do bookies really care about their opening lines?

[Juret]

how much do bookies really care about their opening lines? I mean, are they vulnerable to sharp bettors that will take huge positions quickly on those early lines, so that they need to be precise in their assessments? or are they confident that they will be able to "green up" later on by changing the spread according to the stakes they receive, which means that a -3 spread opener on a NFL game could just as well have been -4, they just play a picking game.. I hope it was clear

[Hareeba!]

Pinnacle simply uses them to sound out the market by imposing low limits when the first bring their lines out and quickly move them to reflect the demand. Only when they have found the point of market equilibrium do they increase limits to their maximum levels.

[Juret]

that makes sense.. thanks!

[Monte]

Yea...the good books use early (and mostly sharp) action to adjust the lines, they don't care much about openers as long as they didn't miss the ballpark =p
And the bad books cry if you get a good line and call themselves recreational, all while taking -110 juice of course.
Real bookmaking is about moving fast enough to keep up with the demand and the market, that's why i like to say that all those little "recreational" books are...well whatever, but not bookmakers.

[IrishTim]

Bingo, thread over.

[Mudcat]

Opening lines are extremely important to books. They would much rather not leave themselves open to being middled.

[gman2114]

bookings are nothing but bad bettors. they are brutal in their decisions and abuse of players.

[BChrisB]

I don't think the larger book really care because they throw something out and can generate enough action to adjust and correct the line to the "right" number. However, I can imagine smaller books are more concerned about it. I'm sure (I think and assume but don't know for a fact) this is why smaller books are slower with lines and tend to mirror the lines of larger books. However, this is based by nothing more than personal observation and I'm sure there are others out there that know a hell of a lot more about this than me.

[Frogger]

Sometimes when they miss the ballpark still ok too. They opened Nevada -13 this last week and the line closed -7.5 so all that early action the booked took at +13 took a nosedive

[Frank]

The answer is no in american sports except for Cris/BM and Greek.

They are the only 2 books to use their own numbers.

Every other book just copies.

Even Pinnacle just copies openers with exception to maybe WNBA.

[King_Suckerman]

who do Pinnacle copy?

[Frank]

Pinnacle has posted the non-tv college hoops games before Greek some days.

Cris/BM only have been posting totals in college hoops on TV games.

Every other line in american sports that they open with is not posted until after Cris or Greek takes the initial hits.

While they might be the best book in the world, they are 3rd in line when it comes to openers.

Also Pinny almost always let 2h lines get ironed out for a minute or two or three before putting them up.

[Arilou]

Anyone who posts the line relatively early cares about how accurate the line is. Yes, you can say you're writing so much juice later so why do you care but no one likes to lose money on early wagers, or anything else, if they don't have to. It's a cost of doing business, perhaps, but like any cost they'd greatly prefer if it was smaller.

It's *much* harder to open a -105/-105 line than a -110/-110 line and not get seriously hurt. If you lay -4 on an NFL game, a -110 book can go to -5.5 and if they get a +5.5 they're fine, so it's hard to get hurt that much. Or in a juice situation, they lay -110 and you go to -125! Meanwhile a Pinnacle takes a -105 and has to go to -113 then -122 or so with almost no earn on any playback.