What to Set Up First on Momentum Bets

You signed up for Momentum Bets. You're staring at an empty dashboard with 20 criteria slots and no idea where to start. That's normal — and this guide will get you from zero to receiving your first SMS alert in under five minutes.

Start With One Sport You Know

Don't try to set up 20 criteria on day one. Pick the sport you bet most and know best. If you're an NFL bettor, start there. NBA, MLB, soccer — whatever your primary market is.

The goal right now isn't to build your entire alert system. It's to see how the alerts work, how fast they arrive, and how they fit into the way you already bet.

Build Your First Criteria

From your dashboard, click to create a new criteria. You'll select the following:

Sport and league — Choose the sport and specific league. For example, NFL or Premier League.

Team — You can set alerts for a specific team or leave it broad. Starting with a team you follow closely makes it easier to evaluate whether the alerts are useful.

Market — Choose moneyline, spread, or total. If you bet spreads most often, start there.

Pre-match vs. in-play — Pre-match alerts track lines before the game starts. In-play alerts track live odds once the game is underway. If you're new to the platform, start with pre-match so you can see how threshold triggers work without the speed of live markets.

Odds indicator — This is where it gets specific. You have two options:

• Threshold: Alert me when the odds reach a specific number. Example: "Notify me when the Chiefs moneyline drops to -150 or better on DraftKings."

• Shift: Alert me when the line moves by a certain amount. Example: "Notify me if the over/under on this game moves 1.5 points in either direction."

For your first criteria, a threshold alert is the simplest way to see the system in action. Pick a number you'd actually want to bet at, save it, and wait.

What to Expect

When DraftKings updates a line that matches your criteria, you'll receive an SMS text within seconds. No app to open, no dashboard to refresh. The alert comes to your phone with the details you need to act.

If a game is still days away and your threshold is close to the current line, you might get an alert quickly. If you set a threshold far from the current number, it may take longer — or it may never trigger if the line doesn't move that far. That's fine. It means the system is working exactly as designed: only alerting you when your specific conditions are met.

Scale Up Once You're Comfortable

After your first few alerts, you'll have a feel for the timing, the format, and how to act on them. That's when you start building out your full setup:

Add more sports and leagues. If you bet across multiple sports, set criteria for each one. You have 20 active slots — use them across different leagues and markets.

Experiment with in-play alerts. Live odds move fast, and in-play alerts are where Momentum Bets stands out from most other tools. Set a criteria to track a live moneyline or total and see how quickly the alerts arrive once the game starts.

Use shift alerts for line movement. Once you're comfortable with threshold alerts, try shift-based criteria. These are powerful for catching line movement driven by sharp money, injury news, or market corrections — without needing to know the exact number in advance.

Rotate criteria by season. You have 20 active slots but can save unlimited inactive criteria. Build setups for each sport's season and swap them in as the calendar turns. NFL and college football in the fall, NBA and college basketball in the winter, MLB in the summer, soccer year-round.

One Mistake to Avoid

Don't set 20 criteria with wide thresholds on day one and get flooded with texts. Start narrow, learn how the alerts feel in your workflow, and then expand. The bettors who get the most value from Momentum Bets are the ones who treat their criteria like a focused watchlist — not a firehose.

Ready to set up your first alert? Start your 14-day free trial and build your first criteria in minutes.