NHL Scalping Log

[lindetrain]

Thought this would be fun to post here...

I just joined a website called Betmaker for pucks and bases. For those unfamiliar, Betmaker is a betting exchange, where you actually bet against other people as opposed to betting against the book. It eliminates the middle man, taking away the unnecessary juice on each side of a game. At a liquid betting exchange, it is perfectly normal to have a ML that is -105 on one side and +104 on the other - same goes for the juice on spreads.

This particular exchange is backed by Bookmaker/BetCRIS, and is fairly new. Matchbook used to be a big-time exchange that had very high volume & liquidity, but with them recently eliminating themselves from the US market, their business has slowed down dramatically. Betmaker is now bound to take Matchbook's place, and will inevitably grow and draw more players; but for the time being, their market is small and lacks liquidity & volume. Thanks to this, there is plenty of opportunity for scalps on games.

For those who don't know what a scalp is, it is essentially a middle with MLs, allowing you to ensure profit on a particular game (i.e. getting -130 & +150 on the same game).

Right now, with hardly anyone exchanging at Betmaker, there are mostly 15-20 cent lines on NHL games. Due to this, I can offer slightly better prices on each side of the same game, and once my bets get matched by someone else, I have two great prices on the same game and have secured profit.

For example, if Detroit & Chicago are squaring off for a game and the Betmaker prices are Detroit -150 and Chicago +130, I can offer Detroit -145 (and I get Chicago +145 if it is matched) and Chicago +135 (I get Detroit -135 if it is matched), and have a nice -135/+145 scalp on my hands that guarantees me profit regardless of outcome.

I did something like this with Matchbook a few years back, and was able to make a few units (with virtually no risk involved) over the course of a month or so. With ~50 games/week in hockey, I'm hoping to ideally make around five units in a month's time. Might not seem like much to you, but an additional 10 units or so on top of my final profit for the season will be huge.

There is some small downside to this. One, both my bets have to get matched for it to work; if only one side is matched, I'll have to go to a book (where I likely won't get a great line) to make my scalp. Since there is a 2% commission on your net win at Betmaker (the way they stay in business), it is ideal to have both bets there, as they only take 2% out of the amount you made on the scalp (very little) as opposed to 2% of a bet you made and had scalped elsewhere (much more, which can eat into profits). Also, as you could figure, I have to keep a close eye on the market so I don't get stuck with bad prices and no opportunity to scalp. Can be a bit time-consuming for the minuscule profit margin.

Anyway, if all that makes sense, I thought I'd keep a log here and post my scalps. I figured some of you might be interested to see what kind of profits I can grind out over time.

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YTD: +0.0000 units

Monday, 1/25

MON +152 & DET -150
Scalp profit: +0.0087u

Total daily profit: +0.0087u

[VincentValour]

I love this idea! Really wanted to get something going like this, but like you said very time consuming and never got around to it. Very interested, keep it up and GL.

[vegasobie]

while i was writing tickets, we had a customer that did match bets almost exclusively and would use the books in vegas if need be for scalps. his "partner" that was stationed in our location would routinely go over $10,000 in daily bets. there is definitely merit to this system, but as lindetrain said, you have to be diligent, and even then nothing is guaranteed.

[lindetrain]

With the right resources and bankroll, someone could make a living scalping lines. Would definitely be my plan if I had credit lines offshore and an extra $100K lying around.