Newbie questions about FB lines

[Cardfan]

1) Football lines are set in an attempt to get the same amount of money bet on each side?

2) The betting trends at times seems very lopsided (ie 85%-15%). Sometimes the line will move, to adjust that, and sometimes it doesn't. Why is that?

3) When the line adjusts, sometimes the point spread will remain the same, but the juice, or payoff amount changes. Or the payoff will remain the same, and the point spread will move.

What determines which way the sites adjust their lines?


4) Is there a general rule of thumb, in equivalency, for how many points in the line movement, would relate to changing the payoff amount?

5) Is there really such a thing as a sucker game, set up with a point spread, to make one team overly attractive, to intentionally get a huge amount bet on one side?

[SBR_John]

Great questions.

Bookmakers will profile players and use a pool of their sharpest players to adjust their lines. So 20 regular players may bet the max on the game but that will not move the line. But 2 sharps will play the game opposite the regular players and the bookmaker will move the line to inflate the price that the sharps bet.

Question 3 is basically they will move the money instead of the line as sort of a half measure. The bookmaker wants to wait and see so a half measure is to move the money slightly in advance of a line move.

Question 4 I think this depends on how and why there is movement in the first place. If there is a surprize injury and a player is going to be out it will move quickly and there likely will be no movement on the money or as you call it the payout amount. But most games crawl with the flow of bets. It also is a lot up to the style of bookmaker. Some like to keep it simple and only move the line.

5 Not really but books will shade one side or the other sometimes based on their opinion of a game.

[homedog]

2) Very simple. The consensus that you see does not tell the entire story. Sharps wagering more money will influence the lines more than the public consensus.

5) There are definitely cases where the book chooses a side.