This Will Increase Your Profit in Sports Betting

We as sports bettors are always looking for ways to run into some “free money” or an “easy winner”. But in reality, those types of scenarios don’t actually exist. Being successful sports betting requires a time investment, patience and diligence. There are details that the average sports bettor might overlook that can be an easy solution to making more money or losing less money when betting on sports.

This is something that may add a minute or two more to your process, but in the end is going to be worth every second. That answer is line shopping. If you don’t know what line shopping is or how to do it we’ll cover everything you need to know in this article.

When “sharp” sports bettors are looking to place a bet at an online sportsbook, they don’t just limit themselves to one sports betting site to choose from. They have funds in at a number of sportsbooks as the lines differ at each and every one. This is something that each and every sports bettor should take advantage of.

If this article was helpful or brought any type of value to you, please do support us by signing up at any one of our partner books here!

A Moneyline & Point Spread Example

Let’s start with an example of a moneyline bet, tonight the New Orleans Pelicans host the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of the NBA Playoffs. The 8-seed Pelicans are slight underdogs in this game. Let’s start with the moneyline odds at BetRivers.

You’ll see that the Pelicans pay $112 if a bettor places a wager of $100 (+112). Your average sports bettor may just figure out the team he wants to bet and go to his book and place the wager without thinking about it any longer. But little does he know that at PointsBet, the odds aren’t quite the same.

That would be $8 in value lost for a $100 bettor by not shopping for the best line available. You may not think this is a substantial amount for this bettor but that can add up significantly. But if this bettor were to win 1 bet a day for an entire year and lose this type of value, he’d be sacrificing $2920 of profit.

This is significant from a moneyline perspective, but can be the difference between a winner or a loser when betting on a point spread or total. You can see in this same game that these two books are offering different point spreads at +2.5 (-113) and +2 (-105) on the Pelicans. Plenty of NBA games are decided by two points, a 2-point margin of victory is the 8th most popular differential in a basketball game.

If you bet with PointsBet for this game, a 2-point Suns win would mean that your bet pushes and you get your money back. But if you had money to bet at both of these sportsbooks, then you’d know to place this spread bet at BetRivers to ensure that if this happens you’d still win the bet!

Futures Odds Example

The importance of line shopping is even more important when you’re looking at the futures market. Especially if you are looking at the odds market for PGA Tour events. Let’s take a look at the latest odds for the PGA Championship that is coming up in just a few weeks time.

The top of the odds board looks pretty similar, but the prices do vary, when the line is this long we are talking about sacrificing a fair bit of potential profit if you aren’t line shopping properly.

The Caesars sportsbook has identified two co-favorites, with a few other popular names trailing shortly behind. These are significant payouts no matter the type of bankroll you may be wagering with. But if you like players like Rory McIlroy then Caesars isn’t the place to make this bet.

You can see at BetMGM that you are getting an improvement from the +1200 payout at Caesars to +1400 here. To a $100 bettor that is an additional $200 in profit. This is magnified 10-fold when you get into some of the more longshot players. For example, Webb Simpson is +5000 at Caesars, but you can find him at +6600 at BetMGM.

How Important is Line Shopping in Sports Betting?

If you are a sports bettor that is serious about managing your bankroll and makes more then a handful of bets each year, line shopping should be an essential part of your repertoire. There is no reason for you to not spread your funds around at least 4-5 online sports betting sites so that you can maximize your profit as much as possible.

There is no shortcut to being a profitable sports bettor, but there are ways to improve your process and this is something any sports bettor can do regardless of your experience level.

Looking for a place to deposit? Check out our sportsbook reviews page to find out where to start!