The average sports bettor is aware of the designated 10 percent commission charged for making straight bets on the sides with the spread and the total line. You have to pay that commission upfront to book the bet. However it is only charged on losing bets. The 10 percent juice is represented on the betting board as -110. In simple terms, you will have to risk $110 to win $100 on any side or total bet you place. Basically, the online books add 10 percent to the amount of the bet when it is first placed. That 10 percent is returned to your account when you win and it remains with the book on all losing bets. When betting the pointspread for college basketball games, most online sportsbooks stick to the standard 10 percent juice for betting either side. For example, if Duke is at home against North Carolina, the betting line would read as follows: North Carolina   +3 (-110) Duke                   -3 (-110) In this scenario, Duke is favored by three points at home and the juice for betting either side is 10 percent. Sometimes you will see a slight variation in the commission charged. This is a technique used by the books to balance the action without adjusting the actual spread. If they were trying to move some money towards North Carolina while keeping the spread at three points, an adjusted listing would look like: North Carolina   +3 (-105) Duke                   -3 (-115) In this scenario, the juice is reduced to five percent when betting the Tar Heels and increased to 15 percent for betting the Blue Devils. In college basketball, reduced juice options are much more common with total lines. Some online books will adjust the commission charged on the total in many of the daily games on the board. Other books do not use this practice at all. If you are interested in finding some reduced juice options for betting college basketball totals, you may need to shop the lines across a few of the books you do business with. You can actually build an entire betting strategy around betting reduced juice total lines once you find an online book that uses this technique to balance the bets. Higher juice signals the favored pick in that bet. Using the example above, the total line might read as follows: North Carolina      Over 145 (-120) Duke                    Under 145 (+100) The early money in this matchup appears to be going towards the OVER with the higher 20 percent juice. You can bet the UNDER in this game at no juice as an added incentive. The best betting strategy to employ when looking to take advantage of some reduced juice options on college basketball totals is to first breakdown a matchup on face value to determine a probable combined score. You need to take into consideration a team’s scoring potential, defensive strength and current overall form. Any key injuries need to be accounted for and where the game is played is another important factor. Add some recent betting trends between the two teams in light of previous total lines and you should be able to come up with your own number for the total. The next step is to compare your line with the posted line to determine a play of OVER or UNDER. Once you have found a few games where your confidence is rather high, it is then time to find your reduced juice options. Saving an extra five percent juice here and there may not sound like a big deal. Yet, over the course of an entire season those savings can really add up.

For each of the past 17 weeks, avid NFL bettors have had up to 16 games to choose from when it came to placing their bets. With the start of the playoffs this weekend in the Wild Card Round, there are a total of 11 games left on the betting board to decide this season’s Super Bowl champion. All eight division winners plus the two next best teams from each conference form the 12-team field. There are four games in the opening round, four more matchups in the divisional playoffs, two conference championships leading up to Super Bowl LIV in Miami on Sunday, Feb. 2. While the actual number of games left to bet on may be limited, the actual betting options at your favorite online sportsbooks have been expanded. The books know that the NFL playoffs is one of the biggest betting events of the year. They also know that the Super Bowl itself is the single biggest betting day of the year. Even casual sports bettors get excited over the entire Super Bowl Derby leading up to the big game. Heading into the opening round this Saturday and Sunday, now is the time to formulate your overall NFL playoff betting strategy. You should start with the basic betting lines for each game. Along with the pointspread and total line, the NFL moneyline becomes a popular option in the postseason. Most of the games are expected to be close, especially when you get to the division matchups and conference championship games. Taking the underdog straight-up on the moneyline offers a much better return that taking the underdog and the points at a straight 10 percent commission bet. The closest game in this year’s Wild Card Round has the Seattle Seahawks set as two-point road favorites over the banged up Philadelphia Eagles. Seattle is coming off back-to-back losses to Arizona and San Francisco and it is 0-3-1 against the spread in its last four games. The walking wounded in Philadelphia needed to win its last four games SU while covering in its last three to win the NFC East. Two points is not going to help the cause all that much this Sunday, so the higher +120 return on the Eagles’ moneyline might make the most sense. Breaking the games down into four quarters and two halves, you can also find a complete set of betting lines for smaller increments of each game. Betting the underdog early in the game can offer some solid value with many tight playoff matchups turning into comfortable blowouts in the second half. The most exciting way to bet on any football game is after the opening kickoff. Live in-game betting gives you the chance to fully immerse yourself in the action on the field. Playoff football raises the intensity of that action. Along with fluid betting lines that continue to move as the game wears on, the “what happens next” aspect of live betting is enhanced by that same increase in intensity. Momentum is a huge factor when betting postseason NFL games. That momentum can swing one way or the other on one single play. Most of the top online books will offer a full set of NFL futures covering a wide set of options. Some of the best value can be found ahead of the opening round games with the odds changing radically ahead of each subsequent round. Add in a full set of game, team and player props for each contest and it becomes easy to create a NFL playoff betting strategy that offers the best chance for a positive return on investment.

