What Does ‘Exposure’ Mean in Sports Betting?
This is a key term, as it’s the main thing a sportsbook tries to manage. “Exposure” is the total amount of money that either a sportsbook or a bettor stands to lose on a particular game or event.
It’s just a business term for “financial risk.”
This term is used in two ways, but the sportsbook one is the most common.
1. From the Sportsbook’s Perspective (Most Common)
A sportsbook has “exposure” when too much money has been bet on one side of a game. This is risky for them.
A sportsbook’s goal is to have zero exposure. They want to be a middleman who gets an equal amount of money on both teams. That way, they can pay the winners with the losers’ money and keep the “vig” (their fee) as a risk-free profit.
Simple Example:
- The Cowboys are playing the Giants.
- The sportsbook takes $1,000,000 in bets on the Cowboys.
- But they only take $100,000 in bets on the Giants.
That sportsbook is now “heavily exposed” to a Cowboys win. If the Cowboys win, the book has to pay out a ton of money from its own pocket.
How do they fix this? They will move the line (e.g., from Cowboys -7 to -8.5) to make the Giants a more attractive bet and encourage people to bet on that side to balance their books.
2. From the Bettor’s Perspective
This is much simpler. Your “exposure” is just the total amount of money you have at risk at any given time.
If you have $500 in your account and you’ve placed $100 in bets on the Sunday games, you have $100 in exposure.