Public Betting Percentages: Bets % vs Money %, and What They Miss

Public betting percentages (betting splits) show what share of bets and what share of money a sportsbook took on each side of a game. Bets % counts tickets; money % (handle) counts dollars. They describe that book's customers, not the whole market, and they do not tell you whether the price is right. A gap between the two mostly tells you about bet size.

This page is the data itself: where it comes from, how to read it, and its limits. For telling a sharp move from a public one using prices, see sharp vs public odds drops. For a line that moves against the majority, see reverse line movement.

Definition. Bets % (tickets): the share of individual wagers on one side, whatever their size. Money % (handle): the share of the total amount wagered on one side. Both are reported per side of a spread, total or moneyline.

Key takeaways

• Bets % counts tickets. Money % counts dollars. Action Network's example: 13,000 of 20,000 bets is 65% of bets; $5 million of $6 million is 83% of the money.
• Splits come from one book or a group of books. DraftKings publishes its own customers' splits, all jurisdictions combined. Casino.org: "Splits are not a universal market truth."
• The gap between money % and bets % is an average-bet-size ratio. 40% of bets and 65% of money means the average bet on that side is 2.8× the other side's (our calculation).
• Rules of thumb such as "a gap of 10% or more" or "70%+ of bets" are publishers' heuristics, not tested results.
• A split never says what the fair price is. Pinnacle's price and maximum limit do; the devig calculator turns them into a fair price.

What do public betting percentages show?

Two numbers per side. DraftKings Network describes its page as Bets % (number of wagers) and Handle % (total money wagered) for the spread, total and moneyline of each game. Action Network uses the same pair on its NFL public betting page:

The two can point at different teams in the same game, as in that example. Many small tickets on one side and fewer, larger tickets on the other produce exactly that split.

Where does the data come from?

From the books that report it, so coverage and customer mix vary.

• DraftKings Network shows DraftKings Sportsbook splits and notes they are "for all jurisdictions combined", so they may differ from what one user sees by location. Sports listed include NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, college sports, UFC, MLS and some European football competitions (read 9 November 2026).
• Action Network says its NFL figures are "usually tracked across major sportsbooks" and does not name the books on that page (read 9 November 2026).
• BetMGM's own blog defines public support as the side with a plurality of bets "at the BetMGM online sportsbook" (4 September 2024).

Casino.org (12 December 2025) adds the caveat that matters most: some split pages show percentages "without clearly stating the source books or update cadence". If you do not know the source, you do not know whose behaviour you are reading.

What does the gap between bets % and money % mean?

It tells you how big the average bet is on each side. Divide each side's money share by its bets share, then compare. Our calculation on two published examples:

Arithmetic for the first row: (0.65 / 0.40) ÷ (0.35 / 0.60) = 1.625 ÷ 0.583 = 2.79.

Larger average bets are the usual reason a site calls a side "sharp". That is a guess about who is betting, not a measurement of whether the price is wrong. A single large customer can create the same gap. Action Network itself warns that with "just a few hundred bets" the percentages can be skewed by sample size.

Do public betting percentages predict results?

Not on their own, and the sites that publish them say so in different ways. Casino.org's FAQ answers "Do bet splits prove where the sharps are?" with "No." Action Network's page says fading the public "has historically produced value in certain situations, especially when 70%+ of bets are on one side" and that big differences of more than 15% are "worth investigating". Casino.org uses 65% of tickets as a "practical marker" and a gap of 10% or more as a "rule of thumb". None of these pages publishes the test behind the threshold.

The honest way to judge any split-based rule is the same as any other: did the bets beat the closing price? See closing line value and sample size for CLV.

Public betting percentages vs Pinnacle's price and limit

A price that shortens while Pinnacle raises its maximum limit is the closest public signal to "money the book respects". The Pinnacle limits page explains what the limit means, and how to track sharp money covers the rest of the signals.

How to use splits without overreading them

1. Check the source. One book's customers, which jurisdictions, and when it updated.
2. Read the gap as bet size. Convert it to an average-bet ratio before calling it sharp.
3. Check the price. Compare your number with Pinnacle's fair price. If you are below fair, the split does not rescue the bet.
4. Check the move. Did Pinnacle's line move with or against the majority? See reverse line movement and steam moves.
5. Track the result as CLV, not wins and losses. Use the CLV calculator.

How Pinnacle Terminal handles this

Pinnacle Terminal does not show betting percentages and does not know how many tickets any book took. It streams Pinnacle's prices and maximum limits, shows the fair price next to each line (power devig by default), and grades every pre-match move 0–10 with a label: Big move (the odds drop and Pinnacle closes the market), Sharp drop (about 20% or more below the recent high), Limit-backed (the odds drop and Pinnacle raises its maximum market limit), Downtrend, Rebound and Standard. Live in-play football drops are listed and filtered, without a grade. A grade is context, not a pick. The terminal does not accept bets and is not affiliated with Pinnacle. Product: Pinnacle dropping odds. Plans: pricing.

FAQ

What are public betting percentages?

The share of bets and the share of money a sportsbook took on each side of a game. Bets % counts tickets; money % counts dollars.

What is the difference between bets % and money %?

Bets % weights every ticket the same. Money % weights each ticket by its size. When money % is much higher than bets % on one side, the average bet on that side is larger.

Where can I see public betting percentages?

DraftKings Network publishes DraftKings Sportsbook splits for spreads, totals and moneylines. Action Network has public betting pages by sport. Each shows a subset of the market, not all bettors.

Is betting against the public profitable?

No page we read publishes a tested record for it. Action Network says fading the public has "historically produced value in certain situations". Measure any such rule by closing line value over a large sample.

What does 70% of bets on one side mean?

That 70% of the tickets at the reporting book are on that side. It says nothing about the money, the price, or other books.

Does Pinnacle Terminal show betting splits?

No. It shows Pinnacle's price, fair price and maximum limit, and grades each pre-match move. That is a price signal, not a ticket count.

Sources

• Action Network, NFL public betting and money percentages, read 9 November 2026: definitions and the 13,000/20,000 and $5M/$6M examples; 69% of bets / 92% of money example; "usually tracked across major sportsbooks"; ">15%" and "70%+" heuristics; few-hundred-bet sample warning.
• DraftKings Network, DraftKings Sportsbook betting splits, read 9 November 2026: Bets % and Handle % for spread, total and moneyline; "all jurisdictions combined"; sports listed.
• Casino.org, Josh Applebaum, “Bet splits explained: tickets vs handle to spot sharp money”, 12 December 2025 (read 9 November 2026): "Splits are not a universal market truth"; 40% tickets / 65% handle example; 65% and 10% rules of thumb; "Do bet splits prove where the sharps are? No."
• BetMGM, Nick Hennion, “Public betting percentages and money today in sports betting”, 4 September 2024 (read 9 November 2026): public support defined as the plurality of bets at the BetMGM online sportsbook.
• Average-bet ratios (2.8×, 5.2×): our calculation from the published percentages, 9 November 2026.

Try it

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