I think i'm going to visit you in NEVADA..
can i come?...
all this stuff is new for me.

Its always seemed to me that on the big money events, amateur public sporting/gambling opinion drives the spread. On the lower money events, its the more studious gamblers that bother to get involved and the spread should more closely reflect what is safely predictable. If the spread is off in a small money event, more money will go there from the students of the game and gambling, and the spread will come around to more approximate what studious observers predict will actually happen.

A question from a complete gambling amateur
 

I've always wondered about the moving spread.

If I bet when the spread is 3 points does my spread move if the overall spread moves or am I "locked in" with a 3 point spread?

You get what you bet - it's not like the track. Oddsmakers make all that money by correctly predicting the spread so it doesn't move too much. If it moves, the house has more risk.

So, Hawks, what's the spread on this Friday's AAU game? ;)

I can't bet on my own games (AAU invoked the Pete Rose rule), but I am taking the "over" on the number of throw-back jerseys my players will get for free if we win (as a result of the academic performance during the game).

Hawks Coach: We were discussing some upcoming AAU tournaments at our association meeting this past Monday. Is your team playing anything within the next 2-3 weeks? I think they said the qualifying rounds are coming up soon.

We will probably avoid the Potomac Valley region for the next month until the regional tournament. We plan to surprise a few teams with what we bring. We played a jamboree (read: foul-fest) at Mt Vernon to get warmed up last weekend, and now probably won't be back in the area until our regional tournament in May. We go to Bethlehem Pa this weekend, may hit York, PA or Baltimore in two weeks, and probably Red Lion, PA at the end of the month. So maybe we'll see some of these PA refs on the board.

For our regional tourney, we have a PG county host, so the next VA tournament we will do will probably be the Vogues tourney on Memorial Day. If you are around, we may see you there.

Also, we are thinking strongly about YBOA nationals in Polk County FL, if anybody is heading down there.

:D

I plan to be at the Vogues tournament. I have finished my work in CA that caused me to miss the entire season, except for 2 games. I have a lot of catching-up to do. Good luck in your tournaments.