The bigger a favorite a team is, the less it will pay out on a winning bet. Lest one thinks that this is going to be easy money because some teams are clearly better than others, the bookmakers get around this by controlling the size of the payouts for winning bets.
If the team you picked loses the game, you lose the bet no matter if it's by one point or 50. As such, it doesn't matter if the team you selected wins by one point or 100. To collect your winnings on a moneyline bet, you just need to correctly pick the winning team. With a moneyline bet, you are not betting on the spread, which is a wager based on the projection of the difference in points between the two teams in the final score. A minus (-) sign tells you which team is favored while a plus (+) sign is placed next to the name of the team that is the underdog. Very popular for its simplicity, a moneyline bet in basketball is a wager on which team you think will win the game.
