The Sportsbook Split

A dirty little secret that the sportsbooks won’t tell you are that they will customize the lines offered based on your betting habits. This dual or sometimes know as a split line work like this, one line is advertised on the site and another line is offered when a player of a certain skill level attempts to place a wager.

The vast majority of square bettors will almost always bet on the favorite and or the Over of a game total, so knowing this the sportsbooks will take advantage of the average bettor by inflating number on the favorite or the total by an extra point or a point and a half.

Online sportsbooks don’t handicap the games; an old guy in the basement of the Vegas casinos comes up with the original line.  They post a line based on the number that originated in Vegas. Let’s look at an example.

Hilton Hotel Las Vegas Opens the line
Green Bay Packers          +2
Minnesota Vikings           -2

An online sportsbooks that Caters to a mix of Sharp and Square Bettors looks at the line and adjusts it based on their clientele

Pro Online Sportsbook
Green Bay Packers          +2.5
Minnesota Vikings           -2.5

Later in the day, sometimes even the next day an online sportsbook that caters to the casual and square bettors will open their line or I should say lines. Because they will offer two different lines, one for their Square Bettors and another line for sharper bettors.

Green Bay Packers          Square +3.5        Sharp +2.5
Minnesota Vikings           Square -3.5         Sharp   -2.5

If the sportsbook labels you a sharp bettor when you login to your account you’ll see the 2.5 but if you are just a casual bettor you will see the line of 3.5.  Because the Casual bettor usually bets the favorite and sharper bettors generally take a 50/50 split of favorites and underdogs, if 3 points decide the game, the sportsbook will win all of the square bettor’s money bet on the -3.5 and all of the sharps money bet on the +2.5. This technique becomes very lucrative for the sportsbooks.  When the books are making money, the bettors are losing money.

I know you’re wondering how you can protect yourself.  When you sign up for a sportsbook, the book won’t know what kind of bettor you are to start with. Therefore, you can take advantage of the sportsbook by betting the other side of the inflated line. However, this won’t last for too long once the book figures out what you are doing. One method you can use to tell if you have been labeled a sharp bettors is to clear the cookies on your browser, find the line you want to bet, then login to your account, does the line change? Logout clear your cookies and try it again. If the line changes both times, you’ve been profiled. You have two options you can accept the fact you no longer get the generously inflated dog line and keep betting or you can go to a different book. It’s always good to have 3 or 4 books loaded up with money so you can shop the lines but we’ll go over line shopping in another post.