Betting: Is it smart to hedge?
Jared Quay, Preston Johnson & Matt Moore of the Action Network discuss whether it is smart to hedge or middle a bet.
Video Transcript
JARED QUAY: How do you feel about middles and hedging? And things like that?
PRESTON JOHNSON: The short answer is I think they're absolutely fine. I think-- now you've got to remember you're paying the vig, right? You're betting minus 110 one time, and you're betting it again another time. But if you're going into it like hey look, Kawhi Leonard is going to the bench. I'm going to bet on Memphis now.
And then when Kawhi comes back, I'm going to play back and bet the Clippers, I think there's spots that can set up, you know, especially if you're batting sides. And you could end up getting, you know, minus 3 and 1/2 on one team and plus 6 and 1/2 on another team. And that's going to pay itself off in the long run.
So there are definitely spots I think it's worthwhile. But you don't want to do it too frequently, or else you kind of juice yourself out.
MATT MOORE: Well, to that end--
JARED QUAY: Go ahead.
MATT MOORE: Well, to that end Preston, you know on Bet MGM a lot of times, you can actually get-- they offer alternate spreads, right? They'll give you an arrangement at different juices. How do you factor that in versus having to pay more juice for a better number?
PRESTON JOHNSON: Sure, especially if you're just in-game wagering with the intention of playing back middling hedging, and you can get an alternate in-game spread at plus 103 or minus 102. Something that's cheaper is generally going to be better.
And you got to remember, there are the sportsbook. They know what they're doing. They're not giving you a plus 102 because it's a better option than minus 110, necessarily. They're going to be derivatives of each other, right?
If a total is 222 over 110, and they're giving you over 223 plus 102, that's going to be about the fair difference anyways. But it's nice having plus 102 if you can trade back at plus money later. Then you know you're not going to lose any money, no matter where the game lands.
