The world of sports betting is packed with intriguing concepts that can greatly influence your betting strategies. HOFBets is here to guide you through it. Today, we're exploring the idea of ‘Alternate Lines', a term essential for any sports bettor whether they prefer MLB picks and parlays, NBA picks and parlays, or truly any form of sports betting.
In sports betting, ‘Alternate Lines' or as they are commonly referred to as ‘Alt Lines’ reference the modified set of lines offered by sportsbooks apart from the standard betting lines. These lines give bettors more control over their wagers by allowing them to adjust the point spread or over/under total to their preference, which can be particularly helpful when dealing with player props or deciding different game lines for today.
These alternate lines can provide better odds or offer more risk but with a potentially larger payout, making them a valuable tool in your sports betting analytics toolbox. These are commonly offered for many types of bets, from player props to spread bets. Let’s look at some examples of different alt lines from a sportsbook.
Let’s look at an upcoming MLB game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Atlanta Braves. As always, books should offer you all the traditional lines: moneyline, spread, and over/under. We can see these bets being offered here:
However, for game lines such as Over/Unders or Spreads, there will often be a series of alternate lines offered that can allow you to wager on different outcomes.
For instance, here are the alternate lines that are being offered for the spread:
And here are the alternate lines being offered for total runs:
In addition to these game lines, these are frequently offered for different player props as well. For example, MLB games will have a traditional over/under offering for pitcher strikeouts, such as this:
But they will also typically include alternate lines for the pitcher’s to strike out different numbers than what is listed for the original prop, such as these alternate lines below.
From this you can clearly see that there are often many, many more bets than one would originally expect and from there, unfathomably more options when putting together your parlays and plays for today.
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Understanding and effectively using alternate lines can dramatically affect your betting success. It offers more flexibility in your betting approach, particularly if you're considering higher payout bets, such as NBA parlays or NFL parlays. Even if you are simply looking for safer plays that will consistently build your bankroll, utilizing alternate lines can be an incredible way to start winning more bets.
Using alternate lines effectively requires strategic thinking:
Risk vs. Reward Analysis: Weigh the increased or decreased risk against the potential reward. Is the additional risk worth the potential payout? Are you losing potential value by taking lower odds? Depending on the type of play you are looking at, utilizing these varied approaches can lead you towards discovering bets that are more properly aligned with whatever your strategy is.
Knowledge of Teams: Understanding team performance, strengths, and weaknesses can help you make informed decisions on alternate lines. Is a team facing off against a tough pitcher? Do they typically perform worse on the road than at home? There are always a multitude of factors to consider when placing bets and utilizing alternate lines can be a sharp way of navigating many of these unseen factors.
Line Shopping: Just as with standard lines, always compare alternate lines across different sportsbooks to find the best value. Generally, if a line is being offered at a better price at one sportsbook versus another you should always take it where the odds are best.
Combining powerful data analytics with a simple user interface to make all your betting research easier, Hall of Fame Bets is the premier sports betting analytics research platform. When it comes to researching alternate lines, the platform is specially engineered to provide you the best insights and discover where the best value is.
Using our platform, you can seamlessly filter through data for teams and players alike to provide insight into past performances in order to find value in matchups and make smarter bets.
Let’s take a look at another MLB game for an example of how our platform can aid in your research process. Looking at the upcoming Blue Jays game, we can see that their starting pitcher Chris Bassitt has his over/under line for strikeouts listed at 5.5.
As we can see, the over is priced at -110, but when looking at his performance in our platform, we can see that he has hit the over in just 32% of games, meaning that the line has implied odds of +215. This means that the expected value of this bet would be negative and it would not be a very smart bet.
However, what if we wanted to bet on him to record strikeouts, but just at a lower number?
Changing our search from ‘under’ to ‘at least’ and then adjusting the number we are including, we can begin to look at the implied odds of some different numbers.
We can see he has an incredible hit rate when we shift the line down to 4+, giving him implied odds of -1010. Looking back at the alternate lines, we can see that this bet is being offered for -525, meaning that there should be some immense value on this particular bet.
This is just one small example of just how powerful our system can be when it comes to researching sports betting analytics – and how using it can lead you to winning more and betting smarter! Interested in a more in-depth on using our platform for putting together same game parlays? Check our article out here.
Alternate lines offer an exciting twist to sports betting, adding an extra layer of strategy and flexibility to your bets. They're an important tool to consider, whether you're looking into player props, planning your parlay picks for today, or betting on your favorite sports.
Stay tuned for more posts as we continue to unravel the world of sports betting. If you found this post useful, share it with fellow bettors and let's grow together. Happy betting!
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All odds in this article are from DraftKings Sportsbook.