Here's the latest installment of "Fezzik Fridays", where LVASports.com's handicapping guru tackles a different one of your sports-betting-related questions each week, for the duration of the football season.
A "middle" occurs when two bets are made, one on each team in the game, and both bets win. This requires line movement, so bets can be made with a chance for the result to fall in-between the position on either side; hence, hitting the middle. As an example, a common middle in the NFL would be to bet the Bears -2.5 and get the Giants at +3.5. Now if the Bears win by exactly 3, you cash both tickets. If the middle doesn't hit, you win one and lose one, plus the juice on the losing side. But if the spread is big enough and incorporates key numbers (such as the NFL "3"), the strategy can be profitable and the risk per play is low.
Another hedge aspect can come into play when you "take back" only a portion of your original bet. Say you bet $550 on the Bears -2.5, then bet back $220 on the Giants +3.5. Now you've hedged by reducing the risk on the Bears bet and you have the middle potential that could result in a $700 win if the game falls on 3. Note that a sports book can be "middled" when lopsided action causes it to move its line and the result falls in-between the opening and closing numbers. The most famous example of this was the 1979 Super Bowl I wrote about two weeks ago, where the line opened Steelers -3 vs. the Cowboys and closed Steelers -4.5. When the Steelers won 35-31 (a 4-point spread), the books had to pay both sides.
A "side" works the same way as a middle, only you win one side and push the other. For that to happen, one side has to be on an even number. So if you have Bears -2.5 with Giants +4 and the Bears win by 4, you win the Bears bet and push the Giants bet for the side.
A "scalp" is a riskless (arbitrage) play, most common in baseball and in football games lined close to pick 'em. An example would be betting the Dodgers +135 (risk $1,000 to win $1,350), while also betting the Cubs -124 (risk $1,301 to make $1,049). If the Dodgers win you cash $1,350 and lose $1,301. If the Cubs win you cash $1,049 and lose $1,000. You make $49 regardless of who wins! Bread-and-butter scalpers do this against square and slow-moving books when a line is really moving in the marketplace. Advanced sports bettors know which way a line is likely to move and load up on a bet while all the while they're planning to throw back some (or all) of their position later.
"Straddles" are complex middle bets where you can have the best of it, but you accept much more risk. As an example, you might play the Patriots -7 for the first half with the Bills +14.5 for the game. Since these plays are inversely correlated, both bets can be +EV, despite betting on opposite teams (14 point favorites are usually properly priced minus 8 for the first half). Unlike a true middle play, in this case you are at risk of losing both bets.
One more you didn't ask about that's related to a straddle is what's commonly called a "Polish middle" (I mean no ethnic slight here; this is simply the name by which it goes). A classic example of this would be taking the Eagles -2 1/2 with the Redskins +165 on the money line. That's a very fine portfolio, indeed, but 4% of the time the Eagles will win by exactly 1 or 2, and you'll lose both bets.
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