What is middling in sports betting?

Middling is a betting technique that takes advantage of shifts in lines or total score markets. A middle consists of two opposing lines or totals wagers on the same market. The two bets are placed at different lines or totals, in such a way that there’s a chance that the final score will fall in the middle of the two numbers, meaning both bets will win.

To understand how middling works, a solid knowledge of point spreads and totals betting is required. We recommend middling only to very experienced and confident bettors, who have in-depth knowledge of sports and are familiar with several different sports betting techniques.

To better illustrate middling, we will use an example.

1. New England Patriots +2.5 -110
2. Los Angeles Chargers -2.5 -110

Bookmakers offering this event will only make profits if they are able to attract an almost equal amount of money on each side. If there is a great deal of money coming in on the Chargers at -2.5, the bookmaker will raise the price on the Patriots, moving the line to +3, +3.5 or even higher. When that happens, bettors might detect value on Patriots and bet on that side. As the money comes in on the Patriots, the bookmaker will adjust odds accordingly.
To middle, a bet is a bookmaker’s worst nightmare because it means it will lose both sides of the bet.

The numbers we provide in this example are only hypothetical. Totals and point spreads can shift in many different ways, depending on a number of factors. Totals and point spreads can move as a bookmaker tries to balance the height of wagers on each side of the line in order to make a profit.

There are only 4 middling scenarios:

1.When the point spread shifts further away from 0, becoming wider
2.When the point spread moves closer to 0, becoming narrower
3.When the total moves up
4.When the total moves down

In reality, the most important factor in middling for a player is to be able to predict the way that spreads or totals move, quickly and correctly. The player must have an opinion and act quickly when the opening lines become available. Their opinion should be based on analysis and should not be speculative.

Bookmakers, on the other hand, have to be extremely accurate with their opening lines or they can become vulnerable to Middling and pay the price. That is why only bold bookmakers and those with the best linemakers are the first to offer their lines.

When a balance comes to the market, more bookmakers will offer their lines to bettors. Sometimes there is little they can do when newly available information or other factors bring changes to the line.

Middling opportunities are more common in College Football and less common in NBA and NFL games.
We believe Middling has more disadvantages than advantages and should be practiced only by experienced and confident bettors, but you need to compare it with other smart betting techniques in order to decide which one is better for you.