Reading the liquidity depth
How to read the liquidity depth chart — what the bars mean, how the weighted-average odds are calculated, and what a lopsided depth picture tells you about where sharp money is sitting.
What the depth view shows
When you select a bet from the Smart Money feed, its detail panel opens. On screens 1024px and wider, the feed makes room for the panel beside it and the bet cards switch to a compact layout while it is open. Close it with the X at the top of the panel or with Escape, and the feed returns to full width. Below 1024px, on phones and tablets, the details open full screen, sliding in from the right; tap the back arrow or swipe right to close them. The top section of that panel is the liquidity depth chart — a horizontal bar chart showing how much money across the exchanges is available to be matched at each odds bucket.
Each bar represents one price level. The label on the left is the odds, expressed in the format you have chosen. The number on the right is the total liquidity available at that price — summed across every exchange contributing data at that bucket. Hovering over a bar breaks the total down by exchange so you can see which venues are driving the depth at that price.
The chart is sorted from the most favourable odds (top) down to the least favourable, which means your eye naturally travels from the best available price to the thinner tail below it.
Eligible vs ineligible bars
Bars are colour-coded by eligibility. A highlighted bar means the liquidity at that price is usable given the odds on the bet you are looking at — specifically, it meets the threshold needed for the opposite side to cover your position. Dimmed bars sit at odds too short to be useful for your side of the market.
If most of the depth is in highlighted bars, there is meaningful money available at prices that work. If most is dimmed, the available liquidity sits at odds that are already priced too tight relative to your side.
The weighted-average odds (Comparison)
The full-width bet card in the main list (on screens 1024px and wider, while no bet's detail panel is open) shows a Comparison figure alongside the book odds. This is the weighted-average odds across all the exchange depth entries for the opposite side of the same market — it tells you, in a single number, what price the exchange market is collectively implying for the opposing outcome.
When the book odds you are looking at are better than what the Comparison figure implies, that divergence is the signal Smart Money is built around: the sportsbook has priced your side more generously than the exchange market believes is correct.
The Pinnacle limit
Each bet card also shows a Limit: the most Pinnacle will currently accept on the same selection, shown beside the Pinnacle icon. It is a second read on how much money the market is prepared to take on that line, next to the exchange depth. When Pinnacle is not pricing the selection, or publishes no limit for it, the full-width card shows a dash and the compact and phone cards leave the figure out. The limit describes Pinnacle's line, not the sportsbook offering the bet.
Which exchanges feed the depth
The liquidity chart pulls from the exchanges tracked by SmartStake, which can include venues like Sporttrade, NoVig, ProphetX, and others. You can narrow the depth view to specific exchanges using the Liquidity Bookmakers filter. When no filter is set, all available exchanges contribute to the totals.
What "deep on one side" means
The shape of the depth ladder is itself a signal.
When a large fraction of the total liquidity is concentrated at a small number of price buckets on one side, informed money has taken a clear position. Exchange participants are not spreading their bets across a wide range of prices — they are piling in at specific odds. That concentration suggests conviction rather than casual market-making.
When depth is thin everywhere, the exchange market has not yet formed a strong view. Thin depth does not mean the bet is wrong, but it does mean there is less informed money behind the signal.
When depth is deep at prices that are worse than the sportsbook is offering (highlighted bars sitting well above your book price), the exchange price diverges from the sportsbook price. A larger gap reflects a larger divergence between the two — it does not guarantee a profitable bet.
The detail tabs below the chart
Below the depth chart, the panel switches between two views controlled by the icon tabs beside the event name:
- Table view — a cross-book odds grid for this market, showing what every book in your list is currently pricing the same bet at. Sharp books are sorted to the top. This is the same market view used across other SmartStake tools and lets you confirm the price, compare it against the consensus, and spot line-shopping opportunities.
- Line history — a chart of how the odds on this selection have moved over time, so you can see whether the current price represents a recent shift or a stable line.
For filter options that control which bets appear in the Smart Money feed before you drill into the depth, see Smart Money filters. For background on what the sharp-money signal means and how bets qualify for the feed, see What Smart Money is.
- Odds, prices, expected value, conversion rates, and profit figures shown are estimates based on the last data we retrieved. They can change at any time — confirm the current price at the book before you bet, as odds may move and entry errors can occur.
- Using a “sharp” book as a fair-value reference is a modeling choice, not a statement of accuracy. Review a book’s record yourself and anchor on the books you trust.