Although the line is often influenced by power rankings, it’s still only an opinion with the main goal of making both teams to bet on as appealing to the betting public. On account of this, a number of sports books begin with varying starting lines.  sports books influence the direction the line moves.  Because the point spreads that each book offers is influenced by their opinion and their clientele, it is extremely important that you shop around for the best lines and odds.

 It isn’t easy to do sports betting so anything you can do or learn to make it easier is important. This aside, it is imperative that you have many sports betting accounts in many different online sports sites.

I am sure you understand the difference between a line of 3 or 3.5, but if you are not here is a quick explanation. On sports such as Basketball and Football the odds makers assign a point spread number to the favorite team. Suppose the numbers we use are 3 or 3.5 from above this would mean that if you choose the favorite for that game they would have to win by 3 points or 3.5 Although it doesn’t seem like a lot there are many games that are decided by 3 points especially in football. If you bet on the favored team to win by 3 points, and they did win with exactly 3 points, this is a tie and you get your money returned to you. No harm no foul, but if you had the same team at minus 3.5, then you would actually lose that bet.

 This could happen to you several times during a season which could be the difference of winning or losing several hundred or even thousands of dollars. Like most, I lost by a half point and it feels bad  Being a smart sports investor is like being a smart shopper, it is very important to shop around for the best value and line.

For sports like Baseball, Hockey and Tennis where they use the money line, not having the best odds can be the difference between having a losing season or a winning season. Let’s look at this example below.

New York Mets -130       Pinnacle

New York Mets -135       Bet365

New York Mets -145       Bookmaker

What this means is that the Mets are the favorite. At Pinnacle you would have to bet $130 to win $100, at Bet365 it would be $135 and at Bookmaker $145 to win that same $100. It should be clear that this $15 swing per each hundred can add up to several thousands of dollars during a season and year.

To learn something about the best online sports books,  have a look at this site:

If you want to learn more you can grab a copy of my FREE ebook “Sports Investing Secrets – How to Turn $1,000 into $1,024,000 in Less Than 5 Years Betting on Sports” at my website: http://1stopsportsinvestors.com/

You can also check out my website where I review the most profitable sports betting systems that I personally use day in and day out: http://www.1stopsportsinvestors.com/sports-system-reviews.php

If you are new to sports betting or a seasoned professional, then you know that making money from this endeavor can be a difficult task.Knowing what you are facing before you get started can make this task a little less difficult and profitable.

There is a misconception in the sports betting world that we are all trying to “Beat the Bookie”, but in reality the on line sports books are not the enemy at all. They just act as a broker by taking the sports bettors wagers and keeping a small percentage of the action as their fees for accepting the bets (Usually 10%). The bookmakers aim is to have an equal amount of action on both sides of a game.The outcome of the game is not important to them as they get to keep 10% just for accepting the bets.

For this example we will use the standard odds of 11/10 that are used primarily on football and basketball wagers. What this means is that you would need to bet $11 to win $10 or $110 to win $100.Let me show you how it works.

Let’s say the New York Jets are playing the New England Patriots this season and the Patriots are favored by 7 points. So if you wanted to bet on the Jets plus 7 points then you would have to bet $110 with a chance to win $100. If you wanted to bet on the NE Patriots -7 you would have to wager the same amounts. So here is how the on line sports books earn their money. If they managed to do their jobs correctly they should have had the same amount of bets on both the NY Jets and the Patriots.

Group A – 1000 people bet on the Jets + 7 for a total of $110,000.
Group B – 1000 people bet on the Patriots -7 for a total of $110,000.

Now let’s say the Patriots win the game by 10 pts and cover the spread making all of the Group B winners. The sportsbook then collects the $110,000 of the losing Group A bets and pays out $100,000 to the Group B winners pocketing a cool 10K in the process just for accepting the action.Not a bad pay day for about three hours of work. Now multiply this one game times several games that go off each day and week and you can see that the sports books are laughing all the way to the bank.

As you can clearly see the sports books are not really the enemy. It’s the lines makers that you need to beat and with a little discipline, proper bankroll management and a proven sports betting system it’s a number that can be beat.

If you would like to learn more about how to be profitable at sports betting, then please grab a copy of my Free ebook : “Sports Investing Secrets – How to Turn $1,000 into $1,024,000 in Less Than 5 Years Betting on Sports” at my website http://www.1stopsportsinvestors.com.