As the entire sports betting industry continues to expand, so does the level of sophistication of actual recreational sports bettors. The pro handicappers have always been using advanced sports betting analytics to breakdown games. Yet, improving your skills has never been easier. Through the use of today’s technology and specific proprietary software applications, the average sports bettor like yourself has a number of tools at your disposal to improve an overall winning percentage. Breaking down upcoming matchups and staying current on past results has never been easier. There is a wealth of valuable information right at your fingertips on a continuous basis. Successfully handicapping the outcome of any sporting event is still an art. However, the science of sports betting has made this task a bit simpler for anyone who loves to bet on the games. It is rather easy to find a comprehensive listing of all the stats, facts and recent betting trends for every major betting sport. The trick these days is to find the best sources of information with the most pertinent numbers for breaking down the games. There are a wealth of sports betting information sites that do an excellent job in delivering everything you need to handicap anything on the current betting board. These sites are updated on a continuous basis and they score high grades for thoroughness and accuracy. The online sportsbooks themselves also do an excellent job at providing sports bettors with everything needed to bet the games. From expanded online betting boards to helpful betting guides, many of the top online books make it extremely easy to get in on all the action. They are still the best source for placing the actual bets in the sports betting industry today. Most of the betting action that the online books take in still revolves around the major betting sports and basic wagering options. For example, plays against the spread and total line are the biggest bets for college football and the NFL. The same could be said for college basketball and the NBA. Football and basketball remain the heaviest bet sports in the US. When you move to an international basis, soccer becomes a major player in the game. A straight bet using a game’s spread and/or total line still accounts for most of the revenue any online sportsbook takes in. However, the best betting value can often be found in the betting options outside this realm. This could pertain to using the moneyline to bet football and basketball games, parlay bets and other exotics as well as betting team and player props for a particular matchup. Sometimes it can be easier to cash in on a player’s performance as opposed to betting on their team to cover the spread. The best online sportsbook betting strategy is a diverse one. Using all the advanced analytics at your fingertips to break down various aspects of a game can help you find the best value in a wide range of betting options. This can range from the total going OVER the posted line to one team’s quarterback going OVER the posted prop for total touchdown throws in that game. The deeper level of available information alone can be a very helpful handicapping tool. For example, knowing the betting trend for the home team getting points is good. Knowing that same team’s trend for getting points at home coming off a road win as a favorite is better. Knowing their record against the spread at home as an underdog when scoring first takes things to a whole new level.  

It is the dawn of a new decade in the sports betting industry. Rapid changes to the way US players bet on sports continues. More and more states are changing their laws to create legal ways to bet on sports. More and more top-flight online sportsbooks have opened up their sites to US bettors. Even with this rapid expansion of sports betting options, the private bookie working with a select cliental controls the bulk of the revenue generated by the entire sports betting industry. The role of a pay per head site providing the right online bookie services has taken on much more importance the past few years. It is safe to say that the only way you can run and manage a successful online independent sportsbook is with the help of a quality pay per head site. Their role in your private bookie operation is rather simple. A quality pay per head site offers a comprehensive and turnkey online sports betting software system. For most bookies, that software system is expanded to include a horse betting racebook platform along with an online casino app. Working hand-in-hand with the right PPH service is like adding a silent partner to become a full-scale online gambling service. While they are covering all the technical aspects of the operation, you are using your time and resources on the sales and marketing end. This can be a match made in heaven as long as you find the right pay per head site that can meet all of your business needs. If you are just starting out and have yet to settle in with a particular bookie services provider, this is the perfect time to perform your due diligence for finding the right fit. If you have an established bookie business that is coming up short on set financial goals, you need to begin your search for a PPH services that can help you take your business to a new level of success. Even if you are a veteran independent bookmaker with a thriving business, you always need to expect more from yourself with the help of a professional bookie services company. Standing still is the worst possible situation for any business. This creates the unwanted scenario of actually slipping backwards in the coming year. There is one thing that all three of these situations have in common. They all require that you as the private bookie take a more active interest in your current business situation. This also requires a pay per head site to prove they are not just talking the talk. They always need to walk the walk to more than justify the weekly per head fees charged for each active customer. A cut-rate pay per head site is going to provide cut-rate service. This includes online downtime, possible security issues and an operating system that can not deliver the online software solutions you need to compete. The right price per head shop has the necessary experience and level of expertise to change and evolve with the times. Many of these sites employ their own proprietary software solutions that take a customized approach to helping you be successful as a private bookie. Your pay per head site’s top goal should be to completely level the playing field against the competition from a technological standpoint. In turn, you need to fully exploit your edge in personalized customer service. More and more sophisticated sports bettors are looking for the higher level of service and attention to detail the big commercial online books are unable to provide.

