This Week's College Football Board: Week 9

How to Read This Page

Where do the prices come from?

The Odds Gap scans every major US sportsbook and the licensed prediction markets. A game still to be played reads the live board, the one that reprices about once a minute, not the slower free version, and it pulls it fresh every time it loads. A game that has finished shows the price each book closed at, captured before the game started and stored, which is why those blocks carry their own closing timestamp and say they do not move again. Nothing here is typed in by hand.

How is the board ordered, and what is the gap on each game?

Start time order, earliest first, with games that have already started at the bottom. The percentage on each game's header is the payout gap: on its more divided moneyline side, the best book's payout against the worst book's. A 5% gap means the best book pays five percent more profit for the identical ticket. The dollar figure in each game's strip is the same idea on a $100 stake.

What does the Best row mean?

The book paying the most for that side at the last scan. Open All Books under the game for every book on the bet, best to worst. Same team, same bet, different paydays.

What do PINN Open and BOL Open mean?

PINN Open is Pinnacle's opening line on the game, and BOL Open is BetOnline's. Those are the only two books we will put in that slot, because they set a number rather than copy one, and the label says which of them you are looking at. Hover it and we tell you whether that price was on the board the moment the game was listed, or whether the game was listed first and the market may already have moved before the book priced it. PINN Earliest means the game was already on the board before our search window starts, so it is the earliest price we can prove and not an opening line at all. Most odds sites label every one of these "Open" and never say whose.

Why does a game sometimes show no opening line at all?

Because no origination book had priced it yet. The only books we will put in that slot are Pinnacle and BetOnline, the two that set a number rather than copy one. When only the retail books have posted, the honest answer is a blank, not a retail price wearing the word "open".

What is the arrow next to the opening price?

That is steam: which way the sharp money has moved the line since it opened. It compares Pinnacle now against Pinnacle at the open, with the vig stripped out of both, so a book simply widening its prices never reads as movement. Teal pointing down means the market has moved toward this side since the open. Amber pointing up means it has drifted away. No arrow means the comparison cannot be made honestly, so we do not make it.

What does the movement chart under each game show?

One book's own price on that game over time, from our hourly scan snapshots, and the chart names the book it is drawing. Pinnacle when we have its history for the game, otherwise the book we have the most history for. A flat hour means we did not look in that hour, not that the book sat still, and a hole means the book was not quoting. We never draw one book's history under another book's name.

What is the Hold percentage?

The bookmakers' built-in margin on this game if you took the best available price on each side. Lower is friendlier. A hold near zero means the books almost cancel each other out and shopping is nearly free money; a fat hold means every side of the game is overpriced.

What does the gold PM badge mean?

That book is a licensed prediction market, not a sportsbook. The price shown is what a $100 order can actually fill at after that venue's fees, walked down their live order book, not the teaser number on their screen.

Why do the spreads and totals list more than one number?

Because the books genuinely disagree on the number itself, not just the price. Laying -7.5 and laying -8.5 are different bets. When more than one number is live, you get to pick the friendlier one, and that choice is often worth more than any price gap.

Why is a book missing?

Either you dropped it with the filter at the top of the page, or it is not pricing this game yet, or we have pulled it because its feed failed one of our honesty checks. We never quietly substitute a price.

Is any of this telling me what to bet?

No. The Odds Gap does not pick winners and does not rate teams. It answers one question only: once you have decided what you like, who pays the most for it.