Basketball wagering is obviously not as popular as football wagering but there are gamblers that actually like it more. When it comes to sports betting you have probably heard the term “smart money.” Let’s look at smart money as it applies to basketball wagering and see if it is really that smart.
Basketball betting presents more opportunities to make money than any other sports simply for the fact that there are so many games. When it comes to smart money in basketball betting , in the late 1980’s through the mid 1990’s there was truly smart money in college basketball betting from a huge betting syndicate. College basketball betting lines would move 4 or 5 points all the time and usually those games were winners. Those days are long gone. There are really not that many betting syndicates anymore and the few that do exist don’t hold much power and aren’t as successful as years ago in basketball betting .
When it comes to smart money in basketball betting the thought process was that a syndicate or wise guy was responsible for moving the college and NBA online wagering lines. Everyone thought that someone must know something and that is why the line moved. This opinion is wrong. The people moving the college or NBA online wagering numbers rarely know anything of consequence or have any inside information. What happens today with so-called smart money moves in basketball wagering is that a group may make a play on a game but it is because they handicapped the game and saw a basketball wagering line worth taking, not because they had this so-called inside information.
What you should also know about this so-called smart money in basketball wagering is that it is not very smart at all. The long-term results have showed that the smart money does no better than any other type of basketball wagering line moves. The other part of the problem with smart money is identifying what it actually is as you look at the college or NBA online wagering line. Some people think it is anytime a college or NBA online wagering line moves more than a point from the opener it is smart money. That is totally wrong. Smart money moves may only end up being a ½ point or a point and it could be that the move comes late in the day after the public has taken the other side in basketball betting. It is very difficult to determine which moves are smart money and which ones are not and then you still might not make any money following them.