Concepts for handicapping arena football

Question

Arena football has resurfaced again and football bettors are placing bets on this league. I want to know what new handicapping concepts would be followed in new arena football matches.

Answer 1

here’s a few concepts that will likely prove valuable when the ‘new’ Arena Football league begins play.

1) It’s A Completely New Game:    Concepts that worked for handicapping arena football in the past may or may not work in the ‘new’ game.  With the exception of a few team names, there will be no continuity with the defunct Arena Football League.  More significantly, perhaps, there’s no guarantee that the game play will be exactly the same.  So if, like me, you used to handicap and bet on arena football in the past just forget everything you thought you knew.  Like it or not, you’ll be starting from scratch.

2) Take It Slow:  Ironically, the best XFL betting opportunities didn’t begin until most of the league’s viewers had quit watching.  Despite the fact that everything is starting from scratch, the astute handicapper will quickly pick up valuable knowledge and betting ideas just by watching the first few weeks of action from the sidelines.  Even in established sports, it takes teams a few games to start to demonstrate form but even in a completely new league after a few games you’ll start to get statistics to work with and have a better knowledge of not only the teams but how the game itself will play out.

3)  When In Doubt, Play The Underdog and Unders:   Back in the XFL days, after a few weeks a couple of things became evident.  First, there was a good deal of parity across the league in terms of talent which meant that the smart handicapper looked for opportunities to play underdogs.  Second, the games didn’t produce as much scoring as first anticipated.  Since the public quit watching after a couple of weeks, however, the ‘public perception’ never really caught up to this fact.  And since the sportsbooks feed off public perception to a large degree, the O/U numbers never got adjusted downward as much as they should have.  Since the public already assumes that arena football games are high scoring shootouts, both of these concepts should work in the ‘new’ AF1.

As soon as the various arena football leagues start play we’ll keep our eyes opened, and once they start showing up on sportsbook boards we’ll be ready to bring you more handicapping ideas as well as free picks in the games themselves.