Whether you’ve been around the sports betting game for a while, or are new and also have been following the advice found on this site, chances are you have been to sites like Covers.com while doing research on upcoming games. Chances are you have 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 could be a fairly good bet for you to make. While nothing is ever certain on the planet of sports betting, this feeling is generally incorrect.

One of the most significant concepts to remember when betting on sports is this: in the event the public won more than they lost, sports books would cease to exist. That’s simplifying things just a little, remember, but typically that’s a true statement. Casinos and sport books are within business to make money–lots of money. Should they are losing money in a particular area, they will either change the rules or stop offering it entirely. Considering that the world of online sport books is alive and thriving, it is then safe to assume that they are making money and that, in the long run, the general public loses their cash.

I have been telling people to subscribe to the theory of reverse popular opinion for years now. As is the case with a lot of the advice I have offered here at SportBooksReview, I’m 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 research. You will discover some situations where observing the public consensus and comparing it to line movement may be very eye-opening, and those are the situations the place you can pounce.

Since we discussed in our Line Movement article, there are a number of aspects that may cause sport books to move the line. One such factor is one team getting decidedly more income wagered on it than the other, creating a scenario where the books would lose a big amount if one team wins. Books would prefer to have a great, even amount bet on both sides of a game, to ensure that regardless which team wins, they’ll come out on top due to the juice (newbies: betting $110 to win $100, the $10 will be the juice). This is why it is a great gambling idea to take a quick peek at the consensus percentages along 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 determine a game where the public is extremely 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 which is. If the public is betting most of their money on a team, though the books do not move the number to attract betters for the additional team, then it’s telling you something. Either the books are confident that the public will lose, or perhaps the big-money sharp betters have already made their bets on the additional team. In either case, this is a serious red flag. Again, don’t blindly bet your money on this strategy, but there will be situations where these numbers are too strong to ignore.

Typically, I like fading the public–especially when there’s a strong public consensus betting on the underdog in a game. As you surely already know, the common theme of my articles is research–we’re talking about your hard earned money here, so it’s extremely important that you make every effort to find one advantage before making your bet. As will be the case with a whole lot of my advice, this is not 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’ve offered inside this article and combine it with some of my other strategies, you will win money–the only question is: the amount?