Online betting is a business sphere where large financial flows constantly circulate. In essence, bookmakers’ odds act as indicators that react to various factors — one of the most significant being heavy money inflows on specific outcomes. In this article, we’ll explore what money loads are in sports betting and how an average bettor can interpret them when analyzing market movements.
What Are “Money Loads” in sports betting?
“Money Loads” is a sharp drop in odds in sports betting caused by large sums of money being staked on a specific betting option.
In such situations, the change in odds is a protective mechanism for the bookmaker. If the selection being steamed by players wins, the book will have to pay out large sums. Therefore, it’s logical to lower the odds to limit potential future losses. On online betting services, this adjustment happens automatically.
Types of betting “Money Loads”
By common classification, “Money Loads” in sports takes three forms:
- Fan-driven. Also called national, as it most often appears during national team football matches. A huge number of fans bet on their favorites and crush the odds on their team’s win. This happened, for example, at the 2018 World Cup when Russian fans created steam in the match against Belgium. The odds then did not reflect the real balance of power.
- Spontaneous. Occurs when many casual bettors stake on “obvious” results in the line. They often choose low-priced bets, pushing those odds down even further. As a result, backing the favorite becomes completely unprofitable.
- Targeted. When large amounts of money pour into a seemingly unremarkable event, it looks suspicious. Most likely, there’s a fixed match and informed parties are betting on a prearranged outcome.
How to spot?
Situations with sharp odds movements provide food for thought when choosing a bet. That’s why professional bettors often track them.
There are two basic ways to monitor steam in bookmakers:
- Manually. The bettor independently selects a set of matches and tracks odds changes on chosen markets over one or two days. This is a tedious process and often yields no results.
- With special scanner software. There are free online services for tracking odds movements. Professional players use high-quality paid software. Such programs signal steamed prices in particular books as quickly as possible.
Is it really possible to profit from steam: betting strategies
“Money Loads” in betting is information that can be used with varying effectiveness. Here are several setups where sharp odds movements inform the choice of betting strategy:
- Hunting for fixers. The bettor runs a dropping-odds scanner. If there’s a sharp move suggesting a “strange” match, they back the steamed market. The downside is having to place the bet at already reduced odds.
- Betting against steam. This approach applies during major tournaments. For instance, you could have backed Belgium to beat Russia at the 2018 World Cup at 2.50, and the -1.5 handicap at 3.50. Imagine how much those who reasonably backed the obvious favorite made.
- O/U 2.5 in football. There’s a pattern whereby bettors prefer the over rather than the under. The closer to kickoff, the lower the price on O 2.5 becomes and, accordingly, the higher it gets on U 2.5. Thus, you should bet the Over as early as possible — when the market first appears — and the Under right before the match.
There are many tactical schemes that use the steam element. The key is to understand the principle so you can correctly assess the reasons for sharp drops or spikes in each specific situation.
Pros and Cons
Information about steam is useful for evaluating particular betting markets. Any bettor planning to play and win regularly with a bookmaker should understand the causes and essence of such phenomena.
However, we do not recommend reacting mechanically and betting solely by following odds moves. In each case, you need to understand why the price collapsed and make rational use of the situation.
If you plan to employ steam-based strategies and use special scanner programs, be aware of the challenges. Finding and analyzing such situations consumes significant time and effort that may not pay off. Carefully assess whether applying these strategies is worthwhile.
