Shopping For Numbers When College Basketball Betting

March Madness betting lines are set to open in the next couple of weeks, as the world’s greatest playoff tournament is set to get underway on March 13. It is during this time, that sportsbooks tighten up their game so to speak, as they attempt to narrow the gap between lines on specific conferences. In other words, throughout the regular season, sharp bettors, because of the differences in odds from shop to shop, mainly handicap college basketball betting lines. However, as the tournament closes in, the shops begin to pay more attention.

One rule of thumb, no matter what sport you wager upon, is to shop around for good value. In fact, you can make the argument, that the distinguishing factor between a profitable and non-profitable gambler, is what lines they are using to place their bets with. For instance, it might not seem like much, but looking at a slew of different sportsbooks, rather then sticking with the same one for every sport, can have an immediate impact on your bottom line. After all, you are betting on the NBA or NCAA to win a few dollars, not increase the revenue of the shop you are with. Meaning to say, if your favorite book offers the March Madness final at -110 but their rival offers the final at – 105 on the favorite, you’re better off taking the rival’s number, as you are paying less juice.

Another good thing about shopping around for good value is your ability to hold multiple accounts with a number of shops. In essence, just because you are losing at one sportsbook, doesn’t mean you can’t make that money back at another shop. What a lot of sharps like to do is hold multiple accounts, and bet the same games. For example, you can wager on Duke to pull the upset on Kansas at one shop, but then take Kansas over Duke at the other shop. As well, you could take Duke on the spread and Kansas on the moneyline.

Why Early Lines Are Important

As we edge closer to Super Bowl betting Sunday, we’ve received a ton of questions in regards to the importance of early lines on the biggest game of the NFL season. For the most part the importance of how early a line is posted depends on how serious of a bettor you are. In other words, if you base your livelihood on sports wagering, then the early lines will affect your price per head odds. Conversely, if you are a casual bettor looking to make a few bucks, then the early line may not be as important to you.

Depending on the sport you are handicapping, you can receive a better read on who is wagering when, based on the movement on the line. For instance, in baseball, many hardcore MLB handicappers will wager on the Wednesday night games, as soon as the Tuesday night games on the West Coast conclude at 11PM. The reason they do this, is because most sportsbooks will have drastically different looking lines from the night before to the actual game. In other words, the value you find is based on how early you place your wager. Here is an example

Toronto Blue Jays +160

New York Yankees -130

Tuesday at 11pm

Toronto Blue Jays +180

New York Yankees – 150

Wednesday at 6:59pm

In this example, the bettors who placed their bets on the Toronto Blue Jays v New York Yankees game at 11pm on Tuesday would find better value, then the handicappers taking the same game at 6:59pm on Wednesday. The reason for this is that the first group of NFL scores bettors would have less public action to contend with when they placed their wagers. Meanwhile the bettors taking the same game a minute before the opening pitch, had to endure the higher prices because of the increase in public action.