by Xaston » Fri Nov 11, 2005 1:15 pm
From "Sharp Sports Betting" by Stanford Wong, which is considered the best book on Sports Betting.
"Balanced Action?
Ideally, from the viewpoint of the sportsbook, the line should never move up or down, it should attract huge action on both teams, and by the time the game starts there should be approximately the same number of dollars bet on each team. At least that's what most people think. It's not true.
Better than that, from the viewpoint of the sportsbook, is when are a whole lot more dollars bet on one team than on the other, and the team with all the action on it is the one that loses."
He goes on to talk about how he talked to the manager of the Stardust Casino's Sports Book and gives more explanation, and says that it really only holds true for the Super Bowl because there they will sacrifice some EV, to ensure a profit by trying to get equal bets, just because there is such a great volume of money bet. I'll type out a little bit more of it if you'd like.