Betting Systems - New Sports Seasons

This article will hopefully delineate the pitfalls and traps that come with a new sports season. The author hopefully wishes to impart on his readers the fact that betting games in the opening of a season is dangerous: for there is not much data and situations to draw from.

The new season is as such: new. There is really no tangible past games that we, as handicappers, can draw from in the beginning of a new season—therefore, do not bet heavily on these new games. An exception, of course, occurs when a team faces another that it has revenge on from the previous year’s playoffs. In this instance, it would be very smart to back the team seeking revenge, if such a team is capable to exacting revenge. For example if Team A lost to Team B in the World Series, and the same two teams are playing their first games against each other, then the smart play would be to back the team seeking revenge. Such picks are ‘easy’ but win most often than not.

In college sports, one can handicap basketball and football by looking at how many returnees are coming back from last season. New players need time to adjust to the new coaching style and environment and will need time to acclimate themselves. Experienced teams with veteran players will be more comfortable with each other and play better at the beginning of the season than those teams that are barely getting to know each other. The author recommends backing veteran teams over ‘newbie’ teams in the beginning of the season.

In baseball, perhaps the hardest game to handicap in the beginning of the season, the bettor should be wary of trends and historical matchups between the pitcher and his opposing team. Batters change during the off season and statistics often lie in the beginning of the season. A strong angle, though, is to against warm weather pitchers during this time of the season. Since the weather is still relatively cold, these type of pitchers often struggle and have high ERA’s (earned run averages).
In closing, the new sports season is a dangerous time to bet, for not many trends and statistics have developed yet; as such, situational handicapping is virtually non-existent.