Sharp Bettors Driving Broncos-Cardinals Line Movement

It's been a while since we've had a true Thursday Night Football matchup. You know the ones I'm talking about: Two bad teams in a fairly meaningless matchup that you end up hating yourself for devoting three hours of your time to watching.

Now I'm not saying this game will necessarily be bad. All I'm saying is that Broncos and Cardinals have a combined record of 3-9, don't play in the same conference and are among the seven lowest-scoring offenses in the league.

But just because it may not be the most exciting matchup doesn't mean it has no betting value.

And in this case, sharps are finding that value on one side.

Denver Broncos @ Arizona Cardinals

8:20 p.m. ET | FOX/NFL Network

Sharp angle: Cardinals (moved from +2.5 to +1)

The opening line in this game differed depending on the sportsbook. BetOnline, for example, had the earliest opening number at Arizona -2.5, while Bookmaker — one of the sharpest, market-setting books — opened at Arizona +1.

Whichever the number, early bets were all over the Broncos. So much so, in fact, that the line across the market moved up to Denver -2.5 — which is where Pinnacle eventually opened this game.

That's when sharp bettors stepped in.

Sports Insights' Bet Signals have triggered two reverse line moves on Arizona — one at +2.5 and another at +1.5. Those have helped bring this line back down to +1 even though the Cardinals are getting only 31% of bets.

And although it's not a major discrepancy, those 31% of bets are accounting for 36% of dollars wagered, an indication that bigger bets — more likely to be from sharps — are behind the Cards.