By Ryan Bologna
To put it simply, sharps are legit bettors – not the guys who are bragging about their near perfect parlays on Instagram or drunk at the bar. They actually impact the lines at the sportsbook.
The term “sharp” is a slang word that’s used in sports betting circles to describe a “serious, smart, high-dollar sports bettor.” Sharp bettors win more bets than they lose. Individuals or groups of people could be considered sharps. They are typically grinding every day to find the best odds across all of the sportsbooks, usually in collaboration with multiple people. There are a variety of methods they use that range from complex algorithms, math models or handicapping.
To be more specific, a bettor needs to win about 55% of their bets to be considered a sharp. To break even in the typical -110 betting market, you need to win more than 52.4% of your wagers to break even. Nothing shows how hard it is to be a profitable sports bettor than those statistics. The best sharp bettors win about 60 to 65% of their bets. Because sharps bet large amounts, it is profitable for them even if they are winning 55% of their bets. How do they have this success? They take the emotions out of their bets. You’ve probably heard it before, but the say to not bet with your heart. The sharps take that advice to the extreme. Throw out emotions, biases, take all the information into account, and look for value plays. That’s what sharps do, and if you want to go from a recreational bettor to a successful one, that’s the mindset you need to have.
Doing that alone isn’t enough to be considered a sharp bettor. You would have to spend hours each day analyzing games and statistics, it’s essentially a full-time job. As mentioned before, the large wagers they place give them the ability to be profitable. That is a source of livelihood for some of these people.
Sharps are respected by oddsmakers and sportsbooks because of how often they win their bets. They are able to notice their activities and take that into account when adjusting lines. Reverse line movement could happen. For instance, if the majority of bets are on one team, but the line moves in the opposite direction, that is an indication that sharp bettors are going the other way. There is also something called a steam move. That is when a sudden line movement takes place in response to a wave of money coming in on one side of a game. That money usually comes from syndicates. A syndicate is a collection of sharp bettors that are working towards a common goal, which is finding the best value bets as fast as possible.
Whether you are intimidated by sharps or have the goal of replicating some of their success, we hope you learned from this and can add some strategies to your betting habits.
