How Sportsbooks Make Lines and Odds

When you go to place a sports bet with a sportsbook, you’re either going to be putting cash down on a point spread, moneyline, over/under or some form of exotic. Before a betting slip is ever posted, someone or many people have worked hard to create that slip.

The sportsbook posts odds and lines that they believe will help spread the bets out between the two teams on the betting slip. Although the sportsbook can make cash on losing wagers, they really make their money consistently on the commission or juice that they charge each bettor on every wager that they make. It’s important that they get action on both sides of the bet because that allows them to easily payoff bettors whole collecting their commission.

Handicappers

Handicappers, who are also known as odds makers, are professionals who know a lot about sportsbetting and are experts in specific sports. Some handicappers specialize in the NFL, while others focus on college basketball and still others may devote their time to MLB or soccer. An odds maker usually has a few sports in which they specialize.

These professionals develop the odds and lines for sportsbooks. In order to do this accurately, they have to keep up to date on every aspect of the sport. One of the things you’ll notice about many odds makers is that they tend to be creatures of habit and often they are slow to change their minds about a team.

In other words, handicappers are often slow to acknowledge that a team that has performed poorly for years has made a major break through or to downgrade a club that is in decline. This is important for every sports bettor to remember when checking out lines and odds. You may be ahead of the curve on some developments and some odds makers may be behind you.

The fact is that stability in terms of odds and predictability when it comes to any team’s performance is what allows handicappers and sportsbooks to make cash.  For this reason, handicappers are reluctant to acknowledge changing tides when it comes to a team or a sport because it may simply be a blip on the radar screen and not a lasting change.

How Accurate are the Odds?

Odds are as accurate as they can be. The fact is that every day in Major League Baseball, every week in the NFL and every time a sport is played anywhere an upset can happen. If you follow the NFL, you know that often within one week 60% or more of the favored teams don’t beat the spread and 40% or more may lose outright.

The accuracy of odds is determined by numerous factors, including:

• The handicapper’s skills, knowledge and methods.
• Last minute injuries or other such factors.
• Coaching decisions.
• Each player’s individual performance and effort.
• Factors that are hard to evaluate, such as a team’s determination or motivation, fan pressure, etc.

The other thing to remember about odds that a sportsbook publishes is that they are not true odds in terms of who may win or lose. When playing the moneyline or fractional or decimal odds, you should realize that sportsbooks charge a bit more than they should for you to wager on the favorite and payoff less than they should on the underdog. This is how they make their commission.

How to Use Odds

Don’t follow odds blindly. Use them as a guideline and in doing so when you decide on which team you’re going to wager you should shop around and look for the best odds. Betting slips vary from sportsbook to sportsbook and if you do shop around, you can often find that one book will offer a better deal than all others on a specific game. Make the odds work for you.