Unlocking Hidden Value: Price Shopping and the Cash Out Button

The cash-out button isn't a feature you should be using on our best sports betting apps, right? It never properly compensates you for the amount you should be getting paid on your bet. But there is one way to use the cash-out feature to your advantage; Jon Metler explains below.

The cash-out feature is one of the most popular – and divisive – features of any sportsbook.

The concept is a simple one. For certain wagers you make, a sports betting site will offer you the opportunity to cash out before the bet is settled. If your wager is in good position to cash, the amount you're offered will be higher than your original stake (but lower than what you would win if the bet is successful).

Conversely, if your bet is looking rough, you'll be offered less than your original bet – and in many cases, the cash-out amount is very low.

While this is a popular tool among many bettors, I'm sure you've also seen threads on X about why you should never use the cash-out button. The biggest complaint: once your bet goes live, the sportsbook never properly compensates you for how the odds have adjusted.

While this is true, you also can't entirely dismiss the cash-out button as completely useless. It does bring some value to the table in a way that many people might not think to use it.

Debates about whether or not you should use the cash out button usually center around taking the cash-out when your bet is live and either winning or losing. However, there's a different way that I like to use the cash-out button at our best sportsbooks, and I wanted to take a moment to share that with you.

Price Shopping via the Cash Out Button

When your bet is live, whether winning or losing, the cash-out feature never offers you the proper value on your wager relative to how the odds have adjusted. That's a fact, and I'm not here to debate that.

Additionally, the algorithm with the cash-out feature varies depending on which one of our best NFL betting sites you are using.

This is why many bettors caution players to never use the cash-out button, which isn't always the best advice. The cash-out feature can actually be advantageous for us as bettors, but you typically have to be creative with it.

Your biggest weapon as a sports bettor is price shopping for the best odds. You should be utilizing as many of our best sports betting sites to always find the best odds on whatever you are betting on.

When it comes to betting, you should also prioritize getting into markets early and trying to find inefficiencies. The goal is to be right on top of these numbers once they open, especially with the NFL, where the action is significant.

If you're waiting until Sunday to place your bets, you will have a tough time beating any numbers. Instead, you need to be getting at these prices much earlier in the week. 

The main problem here is that sportsbooks post their odds at different times. And this can leave you in limbo, unsure of when you're actually seeing the best odds on a given market.

For example, let's say it's Monday, you have your prices and projections set for that week, and you're waiting for NFL player props to be released. There's no guarantee on when or in which order the player props will be posted on our best NFL parlay betting sites.

Maybe BetMGM has Patrick Mahomes Over 285.5 passing yards at -110, while FanDuel has the total at 292.5 (-110). Your projections show Mahomes going Over the total, but the odds have not been released yet by several of our best NFL prop betting sites. You want to wager on the BetMGM price, but there is still a chance you can find a better number at Caesars or DraftKings.

This is where the cash-out feature can be an absolute weapon for you as a bettor.

If the sportsbooks follow the same patterns they had during the NBA season when I was betting on player props, there's no penalty on the cash-out at BetMGM or bet365 when betting on a player prop. If you bet $100 on the Mahomes Over 285.5 passing yards (-110) at BetMGM, you can hold this bet, and if a better number appears on a different opener at one of our best live betting sites, you could take your $100 BetMGM cash-out and move the bet.

The last thing you want to do is wait for more sportsbooks to post their player props and lose out on the Over 285.5 passing yards (-110), which you have established as a +EV (positive expected value) wager.

BetMGM and bet365 offer the full cash-out amount, assuming the odds don't move the other way on you (and that would be a whole separate issue). BetRivers and PointsBet take a small amount off of your wager, whereas Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel don't offer a cash-out at all.

With BetMGM and bet365 not penalizing you at all with their cash-out feature, you should target these two sportsbooks for attacking openers where you find an edge, then waiting to see if you can catch an even better price on an opener elsewhere. It's one way I utilized the cash-out feature while betting on NBA player props, and it's why we shouldn't paint the cash-out button as a horrible feature in all scenarios.

Here are our best NFL betting sites:

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