Why do most people only concentrate on sides and totals?

[cleaveland]

There are seems to be more and more betting options available on a regular basis but people on this board still seem to concentrate almost exclusively on sides and totals for the whole game.

Consider the betting options available for every NBA game at bookmaker now:

team totals (game)
team totals (1st quarter)
first quarter sides and totals
first half sides and totals
second half sides and totals (obviously)

For nationally televised games you get in-game betting, in-progress quarters, over/under free throw totals, first team to 10, 20, 30 points, largest lead over/under, etc. etc.

Why are 90% of the posts about full game sides and totals?

[clip1]

Those are the popular bets since the betting was invented everything else is our degenerate creation to lose more ways then one

[teaserpleaser]

you guys can have the sides i lost track of all the teams that have blown games theres been alot of em... but im killing these totals im pretty sure every uconn game has gone over because i've been on their totals most of the big east games have gone over and that Texas/texas am over 124 had to be played. Sides are a crap shoot but totals are gold right now.

[cleaveland]

Those are the popular bets since the betting was invented everything else is our degenerate creation to lose more ways then one

I thought a large percentage of the bets on the super bowl were on props and most of those bets are made by casual bettors, not degenerates.

I seriously don't understand a lot of the posts on this board. I think jjgold is right about the majority of this board being drunk when they post...(and most of the rest are shills).

[milwaukee mike]

There are seems to be more and more betting options available on a regular basis but people on this board still seem to concentrate almost exclusively on sides and totals for the whole game.

Consider the betting options available for every NBA game at bookmaker now:

team totals (game)
team totals (1st quarter)
first quarter sides and totals
first half sides and totals
second half sides and totals (obviously)

For nationally televised games you get in-game betting, in-progress quarters, over/under free throw totals, first team to 10, 20, 30 points, largest lead over/under, etc. etc.

Why are 90% of the posts about full game sides and totals?

a lot of those "other" bets have small limits and large juice, 2 things i'm not a big fan of.


are you really telling me it's a better idea to handicap junk like 1st team to 10 points than an entire game or total?

[cleaveland]

a lot of those "other" bets have small limits and large juice, 2 things i'm not a big fan of.


are you really telling me it's a better idea to handicap junk like 1st team to 10 points than an entire game or total?

You never know when you can find GREAT plays, here's a perfect example:

http://forum.sbrforum.com/nba-basketball-handicapping/951850-east-scores-first-120-a.html

A little handicapping uncovered a play that was -120 which as I said in the thread above should have been at least -200 and won easily. That's an example of what I'm talking about.

[milwaukee mike]

that's a good example.

but i don't think it was 67% chance of hitting - let's say howard had an 80% chance of controlling the tip to the east - then let's say each team had 60% chance of scoring on each possession.

so for the east it's (.8 x .6) or 48% + (.2 x .4 x .6) or 5% + (.8 x .4 x .4 x .6) or 8% + the accumulation of anything over 3 possessions before the 1st score and the east scoring first which is another 1%.

so even with my generous calculations (i'm overstating the chances for howard and scoring) that is only a 62% chance of the east scoring first which is -160 or so.

still a good find though, you're right. but when you have to go back almost a month to show an example of a -120 that should've been -160 that shows how few and far between some of these good opportunities are.

[kirbypuckett]

usually the juice for sides is less than for team totals for one.

[Snowball]

primarily sides are the most popular for obvious reasons such as:

1. the team is playing/strategizing to WIN the game, regardless of SCORE total
or placement of points within narrower time periods than WHOLE game.
2. whole sides are somewhat insulated against individual player vulnerabilities
because the wager involves the entire team.