Whether you’ve been around the sports betting game for a while, or are new and have been following the advice found on this site, chances are you’ve been to sites like Covers.com while doing research on upcoming games. Chances are you’ve also noticed the little « consensus » tidbit next to each game, telling you which team the public thinks will win. You may see that a team has a 70% general sediment and feel like that might be quite a good bet that you should make. While nothing is ever certain on earth of sports betting, this feeling is normally incorrect.

Among the most important concepts to always remember when betting on sports is this: in the event the public won more than they lost, sports books would cease to exist. That is simplifying things a little, remember, but in most cases which is a true statement. Casinos and sport books will be in business to make money–lots of money. If they are losing money in a particular area, they’re going to either change the guidelines or stop offering it entirely. Since the world of online sport books is alive and thriving, it really is then safe quality soccer to assume that they may be making money and that, over time, the public loses their money.

I have been telling people to subscribe to the theory of reverse popular opinion for years now. As is the case with a great deal of the advice I’ve offered here at SportBooksReview, I am not suggesting that men and women blindly bet against the team with higher public support every night–just keep it in mind when doing your investigation. You will discover some situations where observing the public consensus and comparing it to line movement can be very eye-opening, and these are the situations in which you can pounce.

Once we discussed in our Line Movement article, there are numerous of aspects that could cause sport books to move the line. One particular factor is just one team getting decidedly extra money wagered on it than the other, creating a scenario where the books would lose a large amount of cash if one team wins. Books would prefer to have an excellent, even sum of money bet on both sides of a game, so that regardless which team wins, they will come out on top due to the juice (newbies: betting $110 to win $100, the $10 will be the juice). This really is why it’s really a wise decision to take a quick peek at the consensus percentages together with the line movement for the games you want to bet on–there can sometimes be some very useful hidden information to give you one benefit.

When doing your research, if you happen to see a game where the public is very heavily betting on one team, say 70% or higher, yet the line did not move from it’s original number, then you have to ask yourself why that is. If the public is betting most of their cash on a team, although the books do not move the number to attract betters for the other team, then it’s telling you something. Either the books are confident that the general public will lose, or the big-money sharp betters have already made their bets on the other team. In any event, this really is a serious red flag. Again, do not blindly bet your hard earned money on this strategy, but there will be situations where these numbers are too strong to ignore.

Usually, I like fading the public–especially when there’s a strong public consensus betting on the underdog in a game. When you surely already know, the common theme of my articles is research–we’re speaking about your hard earned money here, so it’s extremely essential that you make every effort to locate an advantage prior to making your bet. As will be the case with a great deal of my advice, this isn’t meant to be a one-size-fits-all strategy, but part of a bigger overall strategy of doing your homework and ultimately finding solid money-making opportunities. If you follow the advice I have offered within this article and combine it with several of my other strategies, you will win money–the only question is: just how much?