Betting guide: The best strategies for sports betting

With sportsbooks holding a significant edge before a bet is even placed, bettors must be smart with their betting strategies in order to reduce the house's advantage and give them a chance to be successful. Luckily, SportsLine's sports betting experts are sharing the sports betting strategies they employ. 

While no betting strategy will guarantee success, these betting strategies can help bettors improve their odds and make sports betting more enjoyable.

Here are some of the best general betting strategies used by SportsLine experts, regardless of the sport or the bet. 

This is Betting 101. A bettor who likes the Commanders to cover is better off betting Commanders -2.5 (-110) than Commanders -3 (-110). In addition, the bettor should jump on Commanders -2.5 (-108) rather than Commanders -2.5 (-110). 

"Sportsbooks do not always think alike with setting odds," says Mike Tierney, one of SportsLine's top experts in both the NFL and college football. "Football spreads tend not to vary by more than a point, but the difference with a key threshold line (i.e., 6.5 and 7.5 or 2.5 and 3.5) can be significant, making shopping worthwhile in those instances. Basketball has more variance than football, so shopping is worth the trouble."

In order to shop for the best lines properly, having as many books as possible is critical. Larry Hartstein, who is one of SportsLine's top experts in the NFL and college basketball, believes this can be the difference between winning and losing, especially with a high-volume bettor.

"I'm fortunate to live in New Jersey, where there are 14 legal betting apps," he says. "Over the course of a season, getting a half-point here and there, and paying less juice on the bets you like (-108 compared to -120) can make the difference between a profitable and losing year.

"Think about two gas stations equidistant from your house. One sells a gallon for $3.99 and the other for $3.79. The next week, the cheaper one has raised prices and the more expensive one has lowered them. By consistently taking the cheaper option for the exact same product, you will save yourself a lot of money over the course of a year."

Micah Roberts -- who has worked in the Las Vegas sportsbook industry for 20-plus years, including a 13-year run as the sportsbook director for Station Casinos -- says sportsbooks will sometimes move a line inside 15 minutes of kickoff, opening tip, first pitch or opening face-off in order to protect themselves from a potentially big loss. This late movement could work in a bettor's favor. Let's say a bettor likes the Commanders to cover and the line is -3.5 but the sportsbook moves the line to -2.5 late. The extra half-point can be the difference between a winning or losing bet, especially since no other information about the teams is likely to change just before the game gets going.

R.J. White -- a Fantasy and gambling editor for CBS Sports who has twice cashed in the world's most prestigious handicapping tournament, the Westgate Las Vegas SuperContest -- believes a bettor should set a bankroll, which is the amount of money that bettor has to bet over the course of a year or season.

"At least 90% of your betting should be single bets," he says. "Your standard bets into that bankroll can run from 1% to 2% of the original bankroll at a time, which means if you have $500 available for betting, you should be making $5 to $10 bets, again with the vast majority of them on single-outcome plays.

"If you have a very strong feeling on a game, you can go slightly higher on occasion as long as you do it responsibly. Longer-shot bets can also be lower than 1% if you want to mix it up, but it could make sense to save those for when things are going well and you have profit from which to pull. In any case, these longer shots should be a small slice of the overall number of bets you're making, and the size should never exceed 1% of your bankroll."

Multiple SportsLine experts like to live bet totals and/or favorites who go down early. For example, in the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame, the Buckeyes entered the game as 8.5-point favorites. After the Fighting Irish scored a touchdown on the game's first possession, some sportsbooks dropped Ohio State to -3.5. The Buckeyes ended up winning by 11.

"If you have extra time on your hands to monitor in-game lines, money can definitely be made with live betting," says Eric Cohen, who has excelled at college football betting and golf for SportsLine. "But similar to the stock market and day trading, live betting takes knowledge of the pregame spread and/or total. I like to live bet totals and/or favorites who go down early."

A beginner bettor may use common stats for analysis, such as points per game. However, SportsLine experts use advanced stats, which give a more accurate picture of a team or player. 

Mike Barner, who is a nationally acclaimed Fantasy expert for SportsLine, studies pace of play and offensive and defensive efficiency ratings, among other advanced stats, when betting the NBA. When betting on MLB games, he considers platoon splits and home and road stats, among others.

"I also watch a ton of games, which helps me get a good feel for teams and their rotations," he says.

Roberts says bettors should stick to their units, regardless if their unit is $10 or $1,000.

"Why go to two units?" he asks. "Even the Super Bowl is just another game; you don't have to bet two or three units just because it's the Super Bowl."

White agrees.

