Gambling 101: What Is A Backdoor Cover?
Welcomed by the winning side, and dreaded by the losing side, sports betting tickets sometimes end with backdoor covers. This is the term we are breaking down today on Sports Illustrated's Gambling 101. Back door cover often occurs when a team scores points, usually late in a game, that causes one side to cover the point spread. It can occur with favorites or underdogs and bettors on the losing side often refer to them as a bad beat. Points scored late, that doesn’t affect the outright winner, can still create a backdoor cover.
While backdoor covers can affect all sorts of wagers, in virtually any sport, they are common in the NFL and US college football.
For example, lets go back to Week 2 of the 2019 NCAA football season.
- The National Champion Clemson was a 16.5 point favorite over Texas A&M. The Tigers were up 24-3 but tossed an interception and a 91-yard drive by the Aggies -resulted in a touchdown with six seconds left on the clock.
Texas A&M tickets cashed as a backdoor cover.
It never feels good to lose but losing a bet in the last few seconds of a game, just hurts a little more. To help you bet smarter make sure your bookmark Sports Illustrated's glossary of terms and tune in for another Gambling 101 here on SI.com.
