The Various Types of Sports Handicapping

August 29, 2008 by admin
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There are three main sports handicapping categories: technical handicapping, fundamental handicapping, and situational handicapping. All of these will be discussed further in this article.

Technical handicapping is often called “trend handicapping.” This type of sports handicapping involves looking into various statistical winning patterns in order to determine which teams have a technical advantage. As an example, let’s take a team called the Bears and a team called the Lions. Let’s say the Bears have a 5-1 record against the spread (ATS) whenever they play at their home court, while the Lions are only 2-5 ATS when on the road…

This would mean that the Bears have a technical advantage over the Lions in a game to be played in the Bears’ hometown. Bettors should be very careful, however, about technical sports handicapping, as trends used here are all based on historical records and will not necessarily hold true for the current season.

Fundamental handicapping is the second type of sports handicapping. In fundamental handicapping, teams are carefully analyzed to determine who has the advantage. Statistics are the primary basis for this analysis. A basketball team ranked 1st in the league in terms of rebounds, steals, and blocks would have a substantial advantage over a team that is only 4th in the league in terms of these statistics. This type of information would be very valuable to someone who intends to place a basketball bet.

The last type of sports handicapping is situational handicapping. This refers to taking the circumstances of the upcoming game into consideration in order to see which team has the situational advantage. Factors such as schedule and motivation play a role in this situational sports handicapping. A team who has just been defeated twice in row and thus failed to clinch a spot in the playoffs may not do so well against a team that needs just one more conference win for a perfect season.

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