What Is A PUSH In Totals Or Point Spread Betting?
PUSH is more than a simple word to indicate how to open a door – it’s actually a sports betting term. When the point spread or totals bet you make hits the exact number set by oddsmakers, it’s a PUSH. You can tell by the capital letters that it’s an important wagering term. Capital letters mean business!
Sports Betting PUSH
Totals bets are popular in football and basketball because they allow you to wager on the total combined number of points scored by both teams. A traditional totals bet involves a bettor deciding if the total will be OVER or UNDER the number set by oddsmakers.
Totals odds for an NFL game would look something like this:
New England Patriots vs New York Jets
54.5 OVER
54.5 UNDER
If you took the OVER, it means you think the Pats and Jets are going to score 55 or more points between them – and let’s be real here, most of those points will probably come from New England.
If you took the UNDER, it means you think the Pats and Jets aren’t going to score more than 54 points.
Let’s pretend that the Patriots put on a clinic against the Jets – we really don’t need to pretend that hard – and the final combined score was 57. If you took the OVER, you would’ve won your bet.
However, if the totals odds for the same game looked like this, you could have a PUSH on your hands:
New England Patriots vs New York Jets
58 OVER
58 UNDER
If the total combined score was 58, then neither OVER nor UNDER bettors would win their wagers and your money is refunded. This is a PUSH and luckily sportsbooks don’t fine you for them because it’s not your fault that the total combined score hit the number exactly.
It’s the exact same idea for a point spread bet. If New England is favored by 10 points over New York and wins the game 30-20, that would also result in a PUSH. Because the Patriots won by exactly 10 points, you would get your money back.
What happens if there’s a PUSH in your Parlay?
Although “PUSH in your Parlay” sounds like the name of an erotic novel, it’s actually a somewhat common occurrence in sports betting. A parlay is when you make multiple wagers on one ticket. Each bet has to win in order for you to cash in on your parlay. If one of the bets on your ticket ends in a PUSH, then it is simply removed from your parlay. So, if you had a four-team parlay going and one of those bets ended in a PUSH, you’d now be left with a three-team parlay.
Is a Push a Loss?
No. Nor is it a win. For any bet that pushes, the bettor simply receives back all of the money he/she wagered, and does not have to forfeit any of the vig.
So, Who Wins?
In a push situation…
Neither party wins nor loses — the wager is simply refunded to the bettor so that he or she breaks even on their bet.
So pushes aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Usually, the worst thing about them is the time spent betting and watching the game only to breakeven.
The nice thing is that bettors are not punished for pushes by the sportsbook. Bettors never lose money on a push.
How To Avoid a Push Betting Result
Let’s be honest, a push result is almost always disappointing.
Fortunately, there are ways to avoid them!
A lot of times, you will see sportsbooks adding a ‘.5’, or a half-point to their totals so that a push cannot occur. This works because there is no such thing as half a point in a sporting event.