When you think about sports betting, the obvious idea is that the bookmaker always has an edge over the player. While they have tons of tactics and strategies at their disposal, such as the line shading issue we will discuss today, sports bettors should always keep one thing in mind: the bookmaker should display a line for each match and event.
Read more: What is a Betting Favorite?
As a bettor you can choose which of these games you wish to bet on, if any.
So let’s take a look at line shading, a popular tactic used by players on a regular basis.
Strong sneaks
The more common (and profitable) teasers in American football are a way to move the lines your way, but you have to do it for at least two games. In American football, the standard trailer has six points, which means you can move the fixed line six points in any direction in the game.
Usually, bettors tease the lines on the key numbers, which of course in American football are three, seven and ten. For example, if the line is set to Redskins +4.5, you want to tease the Redskins to +10.5 (six points) and then tease the other selected team by six points as well.
Knowing that bettors tend to do this, and how it can affect their bottom line, bookmakers “obscure” the line until bettors cost more to get through these key numbers. Instead of betting $ 110 (-110) to win $ 100 like the average juice in a straight bet, in sports betting you’ll often have to bet $ 115 (-115) or even $ 120 (-120) to win $ 100 to earn the same $ 100.
Favorites and Overs
As a rule, the audience (99% of all sports players) always bet on favorites and overs. That’s because the favorites are meant to win and the overs are just more exciting.
With this in mind, bookmakers often incorporate this into their lineup by adding an extra point or two to the favorite or total, or simply increasing the juice to -115 from the favorite or more, as in the example above. . When considering betting on the favorite or betting on any sporting event, be aware of this popular line shading tactic.
Draw the same action
Most bookmakers around the world simply try to get the same action on both sides of an event, so they are able to collect the “juice” from losing bets, knowing that bettors with a sufficiently large sample size are losing massively.
With this general theme in mind, bookmakers often shade the line or juice in such a way as to attract bettors so that they can take the same action right up to the start of the event.
While this is a traditional mindset and the more advanced and sophisticated bookmakers no longer adopt this mindset, line shading still occurs and players should be aware of it. This way, they can take advantage of it when it happens.
