Reverse Line Movements Explained

Mid Week Gambling Talk

Reverse line movements take place when a large majority of bets are on one team, yet the line moves in the opposite direction. This means that larger sums of money were placed on the opposite bet as the majority of bets. The reason the line moved in a reverse direction from the majority of bets is that the bookie (Vegas usually) wants to keep as close to the same amount of money on each side of a bet which guarantees the bookie walks away with a profit.

This is seen as a strong indication and something that should be paid attention to because the large sums of money are seen as "Smart Money". The concept of smart money is that if someone or a group of people are wagering a large enough sum of money to move the line in the opposite direction of the public they may have found a trend in data or have more information than the public bettor.

Example:

Line= Cavs -8 vs Heat

73 percent of all bets were placed on the Cavs. Yet, the Cavs line dropped from an opener of -7 to a closing line of -5½. This means that large wagers or "Smart Money" was placed on the Heat and Vegas moved the line to try and keep an even amount of money on both sides of the line.