One of the biggest goals for anyone who loves to bet on sports on a regular basis to try and create some kind of edge against the sportsbooks for every bet you place. Gaining that edge will help to improve your overall winning percentage which, in turn, will help to boost the return on investment for your entire sports betting bankroll.
One of the best ways to gain an edge is to uncover a soft betting line for some of the action on the board at your preferred online betting outlet. Most times this is easier said than done considering just how sharp the lines are set by the top oddsmaking services in the online sports betting industry these days. Closely tracking line movements from the time they are released to the actual start of the game may provide an edge if they move in your favor, but this can be a very time consuming exercise for someone who considers them self a recreational sports bettor.
A great way to gain an edge against the books is to actively seek out opportunities to ‘hedge a bet’. There are a number of ways to hedge a bet with the common goal a walking away for the day on the plus side of the ledger. There is a reason why they call sports betting a form of gambling since you are going to lose bets as well as win them. Hedging a bet takes this notion into account as a way to cut your losses while also trying to maximize your gains.
Also Read: How to Bet on Sports | Middling Pointspread Betting
Hedging a bet before a game gets underway requires that the betting spread has had some significant movement since it was first released. Suppose you have bet on Green Bay minus seven points as a favorite against Minnesota. Come Saturday night before Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff, you see that the line has jumped to nine points. This creates the opportunity to hedge that bet my taking the Vikings and those added points in a separate bet. Your goal in this play is for the Packers to win by eight so you can cash in on both bets, but you have also put a safety net in place to minimize the potential loss if Green Bay fails to cover.
Another way to hedge a bet is after a game has gotten underway which is commonly referred to as live in-game wagers. This gets a bit more tricky since you have to make the decision to let your original bet ride or hedge it with a new bet at some point during the actual game. Going back to the example above where you already have a bet in place on Green Bay minus the seven points. If the Vikings go up early, you might want to bet on the adjusted spread as a hedge to your original wager. Live in-game betting gives you the opportunity to hold or hedge your bet all the way into the second half of that game.
You can also hedge your bets in a series when it comes to the playoffs in sports such as basketball, baseball and hockey. This revolves around betting on the favorite or underdog winning across the entire length of that set matchup. For example, if the Boston Celtics are series underdogs against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a best-of-seven matchup and you believe that Boston can split the first two games on the road, you might want to take the longer odds on the Celtics before things get underway. If they do get the anticipated split, then you now have the opportunity to hedge a bet on Cleveland at lower odds to win the series. If the numbers make sense, this is a way to come out ahead no matter which team goes onto win.