The first weekend in December is reserved for championship games in the 10 Division IA (FBS) conferences. Some games will obviously be bigger than others but this is still one of the best betting events of the season. Get Real Time Sports Odds for all your Sports Betting needs The championship games in the five major conferences will set the four-team field for this season’s college football playoffs. The title games in the five Mid Majors will fill in some of the blanks for the biggest bowl games this year. All the action at your top-betting online sportsbook gets underway on Friday night at 8 p.m.. The 11-1 Utah Utes are still in playoff contention as a Top 5 team in the rankings. They will face the 10-2 Oregon Ducks in the Pac-12 title game as 6.5-point favorites. The total line for that game has been set at 50.5 points. The Ducks have won five of the last seven meetings but Utah is on an eight-game winning streak both straight-up and against the spread. Saturday’s schedule kicks things off at 12 p.m. with the Big 12 title game between the 11-1 Baylor Bears and the 11-1 Oklahoma Sooners. Each team has an outside chance at a playoff spot but they would need to win this game with authority. The Sooners are nine-point favorites with the total set at 62.5 points. Oklahoma has the SU five-game winning streak in this matchup with Baylor going 6-3 ATS in the last nine meetings. The Sooners beat Baylor 34-31 in the regular season, but they failed to cover as 10.5-point road favorites. Free picks against the spread and over under totals for all College Football Conference Championships games Moving to Saturday’s 4 p.m. start in the SEC, the Georgia Bulldogs will take on the top-ranked LSU Tigers in that conference championship game. LSU is favored by seven points with the total set at 57 points. These two did not meet in the regular season. Georgia ended the season 11-1 (7-5 ATS) on a 6-0 SU run with a 4-2 record ATS. The Tigers are a perfect 12-0 SU while going 7-3-2 ATS. The series is tied 5-5 SU in the last 10 meetings with LSU holding the 6-3-1 edge ATS. The total has gone OVER in seven of the last eight matchups. Does Your Pay Per Head NFL Hold Percentage Make the Grade? The ACC title game between the Clemson Tigers and the Virginia Cavaliers is set for 7:30 p.m. and Clemson is a heavy 28.5-point favorite. The opening total line is 54 points. The 12-0 Tigers have beaten Virginia in four of the last five meetings SU and they have covered ATS in six of their last seven games this season. Virginia upset Virginia Tech last Friday 39-30 as a two-point home underdog to earn a spot in this game. The Cavaliers are 9-3 SU with 6-5-1 record ATS. Bookie Software | Reviews of Best Online Pay Per Head Services The final championship game in a major conference is a matchup between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers (10-2 SU, 7-5 ATS) in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes have been opened as heavy 16.5-point favorites for the 8 p.m. kickoff with the total set at 54 points. Ohio State is a perfect 12-0 SU with a 9-3 record ATS. One of those wins (SU and ATS) came against Wisconsin at home on Oct. 26 in a lopsided 38-7 victory as a 14.5-point favorite. The Buckeyes have won the last seven meetings SU with a 6-1 record ATS. From a betting standpoint ATS, my lean would be towards all five favorites in these major matchups. With playoff spots on the line for all five teams giving points, I like their chances to cover with relative ease.  

