How to use betavenger

betavenger prices every NFL and college football game against the sharpest sportsbook (Pinnacle), then tells you which lines at Hard Rock are worth a bet and how much to put on them. It runs on its own: a worker re-prices the board on a schedule, and every 5 minutes inside the half hour before kickoff. You only have to read the board and place the bets.

1. Open Today. The headline is the answer: how many bets and how much.
2. Each bet is written as the thing that has to happen — “Buffalo wins by 4 or more” — with the slip line underneath, which is what you type into Hard Rock.
3. Take the number shown or better. If Hard Rock has moved past it, skip the bet. The edge is in the number, not the team.
4. Bet the dollar amount on the card. It is already sized to your bankroll and capped.
5. Ignore the score afterwards. The Bankroll page's gate is the real scoreboard.

1. Open the board for the sport (NFL is Sunday, college is Saturday). The first table, Bets to place, is the card. If it is empty, do nothing; that happens most weeks and it is the model being honest.
2. Check the line at Hard Rock still matches the row (same side, same number, price within a few cents). If it has moved past the number shown, skip it. The edge lives in the number.
3. Bet the stake shown. Stakes are already sized to the bankroll and capped; do not double up on a favourite.
4. Come back before kickoff. Line moves change the card; the worker pushes a bet that appears, or a number that gets better, to your phone.
5. After the games, ignore the score. The Ledger shows whether our price beat the closing price once its margin is taken out (closing line value): Pinnacle’s, or an offshore book’s when Pinnacle has none — only Pinnacle’s count toward real money. That is the only scoreboard that matters early on.

betavenger pushes one kind of message: a bet you can act on — a new one that appeared, or a number that improved on one you already have. Nothing else. It does not push injury news, team reports, or scores; those move no number you can bet, so waking you for them would only train you to ignore the alerts that matter.

Tap Alerts in the header to turn notifications on for this device, then send yourself a test:

Send a test notification

• iPhone / iPad: add betavenger to your Home Screen first and open it from there. Safari in a tab cannot receive notifications, on any site.
• Each device subscribes separately — turning it on for your phone does not turn it on for your laptop.
• If you clear site data or reinstall the app, the subscription is revoked. Turn Alerts off and on again, and send another test.

betavenger is installable. Once installed it opens from your home screen in its own window, with no browser bars, and it can put bet alerts on your lock screen. Nothing from the board is saved on the device: with no signal it says so rather than show old numbers.

• Android / Chrome / Edge: tap the download button in the top-right of the header, or the browser's “Install app” item in its menu.
• iPhone / iPad: Safari only. Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
• Desktop: the install icon at the right-hand end of the address bar.

There is nothing to sign in to: open it and it works. With no connection you get an amber Offline bar — never place a bet off a page loaded offline.

Price

American odds at Hard Rock. −110 means risk $110 to win $100; +150 means risk $100 to win $150.

Fair

Our probability the bet wins.

Pinnacle

The probability implied by Pinnacle's line with the vig removed. The best public estimate of the truth.

Edge

Expected value: how much you expect to make per dollar risked. A bet needs 3% or more to be staked; anything above 12% (17% on totals) is treated as a mistake and skipped.

Stake

Dollars to bet. Sized with a shrunk Kelly fraction and capped at 3% of bankroll per bet, 5% per game, 20% per card.

Spread

The field under each game: one yard line per point, away end zone left, home right, the 50 is a pick'em. Blue ● is Hard Rock, white ● is Pinnacle, gold ◆ is the blended fair line we bet from; the hollow ring is the raw model. The further toward the home end zone, the more the home team is favoured.

Bankroll

The money the card is sized from. Set it on the Bankroll page; it is one number, and it should change on a schedule, not after a win or a loss.

Paper

Tracked, not bet. All college picks are paper. NFL picks should be treated as paper until the ledger clears the bar.

CLV

Closing line value: how much better our price was than the closing line at kickoff, Pinnacle’s first, with the bookmaker’s margin taken out. If the line moved, the close is carried to our number first, so getting +3.5 when it closed +2.5 counts in our favour even at the same price. Beating the close consistently is the only proof a bettor has an edge.

• Only spreads and totals are bet. Moneylines are shown for context and never staked.
• Only Hard Rock lines are staked, because that is the book you can actually bet. Pinnacle is the reference, not the venue.
• College football: spreads of 14 points or less only, and paper only.
• Games already in progress are dropped from the board.
• The worker is the source of truth. If the header says "worker: no heartbeat", the numbers may be stale; wait for it to come back before betting.