Why Line Shopping Might Be the Only Edge Left in Sports Betting

In the early days after the Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018 and opened up legal sports betting across much of the US, those who wanted to bet on sports were greeted with a smorgasbord of offers. Books competed fiercely to acquire customers, offering extremely generous signup promotions, risk-free bets, boosted odds and all kinds of other perks.

At the same time, the lines and margins themselves were softer than they are today. Because legal betting was new, books did not yet have reams of data on which to base their lines. There were many opportunities to gain an edge on less efficient markets.

Fast forward to 2025, and the landscape looks very different. Books have tightened up significantly as more money has poured in. With a few exceptions, those extremely generous bonuses and boosts are long gone. Promotions these days tend to be paltry by comparison.

Why Lines Have Gotten Sharper

This change has occurred for several reasons:

More Data and Analysis

Sportsbooks like LeonBet now have years worth of data, especially on the most popular sports like football, basketball and baseball. Their oddsmakers can incorporate insights from advanced analytics and adjust their lines until there is little if any edge for bettors.

Increased Competition

In most states, bettors have their choice from between five to ten or more online sportsbooks. With so many books vying for market share, they often end up offering similar lines. There are very few soft spots.

Limits on Promotional Offers

Books have realized that they were giving away too much money via bonuses and promos. While they still offer them, bonuses nowadays tend to be small, difficult to clear and restricted in terms of max bets or which sports count.

Beating the House Edge is Harder Than Ever

So, with sharper lines, increased competition among sportsbooks and stingier bonuses, where does this leave sports bettors?

The bottom line is it’s harder than ever for most bettors to show a long term profit. After factoring in the house edge or “vig” on bets, the vast majority are expected to lose over hundreds or thousands of wagers.

Books are wise to advantage players who exclusively bet promos or bonuses. They often restrict or ban such bettors quickly.

To reliably beat the house edge requires great handicapping skill, rigid discipline and a large enough bankroll to ride out swings and variance.

Line Shopping: One of the Last Edges Left

Very few bettors check every one of these boxes. So what options remain for gaining an edge against online bookmakers?

One of the only reliable edges left is line shopping across multiple sportsbooks.

How Line Shopping Works

Line shopping simply refers to comparing the odds available for a particular wager across two or more online sportsbooks and placing your bet only at the book with the best price or line.

Most bettors have accounts at just one or two places where they do all their betting. But checking several sites can reveal opportunities for better lines and increased profits, however small.

An Example

Let’s take a real example from the NFL playoffs to see how line shopping works in action:

The closing point spread for the matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills looked like this across a few top online sportsbooks a few hours before kickoff:

Sportsbook	Spread
BetMGM	Bengals -105
PointsBet	Bengals -115
FanDuel	Bengals -110

While the difference between -105 and -115 odds may seem small, it has significant implications for the house edge and expected profitability.

• Betting $110 to win $100 on the Bengals at -110 implies a house edge of 4.55%
• Betting $115 to win $100 at -115 implies a worse house edge of 5.26%

In this case, checking across books allowed us to place our bet with BetMGM at slightly better odds than PointsBet or FanDuel. Over many bets, gaining that 0.71% edge reduction starts to add up.

Why Line Shopping Matters

Gamblers are playing a game of inches when it comes to gaining any sort of mathematical advantage against online bookmakers. With rock solid lines, limited promotions and little observable edge, that 0.5% here or 0.2% there from shopping prices makes a real difference.

Serious sports bettors open accounts at many books for this very reason. A few extra cents or basis points of EV on every bet picks up the bottom line. While it may not turn losing bettors into winners, it helps winning bettors profit more.

The best betting syndicates take line shopping even further, utilizing overseas books and markets to gain maximum advantage. But multiple accounts at leading US regulated sites goes a long way.

Final Thoughts

In 2025 and beyond, gaining an edge as a sports bettor requires eking out small advantages wherever possible. With rock solid lines, limited promotions and little observable edge, shopping prices across multiple sportsbooks may be the only way left to pick up additional EV on every bet placed.

Line shopping used to be an optional tool for pros. Now it is an absolute must to stay profitable long term against tough bookmaker lines. Bettors should have funded accounts at 5-10 leading regulated online sportsbooks to ensure they always have access to the best prices available.