Early College Football Line Moves
Keep your Eye on the Sky – Stay Informed
College Football lines move for a variety of reasons. At many times, a bettor will know the reason of a move and can take advantage of it. Other times, only a select few know what’s really going on with movement on a particular Game. If you’re objective is to take advantage of line moves early in the week, you have to be very careful.
For example, it’s not uncommonfor a professional betting group or syndicate, or individual wiseguy, to manipulate early week college football lines. Limits are much lower early in the week. Even lower on Sunday Nights when the lines come out. It’s very easy to move a line early in the week. For example, the first sportsbook to post lines each week, may open a college football Game -4. It wouldn’t take much to move that early line to -6. The next couple of books to post lines might open at 5, but they’ll be quickly bet up to -6 as well. As Sunday night moves along, many more books will post their lines, and they’ll simply copy, or clone the lines of the sportsbooks that already opened up.
By Monday, most sportsbooks have their lines posted, and everyone is -6 on this particular Game. Well, the wiseguy, or syndicate that moved that early line from 4 to 6 knows that later in the week, when they can get more down on the Game, they will be taking +6 or more. Line manipulation in it’s purest form. If you bet the Game at -4 and you plan on middling the Game for example, you had better watch that line like a hawk all week because those +6’s will disappear in 30 seconds or less when they come back in and play the other side!
Of course, weather also moves lines, but sportsbooks can be slow to react. For example, this is hurricane season. As of this writing, Hurricane Earl is churning in the Atlantic, heading towards the East Coast. No one knows for sure where it’s going, but you can speculate. The storm doesn’t have to make a direct hit anywhere to have an impact on the weather along the East Coast, from the Carolinas all the way up through New England. Likewise with storms that go into the Gulf and hook up and have their remnants affect the Midwest all the way through the Northeast. It’s one of the easiest ways to middle a college football total. Get the track of the storm down and bet the under anywhere it looks like the storm will impact. This happens every single year in the NFL and College Football.
Stay tuned to team websites, radio, and other news sOurces. Injuries and suspensions are another great way to take advantage of line moves. As of this writing, the LSU/North Carolina Game has major question marks due to the Tar Heels being under investiGAtion for some violations. No ones knows yet which players, if any, will be suspended for their opener. Find out before the masses and you’ll have yourself a nice middle on this Game.
Information is the key folks. Stay informed. Do your homework. There’s more to making a profit betting football than just picking which team will cover the spread!