It is crunch time in the NFL regular season. A few teams have emerged as legitimate Super Bowl contenders but those same teams have already demonstrated that they can be beaten on any given Sunday. NFL Football Game Previews and Predictions & Betting Tips It is safe to say that a rather high level of parity is alive and well throughout the league. The 0-11 Cincinnati Bengals and the 2-9 Washington Redskins are battling it out for the first overall pick in next year’s draft with the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants also in the mix. However, upsets have been a common occurrence all season long with favorites only winning 63.8 percent of their games straight-up. The best bet in the NFL through the first 12 weeks of the season has been road underdogs against the spread. They have cashed winning tickets 59.8 percent of the time. Underdogs in general have covered in 56.1 percent of the games. The big question for NFL bettors heading into the stretch run to the playoffs is where do these league trends go from here. If they hold up, then there is some tremendous value in betting underdogs when the actual matchup makes sense. On the other hand, this is the time of the year when the cream should start rising to the top adding value to strong favorites. Sportsbooks Reviews - Which online sportsbook is the best? From an individual team standpoint, the New England Patriots appear to have the inside edge to winning their third Super Bowl title in four seasons. They moved to 10-1 straight-up on the year with Sunday’s 13-9 grinder over Dallas in the slop at Gillette Stadium. They failed to cover as 5.5-point home favorites to slip to 7-4 against the spread on the year. New England’s quest for the top seed in the AFC begins this Sunday night in Houston as a 3.5-point road favorite. The Patriots will play host to Kansas City next Sunday in what could be an early preview of the AFC title game. It would also be a rematch of last year’s conference championship when the Patriots beat the Chiefs 37-31 in Kansas City as three-point underdogs. Pay Per Head Reviews - Which online Bookie Software is the best? The race to the top spot in the NFC took a very interesting turn in Week 12. The New Orleans Saints salvaged a 34-31 victory against Carolina as 10-point home favorites to improve to 9-2 SU on the year. They are 7-4 ATS after failing to cover in two of their last three games. The rubber will meet the road on Sunday, Dec. 8 with the 10-1 San Francisco 49ers coming into the Mercedes-Benz Super Dome. The 49ers made another statement that they are the real deal with Sunday night’s 37-8 beatdown of the Green Bay Packers as three-point home favorites. They have another test this Sunday as 4.5-point road underdogs against Baltimore. If San Francisco goes on to earn the top seed in the NFC, it would have earned it. The final two games of the season are against the Los Angeles Rams at home and 9-2 Seattle on the road. What Makes an Online Sportsbook a Top-Rated Site? When looking for solid betting teams this time of the year, the 8-3 Buffalo Bills should be on the list at 7-3-1 ATS. They face Dallas on Thursday as seven-point road underdogs. The Cowboys are 6-5 SU with a 7-4 mark ATS. So should the Arizona Cardinals. Coming off a Week 12 bye, they face the LA Rams this Sunday with a SU record of 3-7-1 while going 7-3-1 ATS. The early line has Arizona getting four points at home in that game.

Heading into the stretch run of the NFL season, there is only one of three ways to sum up your current year-to-date results when it comes to your overall hold percentage. Anything over 7.5 percent would be a very favorable result. A NFL hold percentage between 5 and 7.5 should be considered acceptable since it falls inline with the national average of the big commercial online sportsbooks. If your total NFL hold percentage falls below 5%, it is time to change up your strategy for taking bets and maintaining your NFL betting board. How Does Pay Per Head Work? The best way to manage your overall bookie business hold percentage is by working with a bookie quality pay per head site that offers the right business tools to improve the current situation. The hold percentage of any bookie operation is the life blood of the business. It drives weekly cash flow and, inevitably, the amount of money you walk away with at the end of the day. Given a standard 10 percent commission (or juice) charged for every losing bet, you should be able to reach that industry standard of 5 to 7.5 percent. By tweaking your business operations with the help of the right pay per head sportsbook service, there are proven ways to increase your overall hold percentage to boost your overall bottom line. Too many private bookies relate much of their costs with the weekly fees they pay for each active bettor. This is a basic cost of doing business online. A cheaper fee is not the answer if it results in cheaper service from your bookie software solutions provider. Paying for something that does not get the job done right is a waste of money no matter how much you think you are saving. Getting the right price per head site to help run and manage your bookmaking operation will be the most important business decision you will ever have to make. A big part of that service is fast and easy access to the right real time business analytics. Along with access to sharp betting lines right out of the gate, you need the ability to instantly move those betting lines across your entire betting board. How many times have you seen big online sportsbook NFL betting lines shift only hours after being released? The betting public (and the sharps) are poised to immediately pounce on lines perceived as being soft. Even the best professional line setting services deliver a soft line here and there. Maintain a Balanced Betting Board With Pay Per Head Your role as a private bookmaker is to move your lines according to the early action you take in. That is why you need a PPH service with the right real time reports. You also need mass edit capabilities and the ability to raise and lower credit and betting limits on an account by account basis. Your time should be spent looking for ways to capitalize on opportunities ahead of the curve. Spending your days putting out fires and fending off negative exposure that will affect cash flow and your overall hold percentage is not the way you should be spending your time. Comparing Pay Per Head Bookie Software Services The proper management of your overall betting board does fall on your shoulders as a bookie agent. However, having the right pay per head site by your side as that silent business partner is essential to managing that board. You should be able to anticipate betting patterns and habits across your entire sports betting customer base. Having the proper business information when you need it greatly aids in the process. Evening out the money on either side of a single bet is still the best way to increase the overall profit taken in.

