ENSign in

Terms · the vocabulary, defined

Terms

What buying a half point is

Buying a half point — Paying worse odds to move a line half a point in your favour. The exchange rate between points and price is the entire market.

The fair cost equals the probability of landing exactly on the number being crossed. Since margins are not uniformly likely, the fair cost varies enormously between numbers.

Two identical purchases Buying −3.5 to −3 in the NFL crosses the tallest bar in the distribution. Buying −8.5 to −8 crosses a fraction of it. Both display as 'half a point' and are frequently priced the same.

Where the standard rate is below what the underlying frequency justifies, this is one of the few genuinely available edges in football betting.

Here is the catch. Paying the standard rate at a number where the margin is rare is a straight transfer with no upside, and the standardisation is what makes it invisible.

What to do with it. Only buy through key numbers, and check the alternate ladder for the actual quoted rate.

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.

WhatHow oftenOut ofShare
The shorter price won7,05810,93664.5%
The favourite covered the handicap3,3737,00348.2%
The total went over5,51811,23649.1%
The home side won6,36111,26256.5%

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.

WhatHow oftenOut ofShare
Went past regulation1,21216,0217.6%
Settled on a shootout16116,0211.0%
Called before the end916,0210.1%

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.

Today's free pick (not the main pick)

Today's free pick, for your email

Team, bet, price and the hash it was sealed under, on this page the moment you send. Lose or win, it stays public.

Unlock today's pick in Telegram →Telegram channel: sealed picks and the record, 21+ →

or by email

Public record of the main pick, losses included: 115 won, 44 lost. See every pick

One free pick a day by email until you unsubscribe, in one click. 21+.

More Terms