What Is a Push in Betting? How Ties Get Settled
A push means your bet landed exactly on the number. Here is how sportsbooks settle it, what happens in parlays, and how half points take pushes off the table.
By
Eric Pauly
9 min read
Push in Betting: The Short Answer
So, what is a push in betting? It is a tie with the sportsbook. The result lands exactly on the line you bet, so nobody wins and nobody loses, and the book returns your full stake. If you take the Bills -3 and they win by exactly 3, that bet is a push and your money comes back to your balance.
That is the whole definition, but pushes touch more of your betting than most people realize. They change parlay payouts, they explain why so many lines end in .5, and they quietly affect how you should price a spread at 3 versus 3.5. This guide covers how books grade a push on every common bet type, what happens when one leg of a parlay pushes, and how to decide when a half point is worth paying for.
article Summary
A push happens when a bet lands exactly on the line, such as a 3 point win on a -3 spread. The sportsbook returns your stake with no profit or loss. In a parlay, a pushed leg is usually dropped and the payout is recalculated on the remaining legs, and lines with a half point (like -3.5) cannot push at all.
How Sportsbooks Settle a Push
When a bet pushes, the sportsbook grades it as a push (some apps label it "tie" or "refunded") and credits your original stake back to your account. You do not get the juice back as a bonus or lose it as a fee. A $110 bet on -110 that pushes returns exactly $110.
Point Spreads
This is where most pushes happen. A spread bet pushes when the favorite wins by exactly the number or the underdog loses by exactly the number. Chiefs -7 pushes on a 7 point Chiefs win. Broncos +7 pushes on the same result from the other side. If you want a refresher on how the number itself works, our breakdown of point spread meaning walks through it from scratch.
Totals
An over/under pushes when the combined score lands exactly on a whole number total. A total of 44 pushes on a 24 to 20 final. In hockey, a total of 6 pushes on a 4 to 2 game.
Moneylines
A moneyline can only push when a tie is a possible result and the market has no draw option. NFL regular season games can still end tied after overtime, and most US sportsbooks refund two-way moneyline bets when that happens. A soccer three-way moneyline is different: the draw is its own outcome, so a side bet on a drawn match loses rather than pushes. The related case is a pick'em, where the spread is zero and a tie also refunds your bet. We cover that in what PK means in betting.
Player Props
Any prop with a whole number line can push. Amon-Ra St. Brown over 6 receptions pushes if he catches exactly 6. Books lean heavily on .5 lines for props, but whole numbers show up often enough that you should check before you bet.
Push vs Void vs No Action
All three return your stake, but they happen for different reasons, and the difference matters when you read house rules or dispute a grading.
Push: the event happened and the result landed exactly on your line. The bet was valid, it just tied.
Void: the book cancels the bet because a condition was not met, such as a player prop where the player never takes the field, or a palpable pricing error the book voids under its terms.
No action: the event did not happen as listed. Common examples are a postponed game that is not played within the book's window, or an MLB bet tied to listed pitchers when a different starter takes the mound.
In parlays, all three usually get treated the same way: the leg drops out and the parlay continues with whatever is left. The exact wording varies by book, so the house rules page is the place to confirm how a specific market is handled.
Where Pushes Show Up Most
How often a push is in play depends on the sport and how tightly scoring clusters around certain margins.
NFL and college football: spreads of 3 and 7 are the classic push numbers because so many games are decided by a field goal or a touchdown.
NHL: whole number totals of 5 or 6 are live push spots in a low scoring sport. The standard puck line sits at 1.5, so it does not push.
MLB: whole number totals like 8 or 9 push regularly. Run lines are almost always set at 1.5, so they rarely push.
NBA: books post plenty of whole number spreads and totals, but scores spread across so many possible margins that any single number is less likely to hit.
Soccer: three-way markets cannot push. Draw no bet and Asian handicap lines of 0, -1 or +1 can.
What Happens When a Parlay Leg Pushes
At most US sportsbooks, a pushed leg does not kill a parlay. The book removes that leg and recalculates the payout using only the remaining legs. A three-leg parlay with one push becomes a two-leg parlay. A two-leg parlay with one push becomes a straight bet on the other leg. If every leg pushes, you get your stake back.
