What a spread is
The spread is a handicap measured in points. The favourite starts the bet a set number of points behind; the underdog starts the same number in front. You are betting on the game after that adjustment, not on the scoreboard.
A spread is two numbers, not one
The line (−6.5) and the price (1.91, or −110 written the American way) are both part of the bet, and either can move without the other. "Chiefs −6.5" on its own is half a bet: the same side at a worse price is a different proposition, with the same games winning it and less coming back when they do.
When the result lands on the line
If the line is a whole number — −6, say — and the Chiefs win by exactly 6, nobody covers. The bookmaker voids the bet and returns the stake; a push, in the American phrase. The half point exists so that cannot happen. If it happens to a main pick, the day is re-run at no cost.
Baseball and hockey have spreads too, but they sit at a fixed 1.5 and get their own names: the run line and the puck line.
The archive
What the published price did in US sports
11,262 games in US sports that are over and carried a price when we wrote them up, between November 24, 2025 and November 6, 2026. Each count sits beside what it is out of, and the share is the one divided by the other.
| What | How often | Out of | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| The shorter price won | 7,058 | 10,936 | 64.5% |
| The favourite covered the handicap | 3,373 | 7,003 | 48.2% |
| The total went over | 5,518 | 11,236 | 49.1% |
| The home side won | 6,361 | 11,262 | 56.5% |
How they ended
Over 16,021 finished games in US sports whose result line says how it ended — the feed's own one-line verdict, not a reading of the play.
| What | How often | Out of | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Went past regulation | 1,212 | 16,021 | 7.6% |
| Settled on a shootout | 161 | 16,021 | 1.0% |
| Called before the end | 9 | 16,021 | 0.1% |
286 games landed exactly on the number — the handicap or the total — so they are in the counts they are out of and in neither result.
The prices counted here are DraftKings', as they stood when we last wrote each game up — one snapshot per game, near kick-off for almost all of them, and never a closing line. So this says what the published line did, not how it moved on the way there.
A season that happened. Nothing here predicts the next game, and none of it is advice.
Counted November 6, 2026.
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