[Crapgame]

The question is obviously more rhetorical than anything. That works for gamblers who have access to casinos and sportsbooks, but what of the millions of Americans who like to make a wager on a winner, like the millions who make the weekly bets in college and NFL football. The vast majority of them are straight up bets.

[Dr. Sivana]

The vast majority of them are straight up bets.

I doubt that. As a 14 year old kid I made bets with my best friends, and of course we used point spreads. How else could you have bet on a game like Oakland (13-1 record) against Philadelphia (3-11)? $2 tickets where you pick four winners against the spread were pretty standard. There was only one office pool without point spreads, and it was based on picking the most straight up winners, which mainly meant picking upsets. That pool was run by girls.

And of course, you can have ties even with the point spread. I remember there was a Dallas-Pittsburgh Super Bowl where the Steelers won 35-31 with a four point spread. I was convinced that at least that game wasn't rigged, as even the vig is returned with a tie.

The reason football needs point spreads is because there are so many blowouts. A top NFL team can goes 13-3, and a crappy one goes 3-13. It is not like baseball where even the best teams don't do much better than 6 out of 10.

[PallMal]

The question is obviously more rhetorical than anything. That works for gamblers who have access to casinos and sportsbooks, but what of the millions of Americans who like to make a wager on a winner, like the millions who make the weekly bets in college and NFL football. The vast majority of them are straight up bets.

In Britain and in the Commonwealth countries, soccer matches are bet on by the majority of the public by using something called "the pools".

The pools, explained.