The catch is that the payout shrinks, sometimes a lot, because each leg was multiplying the odds. You can see exactly how much by plugging the before and after legs into our parlay calculator.
Same Game Parlays and Teasers
These are where the rules get less uniform. A same game parlay is priced as a package, with correlation between the legs built into the odds, so a book cannot always just strip one leg out and multiply the rest. Each book handles this under its own same game parlay rules, and the recalculated price may not match what you would get by multiplying the remaining legs yourself.
Teasers have their own wrinkle. Some books drop a pushed teaser leg and reduce the teaser to fewer teams, while others grade a push in a teaser as a loss. Because teasers move lines through 3 and 7 so often, a push is a real possibility, and it is worth reading the rule before you build one.
Boosts and Promos
Odds boosts and parlay insurance offers often carry separate terms for pushes. A boosted parlay with a pushed leg may revert to standard odds on the remaining legs, or the boost may be forfeited. When I am looking at a promo that involves a parlay, the push language in the terms is one of the first lines I check, because it changes what the offer is actually worth.
How Half Points Avoid a Push in Betting
Lines that end in .5, often called the hook, cannot push. A team cannot win by 3.5 points, so a -3.5 spread either covers or it does not. That is why books use half point lines so often: they remove the tie and force a winner and a loser on every ticket.
Whole Numbers vs the Hook
For you as a bettor, the choice between -3 and -3.5 is not just about the point. It is about what the push is worth. On -3, a 3 point win gives your money back. On -3.5, that same result is a loss. On the dog side, +3.5 turns a 3 point loss into a winner, while +3 only gets you a refund.
This is why the price to move on or off certain numbers is higher than others. Books generally charge more to buy a half point through 3 or 7 in football than through a number like 5, because those margins come up so often. Our guide to key numbers in NFL betting covers why 3 and 7 carry that weight.
Buying Points and Shopping for the Hook
You have two ways to get a better number. You can buy a half point at your book, which usually costs extra juice, or you can find another book that already hangs the number you want. When I line shop an NFL side sitting at 3, the first thing I look for is whether any book is dealing 2.5 or 3.5 and how much juice separates them. It is common to see the same game at -3 at one book and -3.5 at another on a Sunday morning.
An odds screen makes that comparison fast. Tools like Bookie Beats show prices across books side by side, and its low hold finder flags markets where the combined juice is thin. Bookie Beats is built for professional bettors and starts at $100 a month, so it fits volume bettors more than casual ones. Code BETSMART takes $50 off your first month.
How to Track Pushes in Your Betting Record
A push is neither a win nor a loss, and your record should reflect that. Logging a push as a loss drags your win rate down. Ignoring it entirely hides how often your numbers are landing right on the line, which is useful information if you bet a lot of football sides at 3 or 7.
I keep pushes as their own result and look at two things: whether my win rate is calculated on decided bets only, and whether my ROI includes the pushed stakes as money risked. Both approaches are fine as long as you pick one and stay consistent. What matters more is whether you were getting good numbers in the first place, which is why tracking closing line value alongside results tells you more than wins and losses alone.
Manual spreadsheets work, but syncing apps remove most of the grading work. Pikkit syncs bets from multiple sportsbooks, grades them automatically including pushes, and tracks CLV. It has a free tier, with the paid plan at $29.99 a month, and it has been glitchy at times, so it is worth spot checking a graded parlay with a pushed leg against what your book shows. If you want to compare options, our roundup of bet tracking apps covers the field.
Final Thoughts
A push is a tie with the book: the result lands on your number and your stake comes back. That part is simple. The useful part is knowing how a push changes everything around it, from a parlay that shrinks to two legs to the real value of a half point on an NFL spread.
Before you bet a whole number, ask whether the push is likely and what it is worth. Then shop for the version of the line that fits. If you want help comparing numbers and tracking results, our list of the best sports betting tools is a good place to start.
Push in Betting FAQ
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