Originally posted on 12/28/2015:
Jay not to be a huge dick but I am very confused how you have 1,111 posts and have no idea what hedging is. You can't bet both sides of a game to guarantee profit, it doesn't work that way. Unless you are shopping for lines and take both sides as dog MLs but I don't think that's what you're proposing.
In sports wagering people decide to hedge in a few situations:
1. To guarantee some return on a parlay/futures bet
2. To recoup a previous wager. Say you bet on team "A" to win the game and after the first half you don't feel great about your bet. For the second half you could bet team "B" to recoup some or most of your original wager. This is a simplified example, could also use live betting for the same outcome.
In both 1 and 2 above you're losing value by betting the other side because you're paying extra juice.