Why You Should Include First Quarter Betting in Your Sports Betting Strategy
By: Fabiola Grosshan
Submitted: 2010-09-28 03:49:28 | Word Count: 557
Football and basketball number among gambling enthusiasts’ top choices of sports, as they provide a wide variety of wager options and decent wager value overall. However, to leverage football and basketball betting to full benefit, it is important to see beyond regular point spread bets and explore other less popular options as well.
Since the large majority of sports gamblers place a strong emphasis on point spread-oriented wagers, a lot of ground in sports betting remains virtually uncovered. While certain opportunities like first half and halftime bets occasionally do manage to draw some attention from the sports betting community, football and basketball game quarter betting is very rare, in spite of it offering good profitability – provided of course that you keep an eye on and adapt to the movement of the basketball/ football lines and odds. In the remainder of this article, we will address the basic concepts of first quarter betting for NFL football, college football and NBA basketball.
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First Quarter Betting in Football
Most online sports books present bettors with first quarter betting options tied to at least a few enticing NFL and college football matches. While first quarter wagering on NFL prime time games and the regular Sunday afternoon matches is generally easier thanks to relevant handicapping information and football betting lines being widely available, with college games things tend to get a little more difficult. Still, you should do just fine as long as you are serious about your research and restrict your total number of college football picks to only a couple of good, promising games.
One way of approaching first quarter betting in football involves focusing on games that feature the so-called double-digit favorite. Especially in college football, the favorite may not have their best lineup on the field in the second half, and the football betting line may not always reflect this. When placing a first quarter wager, the sports bettor is aware that the favored team will only have its best players on the pitch during the first fifteen minutes of the game, and can take advantage of this by betting accordingly.
Compared to first quarter bets, those placed on the second quarter or fourth quarter are a lot riskier, since it is sensibly more difficult to predict what will happen in the match later on. Until you get the hang of this form of betting, you should limit yourself to first quarter wagers, although you might also want to try out first quarter-tied over/ under wager options.
First Quarter Betting in Basketball
The NBA too provides good opportunities for first quarter wagering, as competitive sports books usually tie this form of betting to at least several popular weekly games. Just like in the case of football, there are instances where the favored team may not include some of its key players later on in the game, especially when leading by a comfortable margin. Since the bettor knows that the best team lineup will be getting most of their action in the first quarter, by carefully studying basketball odds and line moves, one can get the upper hand and seize some very profitable picks.
