valuating the first possession

[TakeIt]

i was talking with a fellow handicapper today, and he said he only bets second half teams who get the first possession.

obviously the first possession is worth something, and also obviously it's worth more in football than in basketball, but can you quantify the value?

[Justin7]

i was talking with a fellow handicapper today, and he said he only bets second half teams who get the first possession.

obviously the first possession is worth something, and also obviously it's worth more in football than in basketball, but can you quantify the value?

Yes. This is worth researching. Spend a lot of time on it -- it's worth it.

[Jaug]

You can see the linemakers adjust odds heavily for this.

[Pokerjoe]

In FB, anyway, it can be given a point value. But your friend is wrong to only bet teams getting possession to start the second half. It's just another factor, and it's easily incorporated into the line, so much so that if you aren't betting according to the line (which can be reasonably done), you can actually ignore it.

All right, that last line opens up a can of worms, LOL, so /thread for me.