"There will be times you run cold and run hot, so the challenge will be in the discipline to have faith in your ability to find winners whether it's through your own research/system or tailing experts, and not to chase your wins with increased bet sizing either," he says.

Betting on the NFL will provide different opportunities than betting on, say, college basketball. Here are some betting strategies used by SportsLine experts, broken down by sport.

White suggests tracking lookahead lines that are posted more than a week in advance of a game.

"This allows me to look for spots to bet against overadjustments by the market when I don't think the size of the move was warranted based on one game of data," he says.

White also creates spread power ratings. These allow him to project spreads early in the week and anticipate lines he should bet if he likes them.

Hartstein agrees with White that, in most NFL games, the edge can be found earlier in the week than later.

"By Sunday morning, the market is pretty efficient," Hartstein says.

Roberts, the former sportsbook director, targets key numbers, such as -2.5 or +3.5. "In the NFL, 18% of the games land on 3," he says. "If you can lay -2.5 rather than -3, that gives you a small edge. Same thing with taking +3.5 instead of +3."

Thomas Casale, one of SportsLine's top college basketball experts, typically doesn't bet games featuring small-conference games after the first two months of the season.

"In my experience, the smaller schools can change a lot from non-conference to conference play," he says.

During the conference tournament season in March, Tierney likes to play Unders in games in which the teams must win to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

"Coaches tend to tighten the reins, and players play nervously," he says. "Conversely, I am drawn to Overs in the NIT. Coaches put less emphasis in the tournament, and players are more loose."

Cohen believes there is value in off-the-radar matchups.

"This is my favorite sport to bet," he says. "While everyone is focused on the big games each week, there is a ton of value for the unranked matchups and games in smaller conferences since they don't get nearly as much attention."

Cohen also likes playing home underdogs on the point spread.

Emory Hunt -- who played running back at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (now just Louisiana) and coached high school football before starting Football Gameplan, an in-depth analysis site -- fades double-digit point-spread favorites in games between Power Four schools and Group of Five or FCS programs in the first two weeks of the season.

"In many of these cases, the underdog has had all spring and summer to prepare for that one opponent, so the game could be a lot closer than the point spread may indicate," he says.

Cohen loves to play the outright winner markets as well as finishing positions (top-five, top-10 finish, etc), so he checks on multiple sportsbooks to shop for the best lines.

"Anywhere I can find some value, especially when it comes to plus-money odds, I'm all for it," he says.

Cohen also likes to parlay his golf outright winners with a pick or two in another sport to enhance the value of the bet but admits that this strategy is risky. 

"Let's say I have a +1000 outright bet in golf and put it with a total in the NBA," he says. "That might increase the value of the bet to +2500."

SportsLine horse racing writer Gene Menez, who has been following horse racing since 1983 and handicapping races since long before he was legally allowed to bet, says that -- unlike betting on football, basketball or baseball, where the most important step is identifying the correct side of a spread or a total -- betting on horse racing is a two-step process: handicapping the race and constructing the wagers. 

"After I've handicapped a race, I ask myself, 'What is the event that I think is most likely to happen?'" Menez says. "The answer to that question is not always, 'This horse is going to win.' Many times the answer is, 'This horse is likely to finish in the top three' or 'The favorite is going to run out of the top three.'

"Once I've identified my strongest opinion, I construct my wagers to leverage that opinion as strongly as possible. For example, let's say that my strongest opinion is a 20-1 longshot to run well but not necessarily win. In that case, I may bet that longshot to place or show, and if he wins, I get paid anyway."

Menez sees many bettors making the mistake of failing to leverage their strongest opinion when constructing wagers. 

"I see bettors all the time who like Horse A more than Horse B and like Horse B over Horse C but then box the three horses equally in an exacta, effectively putting the same amount of money on Horse C as Horse A. That makes no sense."

In baseball, Roberts is always looking to find a live underdog. 

"You don't want to play too many favorites because you've got to win twice to win one," he says. "The objective is to try to bet the underdog. You can win four out of 10 games and still be up depending on the price of the underdogs."

Barner believes the availability of relievers is key in betting baseball.

"If a team has used its top relievers two days in a row or in three of the last four days, then they might not be available for that next game," he says. "I like to bet against the teams that have bullpen issues."

Multiple SportsLine experts strongly recommend monitoring news about player availability since players are held out regularly because of injuries or load management. 

"There is so much volatility on a nightly basis that I wouldn't recommend betting this more than three to four hours before the games," Cohen says.

Tierney also warns bettors that "NBA games are ridiculously difficult to predict since teams often coast or, worse, surrender with several minutes remaining."

