Not all teams are made equal, and that’s the basic truth of the matter. Because of this simple fact, some games are won before they’ve even started. This happens when a typically weak team is set up against a particularly powerful team; the stronger team would easily win, and this creates a weird situation for bettors.
That’s because when bettors play on the favorite, the payout will be rather paltry. On the other hand, betting on the underdog simply doesn’t work because the odds are way too high. To counteract this, bookmakers came up with the spread bet. The spread bet levels the playing field by creating a point difference between the teams.
The point difference is the spread, and it favours the underdog, giving them an advantage, whilst also giving a disadvantage to the favorite. The way it works is that bets on the favorite only win when they score more points than the spread. Bets on the underdog win either if the underdog wins the match or loses with no less points than the spread.