Friday’s Key Betting Trends to Know for Every Sport

Friday’s Key Betting Trends to Know for Every Sport article feature image
Credit:

Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

You may have heard: We have a lot of fancy tools here at The Action Network. Chief among them is our software that gathers real-time betting data on every game played in every major sport.

You can see that data in its full glory here, but the point of this story is to weed through the sea of games and percentages and tell you the real story behind the numbers.

All info as of Friday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. ET.

Lopsided Ticket Count

What we're looking at here is the percentage of total bets. So, for example, if there have been 1,000 wagers on a game, and 800 of them have taken the favorite, then that team's ticket percentage is 80%.

Why's this important? A really high ticket percentage is usually a clear indicator of who public bettors (aka the guys who don't do this for a living) are taking. And breaking news: The majority of public bettors aren't successful over the long haul.

NBA

Warriors (-13.5) at Kings: Public bettors are having no problem loading up on the Warriors tonight, making Golden State the most popular NBA bet in the most heavily-bet game across all sports.

College Basketball

Canisius (-8) at Marist: Behind 80% of spread action, Canisius has moved up a full point to -8 since this game opened.

NHL

Note: Based on the relatively even betting for all four games, there's nothing notable to report regarding NHL ticket counts. 

Lopsided Money

This is the same idea as above, except the data centers entirely around the percentage of total money bet. So, for example, if $10,000 in total has been wagered on a game, and $8,000 of that is backing the favorite, then that team's money percentage is 80%.

Why's this important? Generally speaking, professional bettors will wager more money on a given game than your regular Joe. So this metric can be very useful in figuring out who the wiseguys are betting, especially when you factor in the ticket percentages above and any changes to the spread.

NBA

Pacers at Hornets (-3): While Indiana has attracted 56% of spread tickets, 71% of dollars wagered have taken Charlotte, explaining the line move from Hornets -2.5 to -3 at Bookmaker.eu.

College Basketball

Rhode Island (-5) at VCU: In the days most heavily bet NCAAB game of the day, 69% of dollars have taken URI, pushing the line up from an opener of -4 to the current number of -5.

NHL

Red Wings at Hurricanes (-165): Sixty-two percent of dollars wagered on the moneyline have taken Carolina, making it the most lopsided game, in terms of real money, of the small NHL slate.

Photo via Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

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