How Live Betting is Enhancing the Sports Betting Experience

By Hank Blaine • August 11, 2023

One of the most significant advancements in sports betting has been the ability for players to wager on games while they’re happening. Live betting, or in-game betting, allows players to bet after a game has started. For players, advantages are numerous. Check out some of those top advantages here.

Top Ways Live Betting is Enhancing the Sports Betting Experience

Sports bettors can hedge

Hedging is an important part of maintaining a healthy sports betting bankroll. When we hedge, we place a bet the opposite way to cut risk.

Live betting makes hedge wagering easy. Let’s say you place $500 on Team A to cover the spread. After the first quarter, it’s apparent Team A may not cover the spread. So you make a live bet on Team B to win ATS.

The bet you make is $250. So instead of losing $500, you lose $250 no matter the outcome. If you wish to not lose anything and only pay juice, you bet $500.

There are numerous ways to hedge. Make sure to do your homework, get your calculations correct, and then bet.

Sports bettors can push winning plays

If you’ve ever played craps or watched a game of craps, you understand the concept of backing up your pass bet with a 6-to-5 bet. When you do this on the craps table, you are pushing a potential winning play.

Live betting allows us to push winning plays. We can bet before a game starts. Then, if our bet appears to be doing well, we can add more to the same bet.

For example, we put $250 on Baltimore against Cleveland at -3. In the second quarter, Baltimore is up by 6. The live line has Baltimore at -9.5. Although -9.5 seems like a lot, Cleveland has done nothing, the game is in Baltimore,and Baltimore has a good cover record.

We can push our initial Baltimore -3 bet by placing money on the Baltimore -9.5 line. The game could turn into a blowout Baltimore win, which means we pocket payouts from both wagers.

Handicappers can see a game’s flow before wagering

Some handicapping sports bettors have become so adept at live betting that they’ve ditched making pre-game wagers. Professional in-game betting handicappers wait and see the flow of a game before making their bets.

To be sure, live bets cost more juice, the fee we pay our sportsbook to accept the bet, but in the long run, profit pro live betting handicappers make far outweigh the extra juice.

The flow of a game almost always determines which team wins against the spread. Flow can change, but expert handicappers are often experts for a specific sport, in most cases, basketball or football. So they understand when the flow of a game could go against them or not.

Live betting can provide massive overlays

Live betting spreads are determined by pre-game betting lines and what happens in the game. Scenarios often develop where a favorite becomes an underdog during the game, creating massive overlays.

If Kansas City plays Vegas and is a -6 favorite at home but goes down by 7 in the first half, KC could become a -3 favorite. Kansas City at -3 with three-quarters of a football game left versus rival Vegas could be an excellent overlay play.

Betting happens in real time

When we bet pre-game, we are forecasting. Ask any Wall Street investor, and they will tell you that more often than not, forecasts are wrong.

Companies come out with bad forecasts all the time, which is why forecasting is a tough business. Live betting allows us to see what is happening in real time. Then, we can make bets based on critically thinking about what is actually happening instead of forecasting and predicting the outcome of future events.