Betting Impact of Games with Short Turnaround

This is the betting impact of games with a short turnaround.

Key Points

– There is a significant betting impact when teams play on consecutive days.

– Handicappers that understand the betting impact of games played with a short turnaround can have greater success.

Teams can have brief layoffs between games and often no rest at all depending upon a league’s schedule. The NFL, of course, plays games on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays. There are occasions when a team plays on a Sunday and then plays again on a Thursday. 

That can be difficult for an NFL team. It’s also difficult for NBA and NHL teams that play games on back-to-back nights. There are some advantages to playing a team with a rest advantage.

Sports handicappers have to be able to determine the influence that a team’s previous series had and how that team is expected to do when they have a rest advantage or disadvantage. Sports bettors can use the following to predict what might happen and generate profitable predictions.

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How long is the break between games? If you bet on sports frequently, you probably already know this, but the shorter the break, the more of an effect it can have on a team. Take the NBA or NHL playoffs as an example.

Long series won’t be a problem for a team if they have time to rest for a few days. However, it  can be difficult for a team to focus and recuperate after just one day off. This is especially true when a series concludes in a difficult or emotional manner. 

A team’s style of play has significant betting impact. A team must adapt an opponents’ playing style one night and then do the same the next night when playing back-to-back. That might not be too much of a problem if the teams have fairly similar playing styles and don’t present many difficult matchup situations. 

In the NBA, for example, a slower-paced team plays another slower-paced team one night. The very next night, they must play the fastest-paced team in the league. It’s difficult enough to play on consecutive nights. Playing an up-tempo team when tired is an even bigger challenge.

Often in the NBA and NHL, teams find themselves unprepared when playing a back-to-back or playing three times in four days. In the league’s playoffs, it can be an even bigger problem. 

Bettors should always look at a team’s previous game or games to get an indication as to how physically exhausted they might be. Playing three games in four days and six games in eight takes a toll on both the body and the mind.

Imagine the betting impact of the following NHL scenario. A team plays and goes to overtime and loses in a shootout. Not only are those players physically tired, they are dealing with the loss as well. Then, they have to go play the following night. Bettors that understand this will factor this into their final betting decisions.

These types of situations can help bettors in placing bets. For example, an NBA team that plays an overtime game and loses comes back the next night to play again. The intensity might not be there, especially early. The betting impact here leads the bettor to fade that team in the first quarter of play. That’s one way bettors win more NBA first half bets.

Travel is a huge deal and can have great betting impact. NBA and NHL teams will often go on five- and six-game road trips. Further compounding the travel issue would be playing that six-game road trip in a matter of eight days.

It’s an even bigger deal when a West Coast team travels east or an East Coast team travels to west. Adapting to time differences can take a toll on the body. Just traveling itself is tiring. Imagine an NBA team like New York traveling to Los Angeles to play the Lakers one night and then having to play in Portland the following night.

Bettors aware of these travel issues can factor that into their handicapping.

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What’s interesting is looking at an opponent that has had an extended period of rest. In the NFL, teams have bye weeks and might have anywhere from 10 to 14 days between games. 

In the NFL, this gives players a chance to rest their bodies. It also gives coaches time to really dial in on the next opponent. Kansas City head coach Andy Reid is the master of the bye week. He is now 28-4 SU in games played after a bye week. 

If you were a bettor interested in finding value betting the Super Bowl, you’d want to take a hard look at the Chiefs if they were playing in the game.

Opponent rest is something to look at in the NHL postseason, for example, when one team ends a series early and the opponent just played a full seven games. 

It’s also worth looking at a team’s future schedule when handicapping. Sports handicappers need to be aware that a team may handle temporary fatigue more successfully if they believe that rest is on the horizon. 

An NBA team might be playing three games in four days, but knows that it has five days’ rest before it plays again. Knowing this, a team may play better than if they knew they had to play again after just one day off.

This can be valuable information for sports handicappers.