Identifying 'Steam Plays'

Steam plays have always been one of the great glory plays available to sharp-eyed (or sometimes technologically-assisted) punter. Also known as “beating the move,” steam moves are made when a line on a given game suddenly shifts dramatically (perhaps 1-1.5 points in NFL lines, for example) at one online sportsbook, while a second is slow to respond and thus unwittingly provides a too-generous line on the game. All that’s required to execute a steam play is attention – and cash to bet, of course.

These abrupt shifts are typically caused by syndicate betting or a single high-rolling individual, who, to add a further layer of complexity, may merely be manipulating lines to his favor only to back the team he really wanted to wager with a greater amount of money. Plus, quite plainly, the high-roller may be a bad gambler with no insight. While backing steam moves is certainly not a sure thing, online sportsbooks do take great interests in lines that gather steam. Some sportsbooks have a policy of withholding bonuses or payouts if they suspect a punter of betting on nothing but steam plays.

And like everything else in the online world, technological upgrade responds to technological upgrade: Some websites actually offer steam alerts, monitoring several internet sportsbooks simultaneously for that spike in betting at one of them. However, this same sort of software is readily available to the sportsbooks themselves and so is deployed to avoid these misses in action. Sadly, the steam play is becoming a rarer and rarer phenomenon these days.