Who is considered a sharp in sports betting?
A friend has been betting on sports, and she claims she figured something out. She has been on a run lately, and it seems possible she found a real edge. Its natural to want to follow her bets to get in on the action. It takes skill to find an edge and profit off it, but it doesnt take any skill to follow a good bettors bets. Shes making money and sharing what shes betting on, so get in on the fun. This is the basic appeal to sharps in sports betting. A sharp is someone who knows what they are doing in sports betting. Sharps are informed, experienced, successful sports bettors. They might be professional bettors, but that doesnt have to be the case. Often sharps place bigger bets. When a sharp makes a bet, the sportsbook will likely take note and adjust a response line. Sharps get a lot of attention in sports betting coverage because if a sharp bettor makes a bet, they think its a good bet, and they are usually right. Having good reasons to place a bet doesnt mean the bet will win, but it means that, in the hypothetical long run, that bet would make money. If a bettor truly is a sharp bettor, knowing what they bet on is valuable information. Thats why there is plenty of coverage of sharps in sports betting as if they are spreading the divine gospel. A phrase like sharp money is on the Raiders may come up in a betting preview of a game. It means sharp bettors have been betting on the Raiders. The problem is, if that is true and known, any bet the sharp money placed on the Raiders may have changed the lines by the time any coverage of what sharps are betting gets out. Now you know what a sharp bettor is. Great. Well, if you really find a sharp bettor sharing their picks, by all means, match their picks and reap the rewards. This isnt easy to pull off and probably not a great long-term strategy. Actually, finding out what sharps are betting on is near impossible. There are methods, but nothing is guaranteed. Sportsbooks dont broadcast Hey, the sharps are betting on the Dolphins! There is some information from sportsbooks given out for big events. Sometimes youll see stats on how much money is going to each side of a bet, known as handle percentage, or how many total bets are going to each side of a bet, known as ticket percentage. Those numbers can show where the big money bets are going. If the handle percentage is 55% on the Dolphins while they only have 49% of the tickets, some big bets skewing the handle percentage. However, that doesnt mean sharp bettors are betting on the Dolphins. It just means the average bet size is bigger on the Dolphins and extrapolating more than that is a guessing game. Sharp betting is a great white whale of sorts for regular sports bettors. Its useful information if you can find it, but finding it and acting on it in a timely manner is more elusive.