As we look at NBA basketball betting, we often hear the term “wise guys.” Who are the NBA betting wise guys? What makes them wise? Are they really that good when it comes to NBA betting? In the mid to late 1980’s and throughout most of the 1990’s the term “wise guys” was definitely feared by sportsbooks around the world.
There was a time in college basketball gambling when the wise guys would move the basketball betting lines by 4 or 5 points on a regular basis and the game was nearly an automatic winner. Those days are long since gone. That particular wise guy group was a computer group known in the 1990’s, but we haven’t seen anything since that rivals them.
Who is considered a wise guy in the NBA betting world? The term really refers to those gamblers, groups or syndicates that bet a lot of money on games, enough money to actually move the NBA odds. Moving the line is not enough though to be considered a wise guy. Some idiot might bet the Super Bowl just because it is the big game and they have a lot of money. That person is not a wise guy. He might have the money but he doesn’t have the knowledge or information. Another qualification for being a wise guy in NBA basketball betting is that your money means respect.
When a wise guy bets a few thousand against the NBA odds the number moves. If someone unknown bets that same amount it is unlikely the game would move the same. Wise guys are often part of NBA betting syndicates. A syndicate is a group of people that play the games as a group. They might use a computer system or have a very good NBA basketball betting handicapper that gives them plays. It is possible for NBA betting wise guys to not be part of a syndicate but most of the time the big money comes from a group of individuals known in the betting world as a syndicate.
As we look at NBA basketball betting today we see far fewer syndicates than ever before. The few NBA betting syndicates that do exist are not very well known and that is how they like it. The days of the computer group or major syndicates moving the NBA odds a great deal are pretty much over. Once in a while there will still be a major move in NBA odds, but finding out where it came from is difficult. NBA basketball betting wise guys still exist, but they are harder to identify and definitely fewer in number.