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Slang & Casual Terms

Sharp

A sharp is a bettor with a strong, respected track record of beating the closing line and winning consistently over a large sample, as opposed to a "square" - a more casual, less consistently profitable recreational bettor.

SportsBettingSite.org glossaryUpdated Sep 20263 min read
Sharp sports betting glossary illustration

What Sharp means

A sharp is a bettor with a strong, respected track record of beating the closing line and winning consistently over a large sample, as opposed to a "square" - a more casual, less consistently profitable recreational bettor. Sportsbooks track and treat sharp bettors very differently from square bettors, sometimes limiting how much sharps can wager on a given market.

Key points

  • A sharp is a bettor with a strong, respected track record of beating the closing line and winning consistently over a large sample, as opposed to a "square" - a more casual, less consistently profitable recreational bettor.
  • Sportsbooks track and treat sharp bettors very differently from square bettors, sometimes limiting how much sharps can wager on a given market.

Example and context

In practice

Sportsbooks track and treat sharp bettors very differently from square bettors, sometimes limiting how much sharps can wager on a given market.

Related glossary terms

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