Millions of people enjoy sports betting every day, and another thing they all have in common is that they are always looking for ways to gain an edge and an advantage. There are tons of techniques out there, and line shopping is just one of them, but it works slightly differently from others, as it’s something that, to an extent, mitigates risk.

One thing you can be sure of where betting with licensed bookmakers online is concerned is that there is always an element of risk involved. It’s why the term for doing so is called gambling because it doesn’t matter if you’re betting on a team at really short odds because they’re the heavy favourites; it’s always possible that the bet could lose. And while many are fine with taking the risks sports betting involves, others want to negate the risk as much as possible.

 

If you don’t know what line shopping is, in short, it’s when a sports bettor uses multiple sports betting platforms and tracks odds, and more specifically, odds discrepancies. And usually, this happens when a bet is already in play, so to speak. An example of what we mean is say if a sports bettor has put money on Manchester United to beat West Ham United at Old Trafford in a Premier League soccer game, they could then check the odds offered on West Ham or the draw, as a discrepancy could see money placed on this too, which could help to guarantee a profit.

If you’re unsure, another example could be in a boxing match between, say, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. The odds of Fury winning the bout could be set at 1.50, and a sports bettor could place a wager of $100 on it, with the price of Usyk winning at the time 2.50. But, in the run-up to the fight, Usyk’s odds could increase to 3.25, and if this was to happen, and a punter put around $50 on this outcome occurring at that price, it’s almost certain to guarantee them a return of between 1% and 5%.

There are multiple reasons why many could choose to use the technique described above in the sports betting world, and it’s usually because they are risk-averse or because they have lost some confidence in their original bet. For example, they could have heard Fury had a bad training camp, and this leads them to believe that Usyk will have more of a chance of winning and Fury more of a chance of losing than when the bet was initially struck.

There is another scenario associated with line shopping, and it’s when a line changes, usually because money has been placed in a specific direction. An example of this was at the Super Bowl when the Pittsburgh Steelers started out as the 3.5-point favourite over the opposition outfit Dallas Cowboys. But, after being heavily backed, the line was adjusted to 4.5, eventually settling at 4.0. It led to many betting on the Cowboys as a result, as they were following the line shopping technique.