Dropping Odds

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.

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.

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);

import requests
import os

api_key = os.environ['ODDS_API_KEY']

response = requests.get(
    'https://api.odds-api.io/v3/dropping-odds',
    params={
        'apiKey': api_key,
        'sport': 'football',
        'minDrop': 10,
        'includeEventDetails': True
    }
)

dropping_odds = response.json()
print(dropping_odds)

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
  },
  {
    "eventId": 61301179,
    "market": { "name": "Player Passes", "hdp": 34.5, "label": "Carlos Baleba" },
    "betSide": "over",
    "odds": {
      "opening": 3.75,
      "current": 1.5,
      "drop": { "sinceOpening": 60, "12h": null, "24h": null, "48h": null }
    },
    "lastMovedAt": 1776281915401,
    "updatedAt": 1776283503652
  }
]

For player prop markets, market.label contains the player name (e.g. "Carlos Baleba"). It is omitted for non-player-prop markets.

Understanding Drop Values

The drop object shows the percentage decrease across different time windows:

Field	Description
`sinceOpening`	Total drop since the opening odds were first recorded
`12h`	Drop in the last 12 hours (null if no 12h data available)
`24h`	Drop in the last 24 hours
`48h`	Drop 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.

Query Parameters

Param	Description	Default
`sport`	Sport slug (e.g. `football`, `basketball`)	All sports
`league`	League slug (requires `sport`). e.g. `england-premier-league`. Mutually exclusive with `leagues`.	All leagues
`leagues`	Comma-separated league slugs to filter by multiple leagues at once. e.g. `england-premier-league,spain-la-liga`. Mutually exclusive with `league`.	All leagues
`markets`	Comma-separated market names to filter by. Case-insensitive. e.g. `Spread,Totals`. Supported: `ML`, `Spread`, `Totals`, `Spread HT`, `Totals HT`, `Totals 1Q`, `Spread 1Q`, `Team Total Home`, `Team Total Away`, `First 5 Innings ML`, `First 5 Innings Spread`, `First 5 Innings Totals`, `Corners Spread`, `Corners Totals`, `Corners Spread HT`, `Corners Totals HT`, `Bookings Spread`, `Bookings Totals`, `Player Props`. Using `Player Props` returns all player prop markets across all sports - for football this includes `Anytime Goalscorer`, `Player Passes`, `Player Shots`, etc.	All markets
`timeWindow`	Sort/filter by time window: `opening`, `12h`, `24h`, `48h`	`opening`
`sort`	Sort order: `drop` (highest %), `recent` (latest movement), `kickoff` (soonest event)	`drop`
`minDrop`	Minimum drop percentage to include	`0`
`limit`	Results per page (max 200)	`50`
`page`	Page number (1-indexed)	`1`
`includeEventDetails`	Include event details (home, away, date, sport, league)	`false`

Pagination

Results are paginated. Metadata is returned in response headers:

Header	Description
`X-Total-Count`	Total number of matching entries
`X-Page`	Current page number
`X-Per-Page`	Results per page
`X-Updated-At`	Timestamp of last data update (Unix ms)

Use Cases

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)`);
});

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)
}

Best Practices

Focus on 12h and 24h Windows

The sinceOpening window can be noisy for events listed far in advance. The 12h and 24h windows capture more actionable, recent movements.

Combine with Value Bets

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.

Filter by Market

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).

Monitor Close to Kick-off

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.

Getting Started

Guides

Examples

What are Dropping Odds?

Why Sharp Bookmakers?

Fetching Dropping Odds

Response Format

Understanding Drop Values

Query Parameters

Use Cases

Steam Moves

Pre-Match Line Shopping

Best Practices

Next Steps

Value Bets

Fetching Odds

​What are Dropping Odds?

​Why Sharp Bookmakers?

​Fetching Dropping Odds

​Response Format

​Understanding Drop Values

​Query Parameters

​Pagination

​Use Cases

​Steam Moves

​Pre-Match Line Shopping

​Best Practices

​Next Steps

Value Bets

Fetching Odds

What are Dropping Odds?

Why Sharp Bookmakers?

Fetching Dropping Odds

Response Format

Understanding Drop Values

Query Parameters

Pagination

Use Cases

Steam Moves

Pre-Match Line Shopping

Best Practices

Next Steps