Against the Spread (ATS) Explained: A Beginner's Guide

BlindSpread · October 1, 2026

If you have ever looked at an NFL matchup and wondered what "against the spread" means, you are not alone. It is one of the most common questions people ask when they join their first football pool, and it sounds more complicated than it is. This guide explains what against the spread means in plain English, with concrete examples you can follow even if you have never seen a point spread before.

Run this with your league: start a free BlindSpread pool in 30 seconds - one link, no spreadsheet.

What "Against the Spread" Actually Means

When someone picks a team "against the spread" (shortened to ATS), they are judging the team against the point spread, not just whether it won or lost. A team can win the game but lose against the spread. A team can also lose the game but win against the spread. That sounds strange until you see how the spread works.

The spread is a number set before the game that gives the underdog a head start and makes the favorite start from behind. Instead of asking "who will win," the spread asks "by how much will the favorite win," and that is a much harder question.

How to Read a Spread: Chiefs -3.5 vs Raiders

Imagine the line reads Chiefs -3.5 vs Raiders. The minus sign tells you the Chiefs are the favorite, and 3.5 is the spread. The Chiefs must win by more than 3.5 points (4 or more) to "cover the spread." The Raiders (listed as +3.5) are the underdog. The Raiders cover if they win outright or lose by fewer than 3.5 points (3 or fewer).

Here is how three final scores shake out:

• Chiefs 27, Raiders 20. The Chiefs won by 7, which is more than 3.5. The Chiefs covered. A pick on the Chiefs ATS wins.
• Chiefs 24, Raiders 23. The Chiefs won by only 1, which is less than 3.5. The Chiefs failed to cover. A pick on the Raiders ATS wins, even though the Raiders lost the game.
• Raiders 21, Chiefs 17. The Raiders won outright. An underdog that wins outright always covers.

The .5 is called "the hook." It exists so the game cannot end in a tie against the spread, since no team can score half a point. Spreads with a whole number, like -3, can produce a push, which we will explain below.

What "Covering the Spread" Means

"Covering" is the key verb. The favorite covers by winning by more than the spread. The underdog covers by losing by less than the spread or winning outright. Here is one more example to lock it in: with a line of Bills -7 vs Jets, a 30-20 Bills win means the Bills covered (won by 10, more than 7). A 24-20 Bills win means they did not cover (won by 4, less than 7), so a pick on the Jets ATS wins. Notice the pattern: an ATS pick does not require your team to win. It just requires your team to do better than the spread expected. That is why "ATS" is a different question from "who will win," and why so many football pools use it. It keeps every game competitive for pool players, even the blowouts.

Why Do Spreads Exist?

Spreads exist to level the playing field between mismatched teams. Without a spread, picking winners would be boring: everyone would pick the better team, and only the close games would matter. The spread turns every matchup into a fair question. If the best team plays the worst team, everyone knows who wins. But will the favorite win by 3 or by 17? That is a genuine puzzle, and the spread is the market's best guess at the answer. Your job in an ATS pool is to make your own guess and see how close you get.

Favorites, Underdogs, and Pick'Em

Every spread game has a favorite and an underdog, with one exception:

• The favorite is shown with a minus sign (Chiefs -3.5). The favorite must win by more than the spread to cover.
• The underdog is shown with a plus sign (Raiders +3.5). The underdog covers by winning outright or losing by less than the spread.
• Pick'Em is the exception. When teams are so evenly matched that there is effectively no spread, the game is listed as "PK" or "pick'em," and you simply pick the winner.

A Quick Way to Remember It

The minus sign is a burden and the plus sign is a gift. The favorite carries the burden of winning big. The underdog gets the gift of a head start. When you guess a spread, you are guessing how big that burden should be.

What Is a Push?

A push happens when the final margin lands exactly on a whole-number spread. If the line is Chiefs -3 and the Chiefs win 27-24, the margin is exactly 3, which is neither more nor less than the spread. The result is a push: nobody wins the ATS pick, and in most pools it is treated as a tie. Spreads with a .5 on the end (like -3.5) can never push, which is why you see them so often.

What Does -110 Mean?

You will often see a number like -110 next to a spread. In one line: -110 is the standard price of a spread wager, meaning you would risk $110 to win $100, and you can ignore it completely for pick'em pools because there is no money on the line. It has nothing to do with which team is favored or by how much. Since BlindSpread and most friendly pools do not involve wagering, -110 never comes up. We mention it only so it does not confuse you when you see it elsewhere.

ATS vs. Straight Up (and Why It Matters in Pools)

"Straight up" means picking the winner with no spread involved. "Against the spread" means picking the team that covers. The difference matters in pool play. In a straight-up pool, picking the Chiefs to beat the Raiders is an easy call most weeks, and everyone picks the same teams. In an ATS pool, picking the Chiefs -3.5 means deciding whether they win by 4 or more, which splits the group. Some take the Chiefs, some take the Raiders plus the points, and the pool stays competitive all season.

There is a third category worth knowing: the over/under, or total. Instead of picking a side, you pick whether the combined score of both teams will be over or under a number like 45.5. Many pools, including BlindSpread, let you pick both the spread and the total for each game. If you run a league, a complete guide to running an NFL pick'em pool covers which formats keep the most people engaged.

Common Beginner Mistakes

A few traps catch almost everyone who is new to against the spread. Knowing them in advance will save you some embarrassment in your first pool.

1. Reading the minus sign backward. Chiefs -3.5 means the Chiefs are favored, not the Raiders. The minus sign sticks to the favorite. Double-check which team has it before you lock in a pick.
2. Forgetting the underdog can lose and still cover. This is the most confusing idea in ATS. If the Raiders lose 24-23, they covered +3.5. Losing the game and winning ATS are completely different things.
3. Assuming a big favorite is a safe ATS pick. A 10-point favorite still has to win by 11 to cover, and big favorites fail to cover all the time. The spread already accounts for the talent gap. Your job is to judge whether the gap is exactly right, too big, or too small.
4. Treating a push as a loss. If your pick pushes, it is a tie, not a loss. Whole-number spreads produce pushes, and pools handle them as neutral results.

Now Test Yourself: Guess the Spread Blind

Reading about spreads is easy. Setting one yourself is hard. Can you look at Chiefs vs Raiders and guess, without any help, whether the line should be 3.5, 6.5, or a pick'em? That is the actual skill, and most fans overestimate how good they are at it until they try. That is the whole idea behind BlindSpread. Instead of seeing the line and picking a side, you guess the spread and the total for each game from scratch. The line stays hidden until you submit, and then you see how close you got. Score within 1.5 points of the real line for 2 points, or within 2.5 points for 1 point. No money, no wagering, just your football instincts against the market.

Start Your Free Group and Put It to the Test

The fastest way to learn against the spread is to play it with people you know. BlindSpread is free: create a private group, share the invite link or code, and everyone in your group guesses the lines for each week's games before kickoff. Friends, coworkers, family, your fantasy league group chat, anyone. There is nothing to install and no money involved, so the only thing on the line is bragging rights.

If you are the one organizing, start with our guide to starting a free NFL pick'em pool in 30 seconds, which walks through creating your group and sending the invite. Then guess your first spreads blind, watch the lines reveal after you submit, and see who in your crew actually knows ball. The spread will make a lot more sense after your first week of guessing it yourself.

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