What is the line in gambling?

Answer 1

The line is the number of points that the favored team should beat the underdog team by. This is not a truly accurate indication of how much they should win by, but rather a number put up by the sports book to attempt to get an even amount of betting for both teams. For example, if a sports book thinks that Denver will beat San Francisco by 10 points, they will set the line at 9 1/2 points or 10 1/2 points. If the betting goes heavily for Denver, the line will move down to encourage San Francisco bettors. If the reverse is true, the line will move up. You can gauge how the betting is going by checking the line daily.