Whether you have 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’ve 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 may be a pretty good bet for you to make. While nothing is ever certain on this planet of sports gamble betting, this feeling is generally incorrect.

Among the most important concepts to take into account when betting on sports is this: should the public won more than they lost, sports books would cease to exist. That’s simplifying things just a little, bear in mind, but typically that is a true statement. Casinos and sport books are within business to make money–lots of money. Whenever they are losing money in a particular area, they will either change the rules or stop offering it entirely. Since the world of online sport books is alive and thriving, it is then safe to assume that they may be making money and that, over time, the general public loses their cash.

I’ve been telling people to subscribe to the theory of reverse public opinion for years now. As is the case with a lot of the advice I’ve offered here at SportBooksReview, I am not suggesting that individuals 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 can be very eye-opening, and those are the situations where you can pounce.

Even as we discussed in our Line Movement article, there are numerous of factors that could cause sport books to move the line. One such factor is one team getting decidedly extra money wagered on it than the other, creating a scenario where the books would lose a big total amount if one team wins. Books would want to have a good, even amount of cash 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 is the juice). This is why it’s really a great idea to take a quick peek at the consensus percentages as well as the line movement for the games you want to bet on–there can sometimes be some very useful hidden information to give you one advantage.

When doing your investigation, if you happen to see a game where the general public is quite 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. In the event the public is betting most of their money on a team, but the books don’t 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 additional team. In any case, this really is a significant red flag. Again, do not blindly bet your money on this strategy, but there will be situations where these numbers are too strong to ignore.

Generally speaking, 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 money here, so it’s extremely essential that you make every effort to discover a benefit before you make your bet. As is the case with a whole lot of my advice, this isn’t meant to be a universal strategy, but part of a larger overall strategy of doing your homework and eventually finding solid money-making opportunities. If you follow the advice I have offered in this article and combine it with several of my other strategies, you will win money–the only question is: how much?