After watching the first three rounds of the NCAA tournament, I was asking myself........do "trap lines" really exist? Afterall, Vegas and other online sports books just don't give away money right? This has indeed been a question of mine ever since I started betting on sports four years ago.
I know that many people swear they are out there, but I for one have never bought into this concept. The first full weekend of games delivered some very fishy lines in the eyes of the public bettor, but if you had Georgetown -3 over Belmont on Friday,or Xavier -4 over Lehigh last night, you would have had two easy winners right in front of you. What about Marquette only laying 5.5 points against BYU in a game that they ended up winning by twenty. On Thursday, I was told by another covers member that Murray State -5.5 over Colorado State was the "sucker bet" of the day. I then proceeded to sift through the NCAA Basketball forum only to find a majority of guys on the Rams of Colorado State +5.5 in that game. Of course, this had me second guessing my Murray State play. Well, the Racers ended up winning that game by 17, so I guess the only "sucker" in this case were the lines makers.
I know that I am speaking in hindsight here, and that I can also give plenty of examples where the public bettor has been unofficially "trapped", but I strongly believe that us sports bettors put too much thought and stock into what is a trap and what isn't. Any pick against the spread in any sport is difficult. If we as sports bettors can find a spot where we believe the lines makers have "slipped up", it should be our duty to take full advantage. Isn't that the whole concept of handicapping a game anyways? All thoughts on this interesting and debatable subject are welcomed and looked forward to. Thanks for listening.
I'm seriously looking into investing in one of the covers experts' monthly picks pass. I'm looking for feedback from anybody who has purchased and used these subscriptions before. Which "experts" do you prefer or are maybe better than the others? Were your results positive? Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.