By Only Players Staff
Updated 4/4/24 4:50am ET
This is term often heard in regards to Wall Street. However, it also applies to betting conversations.
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Sports betting is complicated and it can be intimidating as a new bettor. We’re here to help.
Bryan
Alright, this is where you put on the thinking cap and you inform me on stuff that I should know and have no idea about. Okay. Betology is the segment and this is a term that I have never heard. I have no idea what it means. Buyback. What does buyback mean?
Doug
It’s going to be, it’s really simple. It’s going to feel, it feels, oh my God, what is this term? So obviously there’s a ton of time between when the game is announced and when the game starts. So often there’ll be movement in the betting market, right? The line will be at three and then sharp money or professional money moved it to four, four and a half. And then you’ll see the market come back a little bit. And just really say, you’re kind of abstractly saying there were some buyback in the market. So it’s the second move. It’s the second sort of significant move.
So if the Kansas City Chiefs are playing the Raiders and the line’s like eight and it got bet up to 10 and then as soon as it hit 10, it came back down to nine and a half. You say there were some buyback at 10. You don’t just say there was some buyback on the Raiders. What number? Right? It’s the, there was some buyback at 10 or you can do it yourself. If you were live betting and the market is really fluid and fluctuates because the game is going on and the score changes a bunch. You can say I bought some at seven and then I bought a little back at like nine. So like maybe not the whole bet, but you arbitrage and does some stuff like that. So but it’s really about describing the market move, like the second market move.
Bryan
Gotcha, gotcha.
Doug
So initially we say things like, Oh, there was some sharp money that came in on team X or whatever that moved the market. It opened at three, got to four, but then there was some buyback at four and it settled at three and a half.
Bryan
I can use that and it sounds smart.
Doug
Yeah, I mean, there’s stock, it’s a stock term too, a little difference about repurchasing stocks, but in terms of the betting market, that’s what it means. It’s sort of the second significant move and it has to be the opposite direction.
Bryan
Gotcha, opposite direction, buying back that line. There we go, we’re all smarter now.
