RiverDog
Well-known member
Most games, yes, it's relatively close. But in the case where there is a game with a very large fan base, such as the Cowboys, against a team that doesn't have a large, passionate fan base, like the Chargers, there is going to be a lot of casual betting on the Cowboys and very little on the Chargers that bookies have to take into account by increasing the point spread beyond what an analyst would set them.True the bookies look at / predict betting actvity when setting their odds, but the odds are usually fairly close to the analysts, the big betters do their own analysis if the majority of them predict we have a 1 in 5 chance against the Lions there would be a rush of bets on the Lions and the bookies would quickly change their odds before they end up with a huge exposure.