While there are a multitude of choices when it comes to betting any sport online, finding the right book for an extended NBA season should become a top priority. The regular season is 82 games followed by four rounds of best-of-seven playoff series all the way to this season’s championship. This represents nearly eight months of betting action from late October right through early June. Sportsbooks | Reviews of Best Online Sports Betting Sites One of the biggest ways that online books try and attract new bettors is through welcome bonus offers. Most of these initial bonuses are tied to a match on the first deposit into your online betting account. Always remember, that the actual amount of the bonus is not as important as the requirements in place to actually earn it. For example, sportsbook A may be offering a 100% match up to $1000 on your first deposit, but it also has a 20x rollover requirement to earn that bonus. A rollover is the number of times a set amount must be bet. Book B is offering a 100% match up to $500, but its rollover requirement is only 10x. You always need to do the math on how much you actually have to bet to receive any bonus offer. You also have to closely read the terms and conditions of any offer to make sure it fits your betting strategy and style. How to bet on Basketball? When it comes to finding the right book to bet the NBA, you really want to focus on their betting board. There are any number of ways to bet on a basketball game. From the basic straight bets on pointspreads and totals to live in-game betting options, you want an online sportsbook that offers diversity in its NBA betting options. Before the regular season even gets underway, one of the best value plays on the board are all the various NBA futures. Unlike other major sports leagues such as the NFL for football or the NHL for hockey, there is a limited amount of teams that have a realistic shot at winning their conference or NBA title. Bookie Software | Reviews of Best Online Pay Per Head Services Betting longshots when it comes to NBA futures is a good way to waste your money. Over the past 10 NBA seasons, only seven different teams have won a championship. More recently, only three different teams have played in the NBA Finals over the past five seasons. Quite a bit of player movement this past offseason by some of the top names in the game should make things more interesting this season, but there are just two or three teams in each conference with a legitimate chance win it all. What you are really looking for in an online bookie is NBA futures for things such as the OVER/UNDER on total wins, division titles, individual player futures and anything else that might be a bit more off the beaten path. When it comes to betting the games themselves, once again diversity should remain the main point of difference. NBA game props are an excellent way to both diversify your overall betting strategy and add value to the posted odds. Betting the OVER/UNDER on a player’s total points, rebounds and assists that particular night can be a great way to hedge a straight bet on the game’s total line. The ability to mix and match the action you have on any NBA game can help improve your overall winning percentage.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are headed to Camp Randall to take on the Wisconsin Badgers in a pivotal Big Ten West matchup between two teams chasing Minnesota to regain control of the division. While this is not an elimination game, it might as well be with Iowa and Wisconsin both having 2 conference losses already and Minnesota being undefeated. While the Golden Gophers have a tough stretch to end the season, I think that whichever of these 3 can go 2-0 will win the conference, but it does get sticky if they all go 1-0, where I believe that Minnesota would have a big edge. Both teams are coming into this game off of a bye and I think that that is extremely important for the Badgers in particular. Wisconsin was undefeated and rolling into the top 5 conversation before stumbling at Illinois and then getting rolled by Ohio State next week. This bye week should allow the Badger to reset and refocus on getting back to the Big 10 championship game with the ability to possibly head to a good bowl game. Iowa Offense vs. Wisconsin Defense Iowa and Wisconsin both generally play in a slow-paced game with limited scoring and I expect this to be the case here, especially with the bye week for both teams to remain fundamentally sound. If you watched Illinois beat Wisconsin a few weeks ago, you would notice that the Fighting Illini really took advantage of the matchups that they had on the outside and I think that the Hawkeyes should attempt to create big plays as well. The issue is that Nate Stanley has struggled mightily against good defenses this season and Wisconsin has been really good at getting pressure. While Stanley has struggled to throw downfield against elite defenses, Smith-Marsette has been impressive when it comes to getting space downfield and winning long routes. If Smith-Marsette can get loose, I expect Iowa to score points, but I think this can only be done if Wisconsin really respects the running game. While it would seem easy to do this since Illinois was able to connect a few times, Illinois actually has an elite pass-blocking