A growing trend in sports betting is the betting on the second half of a college basketball game. However, this bet is not for everyone as it is a bet that has to be made at the spur of the moment. You have until the end of the first half until the beginning of the second half to make your bet and for a lot of bettors this is just not enough time to be able to make a decision. However, there are many advantages to betting on the second half spread and I will cover the process by which you can evaluate the benefits to making this bet.
The best part about betting on the second half is the obvious fact that you already know how the teams are playing and will give you a good idea of how to bet on the 2nd half of games. By having this advantage you are betting on the trends of the teams in the past twenty minutes as opposed to past weeks and months. You know how each basketball team is shooting and what players are hot and which are not.
You also can look at the past twenty minutes of play and look at past games and see how the team and players have performed in this same situation. For instance, if you are looking at a game between Duke and Wake Forest and Duke is winning by 12, you could look at past games and see how Duke responded to be up by double digits against a conference foe. If they have come out previously and played well and added to the lead in the second half then it could be wise to put more money on Duke. But on the other side if Duke has played poorly with a big league than jumping on Wake Forest for the second half would be in your best interest. The same goes for players on each team; if the star basketball player for Duke has struggled in the first half and tends to rebound with a big second half then it might be smart to take Duke in the second half due to the expected output of their star player.
You also must take a look at the teams that are playing and if one is clearly the more talented team, however they are underachieving and if the coach has the ability to motivate them for the second half. A lot of very good college teams will overlook their opponent in the first half thinking that just showing up will be enough for them to win the game. However, this never goes according to plan and at halftime they find themselves staring at nice sized deficit for which they have to come back from. With the right motivation, the basketball team can reestablish themselves and pick themselves up for the second half, so with that being said it is very important to look at the teams that are playing each other and if one team has the ability to overcome their first half deficit because of talent level.
This also needs to be looked at by the basketball bettor from the other side as well. If a heavily favored team comes out and is beating the other team pretty bad at the half, the tendency of the bettor is throw more money on the team that is handily beating the other team. However, this is not a very good idea as what tends to happen is these teams will being to rest their star players when they are very far ahead so they can avoid injury during a blowout.
The most important thing for college basketball handicappers to do when engaging in second half betting is that they must have a system that is quick and easy. You do not have much time to make the second half bet so it is important to have a handicapping system that will allow you to be able to evaluate what you have just seen in the first half and be able to place a smart bet in a timely fashion.
