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Home › Methodology

How we source odds and rate sportsbooks

Last reviewed · This page applies to every price table, best-price rate and comparison on placebets.ai.

Most sportsbook “rankings” are a commission schedule with a headline. This page is the opposite: it states what we measure, where the numbers come from, how the math works and where the limits are. If a claim on this site cannot be reproduced from this method, it should not be there.

1. What we measure

  • Price. The American moneyline, spread and total each sportsbook posts for a game, captured with the time it was read.
  • Best price. The most favorable price available on a side across the books we track, not an average.
  • Best-price rate. How often a book held the best price on a side, divided by the sides that book actually priced.
  • Line movement. The difference between the opening price and the current price, with the timestamp of each reading.
  • Market hold. The margin implied by the prices on both sides of a market. It is calculated from the prices, not supplied by a book.

We do not publish a “rating” out of ten. A number like that mixes payout speed, app quality and licensing into one figure without showing the weights. Where we compare books, we show the components and the sample size so a reader can disagree with the conclusion.

2. Where the prices come from

Prices come from licensed US sportsbook feeds and public schedule feeds. Each row carries the time of the reading it came from. When a book posts no price, the row says so; when a league feed has not refreshed inside its freshness window, the page labels the line stale rather than presenting it as live.

Schedules, team names and results come from public schedule feeds. Odds are never estimated, interpolated or copied from a competitor's table. If we cannot read a price, the honest output is a blank or a stale label, not a plausible-looking number. Our editorial policy covers the same rule for written guides.

3. The best-price formula

For each game and each side, we collect the moneyline from every book that posted one. The best price is the highest payout for the bettor: the largest positive number, or the least negative number. Ties count for every book that posted the best number. A book's rate is:

best-price rate = sides where the book held the best price
                   ÷ sides where the book posted a price

A book that posts a price on 1,000 sides and holds the best price on 300 has a 30% rate. A book that posts on only 40 sides and holds the best on 20 has a 50% rate, but the sample is small; we label small samples on the comparison page. The rate is a measure of price competitiveness, not of payout reliability, licensing or app quality. A book can have the best price and still be a bad place to keep money.

The window is shown on the page (currently seven days for the sportsbook comparison). A different window will produce a different rate. We do not choose the window after seeing the result.

Worked example. Three books price a moneyline: A at -110, B at -105 and C at +100. C has the best price for that side. If the same three books price 100 sides, C's rate is the number of sides where C was best, divided by 100. A book that never posted a price on a side is not counted in its denominator.

4. Freshness and timestamps

Every odds table shows when its data was last updated. Times are US Eastern. A price can change between the moment a page is rendered and the moment a reader clicks through to a book; the book's price at the bet slip is the only price that can be accepted. Pages that have not refreshed inside the league's window are marked stale.

Historical line movement is stored with the reading time, so a move can be checked after the game. We do not rewrite an old price to match the current one. That is the difference between a record and a highlight reel.

5. The affiliate firewall

Some outbound sportsbook links are affiliate links. If a reader opens an account through one, PlaceBets.ai may be paid a commission. That payment does not change a price, a best-price calculation, a win rate, the order of a comparison or whether a book appears at all. Books without an affiliate relationship are still included when they are on the board and licensed in the relevant state.

Advertising units are labelled and kept away from the main answer on a page. The full arrangement is on our affiliate disclosure. If you believe a commercial relationship has influenced a ranking, tell us through the contact form; that is a correction we will publish.

6. What we do not do

  • We do not operate a sportsbook, accept wagers or hold player funds.
  • We do not sell picks, promise wins or label any bet a lock.
  • We do not invent author personas, review dates or credentials.
  • We do not rank a book higher because it pays a higher commission.
  • We do not fill a missing price with an estimate and present it as live.
  • We do not publish a state page for a state where none of the books we track is licensed.

7. Corrections and how to check us

If a price, date, team name or license detail is wrong, send the URL and what you saw through the contact form. We correct the page and bump the reviewed date only when the substance changes. The fastest independent check is to open the same game at two or three licensed books and compare the prices yourself; then compare the best price we showed with the one you see. If they disagree, the book's slip wins and we want to know about it.

Ready to use the method? Start with the sportsbook comparison, the live odds board, or the sports betting hub. Betting is 21+ and legal only in some states; see the state tracker.