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"Against the spread," almost always shortened to ATS, is how sports bettors talk about wagers tied to a point spread rather than a straight-up winner. When someone says a team is "8-3 ATS this season," they mean that team has covered the spread eight times and failed three times across eleven games, regardless of whether they actually won those games. You can find a quick explainer of what ATS is, along with other terms, in our Sports Betting Terms Glossary.
This guide covers what ATS means in practice, how ATS records work, the math behind covering the spread, and the most common mistakes bettors make when they treat ATS as a predictive signal.
"Against the spread" is shorthand for a bet placed on the point spread, as opposed to a moneyline bet. A moneyline bet asks one question: which team wins? An ATS bet asks something different: did the favorite win by enough, or did the underdog keep it close enough, to beat the handicap set by the sportsbook?
The favorite is listed with a minus sign, the underdog with a plus sign:
For the full breakdown of how spreads work mechanically — laying points, taking points, key numbers, half-points — read our guide on what a point spread is. The rest of this post focuses on what ATS specifically means when you hear it.
An ATS record is a running count of how many times a team has covered the spread versus failed to cover, across a season or some other window. You'll see it written like a regular win-loss record, with "ATS" tacked on:
Detroit Lions: 7-3-1 ATS (last 11 games)
That breakdown:
The ATS record can look very different from the team's straight-up (SU) record. A 10-6 team might be 7-9 ATS, winning often but failing to live up to oddsmakers' expectations. A 6-10 team might be 11-5 ATS, losing often but keeping games closer than the lines suggested.
"Straight up" means the actual outcome. Who won the game. "Against the spread" means whether the team beat the handicap. These two records tell different stories:
Sharp bettors care more about ATS records than SU records because the line already accounts for talent. The ATS record tells you whether the line is mispricing the team.
A team covers when the final score, adjusted for the spread, lands in their favor. A few examples to lock in the mechanics:
Lions -6.5 vs Chiefs +6.5. Final: Lions 27, Chiefs 21.
Lions -3 vs Chiefs +3. Final: Lions 24, Chiefs 21.
Push bets count as ties in ATS records (the "1" in 7-3-1). They don't help or hurt your win rate, but they affect bankroll math because you've tied up money for no return.
At standard -110 odds, you need to cover at least 52.4% of your spread bets to break even, since you're risking $110 to win $100. A 7-3 ATS run is impressive on its face, but smaller samples can swing wildly with normal variance. Most sharp ATS analysis looks at full seasons or multi-season windows.
An ATS record is a useful summary, but it's also lossy. Two things to keep in mind:
Sample size matters. A 7-3 record after 10 games sounds strong, but 10 games isn't enough to establish a real edge. A team could go 7-3 ATS purely by variance. Conclusions usually require 50+ games in the same situation.
Context disappears in the number. A 7-3 ATS built by blowing out bad teams looks identical to a 7-3 ATS built by covering as a road underdog in tough spots. The second is much more informative about how the team performs against the line, but the raw record can't tell you which one it is.
Most bettors who lean on ATS records as a primary signal either ignore these limits or use the number as a starting point for deeper situational research, not the deciding factor.
The phrase "against the spread" is universal in US sports betting, but how it functions varies by sport:
NFL and college football. ATS is the dominant framing because point spreads are the dominant bet type. Key numbers (3, 7) mean ATS results cluster around specific margins, and small line moves matter a lot. Most ATS analysis you'll read online is football-focused.
NBA and college basketball. ATS still applies, but key numbers are less pronounced because of higher scoring. Lines move often based on rest, injuries, and back-to-back schedules.
MLB. The spread in baseball is the run line, almost always set at -1.5/+1.5. ATS records in baseball reflect run-line outcomes, so a team that's 90-72 ATS was winning by 2+ runs (or losing by 1) most of the time. More on MLB bet types here.
NHL. Same structure as MLB. The puck line is a fixed -1.5/+1.5 spread, so ATS in hockey is essentially puck-line performance.
If you take one thing away from this post, take this: ATS records are descriptive, not predictive. They tell you what already happened. They don't guarantee what comes next.
A few practical ways to use ATS without falling into the obvious traps:
"A team that's 8-2 ATS is a good bet." Past ATS performance is already priced into future lines. By the time a team has a strong ATS record, the market has adjusted, and the spread is harder to beat.
"ATS records mean a team is good or bad." ATS records measure performance against the line, not absolute talent. An elite team (15-2 SU) can be mediocre ATS (8-9 ATS) because they've been overpriced all season.
"You should bet teams with strong ATS records." Tail-chasing a hot ATS trend is one of the most common bettor mistakes. The better question is why the ATS record is strong: favorable spots, scheme advantages, undervalued personnel. Bet the reason, not the record.
ATS stands for "against the spread." It refers to bets placed on the point spread, as opposed to the moneyline or total. A team's ATS record tracks how often they've covered the spread, not how often they've won the game outright.
SU ("straight up") is the team's actual win-loss record. ATS ("against the spread") is the team's record relative to the point spread. A 10-6 team might be 7-9 ATS, meaning they win often but fail to cover the spread oddsmakers set for them. The two numbers can move in opposite directions.
A push happens when the favorite wins by exactly the spread number, or the underdog loses by it exactly (only possible on whole-number spreads). Both sides get their money back. In ATS records, pushes are tracked as the third digit, e.g., "7-3-1 ATS" means seven covers, three failures, one push.
The break-even threshold at standard -110 odds is roughly 52.4%. A team or bettor that hits 55% ATS over a meaningful sample (100+ bets) is profitable. Anything in the 53-57% range is strong. Sharps who consistently hit 58%+ over thousands of bets are rare.
Not directly. ATS records are descriptive and historical. Sportsbooks adjust lines based on past performance, so a team with a strong ATS record will face tougher spreads going forward. The record by itself is not predictive. Situational subsets within it (home/road, divisional, weather) are more informative.
Major sportsbook apps display ATS records on team pages. Sports data sites like Action Network, TeamRankings, and Covers also track ATS by team, situation, and split. For your personal ATS record, Pikkit calculates it automatically as you bet, broken down by sport, bet type, and sportsbook.
"Against the spread" sounds technical until you realize it's just shorthand for the bet most US sports bettors place every week. The ATS record is a backward-looking summary of how a team has done against the lines oddsmakers set for them. Useful for context, dangerous as a standalone signal.
If you want to know whether you're actually profitable ATS, not just remember the wins and forget the losses, download Pikkit and let your bet tracker do the math.