grade and Iowa has struggled, particularly against Michigan and Penn State. Iowa will rely on Mehki Sargent to make the Wisconsin defense more susceptible to the deep shots by running well. Wisconsin has historically been a great run defense team and I expect that to be the case in this game. The Badgers got crushed by Ohio State on the ground last week, but I don’t think we can expect the Hawkeyes to recreate that. Wisconsin Offense vs. Iowa Defense The Badgers are a run-heavy football team that will challenge Iowa’s ability to stop them and I would be relatively surprised to see Iowa give up a huge game to Jonathan Taylor. Last season, Taylor only averaged 4.5 YPC in this matchup, but it allowed for 210 passing yards and three touchdowns and Jack Coan is playing better than Alex Hornibrook was a season ago. I expect to see a very similar outcome here unless Iowa thinks that they must respect Coan. I would think that they force Coan to beat them and this will not end particularly well for Iowa. While Coan cannot kill them, I believe that he should be able to do enough to score 20-30 points here. Spread Picks As a -8.5 point favorite, it will be scary taking the Badgers here, but that is what I have to do. I expect Iowa to be suffocated on the offensive side of the ball and that will eventually turn into good field position and points for the Badgers. This game sets up like a 24-10 game in favor of Wisconsin, good for the Badgers and the under. Bet the Badgers and the under at *PayPerHead247.com* our favorite pay per head bookie site. Learn more about PayPerHead247: PayPerHead247 Bookie Software is Secure and Easy To Use Branded Bookie Websites with PayPerHead247 Thousands of Bookies Have Turned to PayPerHead247

The start of November marks the start of a new season of college basketball. Joining a wide range of sports betting leagues already in play, early play in college hoops tends to get lost in the mix. The heavy focus remains on college football and the NFL’s march to the postseason followed by the new season in the NBA and, to a lesser extent, the NHL. With so much betting action on the board at your favorite online sportsbook, you really need to develop a comprehensive betting strategy for the final two months of the year to fully capitalize on this unique opportunity. Ways to Bet on College Basketball at Online Sportsbooks The first thing is to make sure college basketball is in the mix. Too many bettors put this sport on the backburner until the first of the New Year when conference play gets underway. Early nonconference play in college basketball offers some of the best value on the board of any sport in action. By now, the Oddsmakers are releasing extremely sharp lines for football given all the games already in the sportsbooks. They will continue to sharpen things up for the NBA as well as for the NHL given the early results for these two professional leagues. College basketball is a blank slate at the beginning of a new season. Many of the top teams in the nation have new faces scattered throughout their starting five. While the expectation level is raised for the best teams in the country, nobody has gotten to see just how well these freshman phenoms will be able to play as a team. Online Sportsbooks Raise the Bar for US Sports Bettors Early season games create quite a bit of guesswork with bettors, but there is also a high level of guess work among the sports handicappers setting the lines. This is especially true in games that do not involve marquee programs. Adding to the uncertainly are nonconference matchups between teams that rarely if ever face one another. You have to break down the game while trying to gauge the impact of incoming freshmen and added transfers. You also have to factor in how much talent a team lost from the year before. In the midst of so many unknowns, underdogs gain a certain appeal. Understanding the Bettor vs. Online Sportsbook Relationship The online bookies already know that the early money will go towards high-profile programs listed as favorites. The games that you want to focus on is solid programs getting points. These teams become especially attractive playing at home. Every college basketball team is looking to get a fast start out of the gate. Understanding how their season ended last year can be a motivational plus. Did they make an unexpected early exit from the NCAA Tournament? Did they make a longer run that most bettors expected? These are the type of motivating factors that could carry over into early play. Many of the early games are played at neutral sites in a tournament format. Checking a team’s recent record against the spread at home, on the road and at a neutral site becomes an important part of the handicapping process. Another important aspect of betting early season games is access to a reliable injury report. Some teams may not be at full strength due to lingering injuries to a key player. The coach may decide to rest any player who is a bit nicked up early in the year. The main focus of the schedule is still conference play after the first of the year. There is quite a bit of value to be found betting early season basketball if you take the time to look for it. Stick to the teams you follow and know the best. This is another great way to uncover value in the betting lines.