Let's say that you want to bet on this weekend's Dallas Cowboys vs Denver Broncos football game. The line currently looks like this:
Denver Broncos, -9, -110
Dallas Cowboys, +9, -110
So, according to this line, if you wanted to take the Cowboys plus the 9 points, a successful $110 wager would yield a total profit of $100.
- let's say that you wanted to "buy some points" on the Cowboys. Depending on how many points you wanted to buy, the lines might look like this:Dallas Cowboys, +10, -175
Dallas Cowboys, +11, -225
Dallas Cowboys, +12, -285
Dallas Cowboys, +13, -355
Dallas Cowboys, +14, -455
*this is just a hypothetical example - the numbers will not be perfect*
So, let's say that you wanted to take the Cowboys plus 14 points. This would mean that if the Broncos won 33-20, you would still win your bet.
In this case, buying an extra five points would cost you dearly. In order to have a chance of winning $100 in profit back, you would need to wager $455. This is much more expensive than the Dallas Cowboys +9, -110 line, which would mean that you would need to bet $110 in order to win $100 back.
This is the practice of "buying points" - the more points that you buy, the more it will cost you when it comes time to place a wager.