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What are Dropping Odds?

Dropping odds occur when bookmakers significantly lower the odds on a particular outcome, indicating increased confidence that the outcome will happen. We track these movements from sharp bookmakers only, filtering out the noise from recreational books to give you a reliable picture of where the market is actually moving.

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Why Sharp Bookmakers?

Not every odds change is meaningful. Soft books adjust lines for all sorts of reasons: liability balancing, promos, copying other books. Sharp books move because the market moved. Our dropping odds come from a curated panel of sharp bookmakers. These are high-limit operators with tight margins that accept professional-level stakes. Their lines get tested by sharp bettors constantly, so when they move a price, it usually means something real happened: confirmed team news, injury updates, or significant money entering the market. By filtering to these operators, the data shows you where the smart money is going rather than noise from recreational books.

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Fetching Dropping Odds

Use the /v3/dropping-odds endpoint to get current dropping odds: 
const apiKey = process.env.ODDS_API_KEY;

const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.odds-api.io/v3/dropping-odds?apiKey=${apiKey}&sport=football&minDrop=10&includeEventDetails=true`
);

const droppingOdds = await response.json();
console.log(droppingOdds);

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Response Format

[
  {
    "eventId": 69455182,
    "event": {
      "home": "Manchester City",
      "away": "Arsenal",
      "date": "2025-10-15T15:00:00Z",
      "sport": { "name": "Football", "slug": "football" },
      "league": { "name": "England - Premier League", "slug": "england-premier-league" }
    },
    "market": { "name": "Spread", "hdp": -1.5 },
    "betSide": "home",
    "odds": {
      "opening": 2.05,
      "current": 1.52,
      "drop": {
        "sinceOpening": 25.9,
        "12h": 8.4,
        "24h": 12.3,
        "48h": null
      }
    },
    "lastMovedAt": 1775851240182,
    "updatedAt": 1775854172851
  }
]

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Understanding Drop Values

The drop object shows the percentage decrease across different time windows:
FieldDescription
sinceOpeningTotal drop since the opening odds were first recorded
12hDrop in the last 12 hours (null if no 12h data available)
24hDrop in the last 24 hours
48hDrop in the last 48 hours
A drop of 25.9% means the odds went from 2.05 to 1.52. The market now considers this outcome significantly more likely.

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Query Parameters

ParamDescriptionDefault
sportSport slug (e.g. football, basketball)All sports
leagueLeague slug (requires sport). e.g. england-premier-leagueAll leagues
marketFilter by market name (ML, Spread, Totals). Case-insensitiveAll markets
timeWindowSort/filter by time window: opening, 12h, 24h, 48hopening
minDropMinimum drop percentage to include0
limitResults per page (max 200)50
pagePage number (1-indexed)1

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Pagination

Results are paginated. Metadata is returned in response headers:
HeaderDescription
X-Total-CountTotal number of matching entries
X-PageCurrent page number
X-Per-PageResults per page
X-Updated-AtTimestamp of last data update (Unix ms)

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Use Cases

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Steam Moves

Track large, sudden movements to catch “steam” (when sharp bettors flood a market): 
const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.odds-api.io/v3/dropping-odds?apiKey=${apiKey}&timeWindow=12h&minDrop=15&sport=football`
);
const steamMoves = await response.json();

steamMoves.forEach(move => {
  console.log(`🔥 ${move.event.home} vs ${move.event.away}`);
  console.log(`   ${move.market.name} ${move.betSide}: ${move.odds.opening} → ${move.odds.current} (↓${move.odds.drop['12h']}% in 12h)`);
});

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Pre-Match Line Shopping

Combine with the odds endpoint to find bookmakers that haven’t adjusted yet: 
// 1. Get dropping odds
const drops = await fetch(
  `https://api.odds-api.io/v3/dropping-odds?apiKey=${apiKey}&minDrop=10&limit=20`
).then(r => r.json());

// 2. For interesting drops, check all bookmaker odds
for (const drop of drops) {
  const odds = await fetch(
    `https://api.odds-api.io/v3/odds?apiKey=${apiKey}&eventId=${drop.eventId}`
  ).then(r => r.json());

  // Find bookmakers still offering higher odds
  // (they haven't caught up to the sharp move yet)
}

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Best Practices

The sinceOpening window can be noisy for events listed far in advance. The 12h and 24h windows capture more actionable, recent movements.
A dropping odd on a sharp book often creates value on soft bookmakers that haven’t adjusted yet. Use /value-bets alongside /dropping-odds for the best opportunities.
Moneyline drops are the most common. Spread and totals drops can be more significant since they indicate specific information (e.g. a key player being ruled out affecting the handicap).
The most informative drops happen in the final 1-6 hours before an event starts, when team news is confirmed and sharp bettors act on confirmed information.

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Next Steps

Value Bets

Find edges using the same sharp bookmaker methodology

Fetching Odds

Get full odds data across all bookmakers