What is a backdoor cover?

A backdoor cover is when you’re losing your spread bet, and near the end of the game, a meaningless play in the game covers the bet. Some people say you can only use “backdoor cover” when the underdog is the one that covers, but I’ve seen it used either way.

It’s one of the most exciting ways to win a bet…

Picture this example

You bet on Alabama is playing against Utah State. Since they’re huge underdogs, the spread is +23.5 for Utah State. You bet on the underdog.

Unfortunately, Alabama crushes Utah State early, and your bet isn’t looking good. With 50 seconds left in the game, Alabama is up 28-0. Utah State has the ball. There’s no chance to win, but they decide to go for the first down. Their wide receiver catches it, gets by the Alabama backup safety, and scores the touchdown. Alabama gets the ball next and kneels it to win 28-7. The touchdown didn’t make a difference in the game, but it made all the difference for your bet!

Can you backdoor cover with either the favorite or underdog?

A backdoor cover generally only refers to the underdog. The reason is the underdog scoring toward the end makes the score more meaningless to the game–kind of like the favorite team just let up and let them score. However, I’ve seen people use it when the favorite scores at the end.

For a favorite to backdoor cover, they’d have to be winning the game but not by enough to cover the spread. Let’s use our example above. Alabama is -23.5 against Utah State. This time, they’re only up 17-0 with 30 seconds left in the game. It looks like they’re going to win the game but lose the spread bet. But when they decide to “run the game out,” their running back breaks straight through Utah States’ defense for a 55 yard touchdown. The touchdown was meaningless to the game, but now Alabama is up 24-0 and covered the spread.

Some people wouldn’t consider this a backdoor cover since Alabama was the favorite, some people would still say the backdoor covered.

What is a meaningless score?

Since a “meaningless score,” is what makes a backdoor cover. What exactly does it mean? It’s really up to the person. Most of the time it will be obvious when someone claims they got a backdoor cover. The underdog hit a half-court three to cover the spread but lose the game by 14 to end the game. But what if a football team scores a touchdown to cover the spread, but they’re down 7 with a minute left.

You could argue it’s not meaningless because they still have time to potentially win the game. That example is going to be a little more subjective.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter because there’s no bonus money for a backdoor cover, just the added thrill that comes with it.

Are there easier ways to win than backdoor covers?

Backdoors covers are great, but also rare.

So what are easier ways to win money sports betting? Check out our sports gambling tips.