Whether you have been around the sports betting game for Highly recommended Internet page 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 pretty good bet for you to make. While nothing is ever certain on this planet of sports betting, this feeling is generally incorrect.
Among the most significant concepts to take into account 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 just a little, of course, but in many instances which is a true statement. Casinos and sport books will be in business to make money–lots of money. Whenever they are losing money in a particular area, they are going to 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, over the long term, 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’ve offered here at SportBooksReview, I am not suggesting that people blindly bet against the team with higher public support every night–just keep it in mind when doing your research. You will find some situations where observing the general public consensus and comparing it to line movement can be very eye-opening, and these are the situations where you can pounce.
Once we discussed in our Line Movement article, there are a variety of aspects that may cause sport books to move the line. One such factor is just one team getting decidedly additional 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 want to have a nice, even sum of cash bet on both sides of a game, to ensure that regardless of which team wins, they’ll come out on top because of the juice (newbies: betting $110 to win $100, the $10 will be the juice). This is why it’s really a wise decision to take a quick peek at the consensus percentages in addition to the line movement for the games you want to bet on–there can sometimes be some very useful hidden information to give you a benefit.
When doing your research, if you happen to see a game where the public can be 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 which is. In the event the public is betting most of their money on a team, however 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 general public will lose, or perhaps the big-money sharp betters have already made their bets on the additional team. No matter what, this is an important 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.
In most cases, 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 discussing your money here, so it’s extremely crucial that you make every effort to discover an advantage before making your bet. As is the case with a great deal of my advice, this isn’t meant to be a universal 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 inside this article and combine it with some of my other strategies, you will win money–the only question is: how much?