Closing line
also: close · closing odds
A sportsbook's last price before kick-off, the market's most informed view of a match.
By kick-off the price has absorbed team news, lineups and the money that moved it. Beating the closing price is the standard test of whether a betting model finds value, because the result of one match is mostly noise and the close is not.
From 2024 ESPN reports each book's opening and closing lines. Before that it kept one final pre-match line per book, which we store as the close.
The common mistake
Before 2024 there is no opening line, so line movement cannot be measured from history; our daily snapshots (get_line_movement) cover matches from launch.
Where to get it
Related
Closing line from the API
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