Moneyline

What a moneyline is

A moneyline wager is the simplest wager on a game: pick the team that wins. There is no margin to cover. Instead of a handicap, the book prices the difference between the teams into the odds. The favorite carries a negative number and pays less than even money; the underdog carries a positive number and pays more.

Moneylines are the building block of many parlays, because several favorites strung together multiply into a bigger price. They are also where the gap between a lopsided matchup and an even one shows most clearly, since a heavy favorite can pay only a small fraction of the stake. In the NFL, a game that ends tied after overtime is typically treated as a push on the moneyline under most books' rules.

An example

The home team is -250 and the visitors are +210. A bettor who risks $250 on the home team wins $100 if they win. A bettor who risks $100 on the visitors wins $210 if the upset happens. The same game on the point spread might be home -6.5, priced near even on both sides, because the spread does the work the price does here.

How Speed Survivor is different

In Speed Survivor, who wins the game is not the question. A contest runs through twelve live yes-or-no questions about what happens along the way, generated from the score, the clock, possession and momentum. A correct answer scores base points plus a speed bonus, and a heavy favorite on the field changes nothing about what a correct answer earns.

There is no house and no price. Speed Labs takes no position; entrants play each other for a pool funded by the entries, and the survivors split it the same night. How it works has the details.