I have heard this argument in many circles that are trusted. The hypothesis goes like this. Vegas knows that the average gambler plays mostly favorites, so the lines are slanted to get the Smart Money to play the Underdog to even it out. The argument makes sense that Smart bettors only play dogs. Is playing just Underdogs the way to go?

Let’s take a close look. When I was doing the article on How many Underdogs win outright, I decided to look at how the Underdogs do vs the spread.

Here is the chart of every underdog since 1997, a 26-year span.

I plugged in every game since 1997 which is 19,608 games. If you blindly played the Underdog on each game you would have a record of 9746-9572-290 for a winning percentage of just 50.5%. To make money wagering on sports you need to win 52.5% of the time just to break even after you deduct the juice. Over the last 26 years the statement that you should only bet Underdogs is FALSE.

No let’s take a look at last 12 years results.

I plugged in every game over the last 12 years I plugged in every game the last 12 years which is 9976 games. If you blindly played the Underdog on each game you would have a record of 4972-4852-152  for a winning percentage of just 50.6%. To make money wagering on sports you need to win 52.5% of the time just to break even after you deduct the juice. Over the last 12 years the statement that you should only bet Underdogs is FALSE.

Can we find any spots where playing the Underdog does work out? Only TWO of the 14 categories produced a record above 52.6% but they do not come along very often. Over the last 12 years teams that were a +49.5 underdog or higher do have a record of 45-27-1 for a 62.5% winning record. So, if a team is getting over 7 TD’s then go ahead, blindly play the underdog but other than that it is basically a 50/50 proposition.

Final Answer: The statement you should only bet underdogs is FALSE

There are 117 FBS vs FCS games this year and Vegas has also been posting numbers on FCS vs FCS matchups for the last 5 years. We have complete spread records for five year and two full pages on EVERY FCS team in my Digital FCS magazine which is available right now. There are no edges in betting dogs or betting the big TV games each week but you have some solid edges in FCS and the average bettor knows very little on the FCS and you would be an expert. CLICK HERE to get the digital magazine right now!