What are rotation numbers in sports betting? In short Rotation numbers are assigned to particular teams all across North America to denote specific teams in specific sports in specific leagues.
Have you ever set foot in a sportsbook? There’s a lot going on. Now that we have internet sportsbooks with drop-down menus and everything listed in an orderly fashion, it’s a lot easier to find what you are looking for and to bet on exactly what you want. When you walk into a sportsbook, it’s shinier and more advanced than it used to be, but there’s still a big giant board up there showing all the spreads, totals, first half lines, money lines, and prop bets from multiple sports.
Try going into a sportsbook on a Saturday in November. There’s NBA, college basketball, college football, and NHL, along with possibly NASCAR, UFC, and all sorts of other things going on. If you walk up to the counter and ask for the Tigers -7, you’re going to get some dirty looks from the people in line and the people behind the counter.
These odds move fast. Everything is moving in real-time. So, you want the Tigers -7, eh? Is that the Tennessee State Tigers? Auburn? Clemson? LSU? Towson? Texas Southern? Memphis? Pacific?
You can see why there would be confusion. The people accepting bets at the counter don’t know what the lines are on the board. They’re worried about accuracy, efficiency, and quickness. They want to get through that line so everybody can get their bets in before the games start and so their bosses aren’t finding reasons to fire them. To make things simple and uniform, the concept of rotation numbers came about.
Rotation numbers are assigned to particular teams all across North America to denote specific teams in specific sports in specific leagues. There is no mistake which team is which. If you want the Auburn Tigers in college football, they have a different number than the Auburn Tigers in college basketball. You don’t even have to say the actual spread. You just say the rotation number, if you want the spread or the money line, the over or the under, and then the amount that you want to bet.
For example, let’s say that you wanted to bet Memphis over Tulane on October 14, 2016. Memphis’s rotation number is 109. The schedules are set by Don Best Sports in Las Vegas and they are set based on what sports are going on. You would say “109, spread, $110” and the customer service agent can punch it in right away for you. If you had simply said Tigers, how would he or she know which Tigers you wanted? It slows down the line for everybody and it increases the possibility of mistakes being made. It also helps accuracy with phone customers that run on credit. It also helps the sportsbooks as they communicate with each other since these numbers are standard across the industry.
Rotation numbers are really important. They keep everything organized for bettors and employees. Some offshore sportsbooks sort by start time and others sort by rotation number. Some have an option of how you want the games sorted. Just know that if you physically walk in to make a bet on a visit busy day, you had better come up prepared with the rotation number and your money in hand.
