ESPN BET Odds Boost Brings Big Wagers
Bettors Take Advantage of 'Risk-Free Money' Through Arbitrage
If you’ve bet at online sportsbooks, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the concept of an odds boost. In order to attract more wagers, a sportsbook will increase the payout on certain wagers. These will typically involve same-game parlays, player proposition bets, or multi-team parlays.
But ESPN BET came out with an odds boost last Saturday that involved a single NFL team: the Baltimore Ravens. Bettors could wager on the Ravens defeating the Houston Texans by double digits at odds of +110. If bettors wanted to wager on the Ravens winning by 11 or more points, the payout was +140. But the ESPN BET odds boost quickly created a betting frenzy.
Odds boosts are commonplace in the American betting market these days, a promotional tool for sportsbooks to entice low-limit bets by bumping up the payouts.
The odds boost that popped up on ESPN BET on Saturday morning, however, was a different story.https://t.co/rjMaNYTHcW
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) January 22, 2024
Sporttrade, a betting exchange in New Jersey, was quick to take action on the boosted odds. The company’s chief operating officer, David Huffman, wrote on social media, “The Sporttrade team got together and decided we could offer the other side of the market (HOU +9.5 points) at a price that would allow an arbitrage.”
Sporttrade offered Houston +9.5 at even money. That allowed bettors to take the Texans +9.5 points at even money and Baltimore at ESPN BET -9.5 at +110. There was no way bettors could lose.
But sports bettors could also wager a little less on Baltimore and guarantee themselves a small profit. By betting $50 on Houston and $47.60 on the Ravens, bettors were guaranteed to receive $100 back on the winning wager for each $97.60 put into play.
Bettors Rush to Make Deposits
The result was predictable, as Huffman wrote, “New & existing customers flooded to their Sporttrade deposit page’s to plug in as much money as humanly possible to maximize this promotion leading to quite a crazy day. This led to a bit of an internal fire drill, but it turned out to be quite a fun day after the Ravens covered 9.5!”
All told, Sporttrade estimated it took in close to $800,000 on the game, an all-time record on one game for the company. Other sports betting sites that offer exchange betting reported similar increases in handle.
The biggest question from the ESPN BET odds boost is why it offered an unlimited odds boost against the NFL point spreads on such a big game? The answer to that can likely be found in the sportsbook’s lines on the game during the week.
Shaping the Odds to Achieve Wager Balance
While most sportsbooks had Baltimore -9 or 9.5, ESPN BET offered Baltimore -7.5. The sportsbook was doing all it could to attract some money on the Ravens.
At first glance, it looks like ESPN BET lost a lot of money on the game, but that isn’t necessarily so. They likely received a lot of early money on the Texans, and the ESPN BET odds boost helped balance the money wagered on each team.
The sportsbooks aren’t as interested in a final NFL football score as they are having close to an equal amount of money bet on both sides. In this case, it may or may not have worked out for ESPN BET. Penn Entertainment, which operates ESPN BET, isn’t saying.
For NFL betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
