NFL Superbowl odds: Public perception will skew the line

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the source and creator of most, if not all, sports betting lines. Online casinos and sportsbooks trust LVSC to establish the possibilities, thus ensuring a “universal” line among all sports betting houses. During the early days of sportsbooks, many different casinos had different lines, allowing the savvy player to “broken in”, a practice that guarantees a low risk but high return virtual bet. So what is the main purpose of a line? Contrary to popular public belief, most of the lines set by LVSC do not actually “predict the final outcome” of a game; because if this were true, betting on the favorites on the money line would never be a losing proposition. What then is the line?

The line, which can refer to the side/spread (bets on a team) or total (bets on the final score of the game to go under or over), is quite an interesting thing. It is primarily based on gamblers “disadvantaging” the general public. In general, the line is not the “true” power rating between the two sides of any game; it is theoretically set up to divide the general population to take side A and side B equally.

However, in high-profile games, such as the superbowl or a National Championship game, the line is mostly skewed, to make one side VERY attractive. How many of you thought the USC line of -7 was such an easy bet? In this matchup, you have the defending National Champion playing in his own backyard, with two Heisman winners against a “good” Texas team that has yet to prove itself in the national spotlight…how could Trojans not cover that differential of -7? let alone lose the game? Well, we know what happened in that game. Well my friends, in the next few articles I will try to explain how the line is formed and offer my ideas and tips to beat the sportsbooks.