Wake and Rake: Sharps Aggressive in Early College Hoops Betting

Good bets lose and bad bets win. As those who tailed me with Aric Almirola to win Daytona know, even the best of bets can still come up short. Conversely, as those who read Sunday's Wake and Rake, subpar bets can still win.

While the Michigan State-Wisconsin under still covered, we highlighted the the matchup with the line at 134, but late over money pushed the closing total up to 135.5. Is this a huge difference? Absolutely not. But the point of this is to emphasize that professional bettors don't gauge their success on wins and losses alone; they also want to beat the closing number.

With this in mind, sharp bettors are surprisingly active this morning and already pounding one total on a small college basketball slate, so let's jump in and join them in getting the best of the number.

The Duke-Virginia Tech over/under opened at 161 and is receiving plenty of attention from both sharp and recreational bettors. At the time of publication, 74% of tickets have played the under, while our Bet Signals triggered a Steam Move at 158.5, which explains how the market settled down to the current number of 157.

According to our number of bets statistic, this game is already generating a massive betting handle, which means the amount of early money coming in is forcing oddsmakers to be aggressive adjusting the line in order to keep pace with building liability.