Different types of bets require different approaches. Here are some betting strategies used by SportsLine experts, broken down by bet type.  

When betting futures, multiple SportsLine experts say that bettors need to make sure they're getting a number that makes them comfortable tying up that money for a lengthy period of time. Remember, some futures bets may not be settled for years, such as the next FIFA World Cup champion.

"I don't want to hold my money up for a super long time," Roberts says. "I'd rather take that money, beat you tonight and then cash out tomorrow."

When betting football, either college or pro, Tierney rarely plays an underdog on the money line if the spread is +3 or higher. However, that mindset changes if the spread is +2.5 or less. "I don't mind taking a chance on the game not being won by one or two points and go for the extra bucks by playing the underdog on the money line," he says.

Parlay bets usually do not offer odds proportional to the expected value, and bettors are more likely to lose in parlay betting than win because of this. But if someone is dead-set on betting a parlay despite the house edge, Roberts says a bettor should stick to a two-team parlay at the most. A two-team parlay would pay +260 (or 13-5 odds). Even though that is not equivalent to the true odds (+300 or 3-1), the house edge is not as large as it is for parlays of three, four or more teams.

"Once you start playing parlays with three teams or more, you don't get true odds," he says. "You're losing value each time you add a team."

Tierney's initial inclination is to look for plays Under the number for the most prominent players, especially in big games.

"A glance at prop plays in the Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Eagles showed that the public overwhelmingly went Over the players' numbers since it looks at season stats or players on a roll and assumes the trend will continue," he says. "Such bettors do not take into account that ultimately opposing teams will make adjustments to contain such players (i.e., Saquon Barkley's rushing yards). Conversely, I hunt for lesser players who might go Over the number as their star players are curtailed."

Barner, the DFS and season-long Fantasy expert, shops for the best lines across multiple sportsbooks.

"That's very important, especially when it comes to props," he says. "Sometimes that extra few yards difference in a football prop or that extra point in an NBA prop can make a huge difference."

Barner also likes to attack player props on NBA teams that are dealing with multiple injuries.

"Limited depth charts mean the players who are healthy get added minutes and shot attempts," he says.

Cohen, meanwhile, has two favorite props to bet: points + assists + rebounds Overs in the NBA and hits + runs + RBI Overs in MLB.

"There are more ways to hit those as compared to a yardage bet in football," he says.

Cohen says to not be afraid to bet Under the total, which is the side that offers the value more often than not.

"Most people like to bet Over because it makes the viewing experience more fun, but don't be afraid of Unders," he says. "As I see it, winning a bet in a low-scoring game is a lot more fun than losing a bet in a high-scoring game."

Just as there are betting strategies that bettors should practice, there are also strategies that bettors should avoid.

If the market has already moved the side you like to its peak, White suggests sitting out the market. For example, in the Divisional Round playoff game between the Chiefs and Texans in January 2025, Kansas City opened as a 7.5-point favorite. The spread remained steady at -8.5 for most of the week before closing at -9.5. When the Chiefs gifted Houston a late safety to make the final score 23-14, social media erupted, saying backers of Kansas City at -9.5 suffered a bad beat when in fact they were the victims of a bad bet.

This is a betting strategy in which a bettor places wagers on both sides of the same bet at different lines, attempting to win both but ensuring that at least one of them will win. For example, let's say you've bet the Rockets at -3.5 against the Spurs, but a day later, the line has moved to -4.5. You can then take San Antonio at +4.5, guaranteeing that at least one of those bets will win. And on the chance that Houston wins by exactly four points, you'll "middle" the game and cash both bets.

Once upon a time, bettors might find lines separated by three to four points, which would make middling a defensible strategy, but such gaps are rare today.

"It's not worth trying to middle a game, with gaps rarely greater than 1.5 points anymore," Tierney says. "Plus, the vig seems to be greater nowadays, making the penalty greater than before for not hitting a middle."

While teasers can be effectively used in the NFL, SportsLine experts across the board believe they should be avoided when betting on the NBA or college football. Why? The amount a bettor can tease a line in the NBA or college football is small in relation to the total points scored in those games.

"In the NBA, teams regularly score 220 points a game, but a bettor gets to tease a line by just five points," Roberts says. "I've never understood why people bet it. That's the same reason why you don't bet teasers in college football. Is six points going to help you when a team is favored by 30?"

What is a sports betting handicapping strategy?

Any plan of action designed to help reduce the house's edge in sports betting.

What is the most successful betting strategy?

There is no single sports betting strategy that will guarantee success. However, if you do your research and try implementing a few of these strategies, you will likely be making more advantageous wagers. 

Gene Menez

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