What Does Smart Money Mean In Sports Betting?

by Doc's Sports - 10/9/2014

Smart money in sports betting is simply money wagered by sharps - professional bettors, or wise guys, who are much better at handicapping than the average bettor.

A lot can be learned from watching where smart money is being bet. When a team is getting a lot of attention from sharps then there is often a reason to take a closer look at it yourself. Some people will blindly bet teams that have heavy smart-money action, but that’s going too far. Still, smart money can help guide you towards team worth investigating closer, or perhaps guide you away from teams you were considering a bet on but were lukewarm about.

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The problem, of course, is that it’s not like sharps buy a billboard to advertise who they have bet on. Sportsbooks are very secretive about the action they are receiving, too, so they certainly aren’t going to tell you who is betting on which team. In order to spot smart money, then, you mostly have to be a bit of a detective. For example, while we can’t see how much money is being bet on each team, some books will let us know what percentage of bets have been placed on each team. If one team is getting the bulk of the action yet the other team’s odds are getting worse then we have a good sense that smart money is on the team that the public doesn’t like. We can also sometimes spot smart money if a line moves multiple times in a short period of time. Books are much quicker to move lines in response to smart money than they are to public money.

There are a couple of problems with trying to chase smart money without doing research and handicapping for yourself. First, we can’t know the motives of the sharp bettors. The lines could be moving because they have made their bets. They could also be moving, though, because they are trying to move a line to get a price they like better. When they get that price they could bet even more on the other team. Another problem is that by using smart money as an indicator of how we should bet we are automatically at a timing disadvantage. The smart money made a bet that moved the line. So if we are now to make a bet we are betting a different, less-favorable line than the sharps bet.

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Pick:	KANSAS CITY CHIEFS -5.5
Start:	December 15, 2024 @ 1:00 PM
Expert:	Doc's Sports

Analysis:

Free Play from Doc’s Sports. Take #465 Kansas City Chiefs -5.5 over Cleveland Browns (1p.m., Sunday, December 15 CBS) The Chiefs keep winning games and sooner or later one of those wins will come by a comfortable margin. I look for that to be this Sunday against a Browns team that is just playing out the string. Cleveland currently sits at 3- 10 and will enter this game having lost 4 of their last 5 games. Their only win came against Pittsburgh in a snow game on a short week. All 4 of those losses by the Browns have come over the posted number for this game. Kansas City is better on both sides of the football, and I just do not see the Browns offense keeping pace. Do not miss out on Doc’s Sports Weekend card featuring top plays in basketball, football, and hockey. We will feature our World-Famous Nonconference Game of the Year in College Basketball on Saturday. This game has won 13 of the 15 years it has been in existence and it is a must have for any big game hunter. Read More Read Less

What Does Smart Money Mean In Sports Betting?

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