Every NFL gameday comes with a handful of numbers most fans see but few stop to unpack. Here’s a plain-English walk through the three main lines, how odds work and what a bet slip is actually telling you.
Open a Steelers gameday guide and you’ll usually find a line near the top. For Week 6’s trip to Tampa, the Steel City Blitz guide listed it as Steelers -2.5, over/under 45.5. Those two numbers hold a surprising amount of information, and once you can read them, a lot of football talk starts to make more sense.
This guide breaks those numbers down, and it uses one real example of how to bet on Betway, a global operator, to show how the steps work on a bet slip. Betway is licensed in South Africa and its how-to page is written for that market, so the focus here is the process, not a recommendation. Your location sets your legal age and which operators are licensed to take bets. In Pennsylvania, that means being 21 or older and using an operator licensed in the state.
The Three Lines Every Fan Sees
The moneyline is the simplest. You pick who wins, and the margin doesn’t matter. The spread levels the field. With Steelers -2.5, Pittsburgh is the favorite and has to win by three or more points to “cover.” Tampa at +2.5 covers by winning outright or losing by one or two. The half point is deliberate, since it means a bet can’t land exactly on the number.
The total, or over/under, ignores who wins entirely. At 45.5, you’re looking at the combined score of both teams. Over means 46 or more points, and under means 45 or fewer. Same half-point logic applies.
Reading the Odds, American and Decimal
In the US, odds usually come in the American format. A minus sign shows how much you’d stake to win 100, so -150 means staking 150 to win 100. A plus sign shows what you’d win on a 100 stake, so +130 pays 130. Much of the world, including South Africa, uses decimal odds instead, which show your total return per unit staked.
The math is easy to convert. +150 in American odds equals 2.50 in decimal, so a $10 stake returns $25, which is $15 in profit plus your $10 back. And -200 equals 1.50, meaning a $10 stake returns $15. Learning to flip between the two formats makes odds easy to read anywhere.
Walking Through a Bet Slip
The steps for how to bet on Betway follow the same pattern as most online sportsbooks. You create an account, which includes identity verification and fund your balance. You find the game, then tap the odds for the outcome you want. That tap adds the selection to your bet slip.
The slip is where the real work happens. It shows your selection, the odds, a box for your stake and the potential return. Enter your stake, check that the return matches what you expect and confirm. Once a bet is placed, it shows up in your bet history, where you can follow it until the game is settled.
Slips can hold one selection or several. A single bet is one pick. A multi, also called a parlay or accumulator, links several picks and every leg has to land for it to pay. That makes the potential return bigger and the odds of landing it smaller, so it pays to know which one you’re building.
A Worked Example With Steelers Numbers
Take the line from SCB’s Steelers-Bucs gameday guide. Say the spread price is -110, a common price on either side. That’s about 1.91 in decimal, so a $10 stake on Steelers -2.5 would return roughly $19.10 if Pittsburgh covers. If it doesn’t, the stake isn’t returned. These numbers are for illustration only, since real prices vary by operator and move all week.
Notice what the example doesn’t tell you. It doesn’t say who will win, and neither does the line. A spread is a market price, not a forecast and it can move with injury news, weather and betting volume. The Week 6 guide itself listed several Steelers and Buccaneers players as questionable or out, which is exactly the kind of news that moves numbers.
Know Your Local Rules and Your Limits
Betting is a regulated business, and the numbers show how big it is where Steelers fans live. Pennsylvania’s Gaming Control Board reported that sports wagering handle reached $8.8 billion in 2025, up 5.19% from 2024’s $8.4 billion. That’s a lot of regulated activity, and it comes with rules: you must be 21 or older, you must be physically inside the state and you should use an operator the board has licensed.
Plan before you place anything. Decide a budget you’re comfortable treating as the cost of the entertainment, set deposit limits if your operator offers them and keep your stakes small while you learn. Betting works best as an extra layer on watching the game, not the reason to watch it.
So whether you’re studying how to bet on Betway as a worked example or just trying to make sense of the number at the top of a gameday guide, the skills are the same. Know the three lines, read the odds in either format, check the slip before you confirm and keep it fun.
