Home-Field Advantage: How does it work?

Home-Field Advantage: How does it work? Image

If you’ve been in the sports betting scene for a while, perhaps you’ve heard about the “home-field advantage.” It is a concept that holds a major importance in sports betting. If you’re new to the sports betting scene and don’t know anything about it, this article is for you.

This concept involves two main factors, each one used for denominating a team, “away” for the visitors and “home” for the team who’s receiving them at their hometown.

How can home-field advantage impact sports betting so much? Keep reading to learn more about this and how you can use it to improve your decisions.

Factors related to home-field advantage

There are four main factors related to home-field advantage. Each one is explained below.

  1. Travel

If your favorite team is playing at home, they already have a point in their favor. But why, you may be wondering. As the players will be at their hometown, they’ll be more comfortable as they will be granted a bit more freedom.

Contrary to this situation, the opponents are obligated to adjust to an environment they’re not used to, and that can have an impact in their mind the next day. We’ve heard multiple stores about players who had to wake up in the middle of the night due to fire alarms, for instance.

  1. Venue Familiarity

A huge advantage for home teams is that they’ll be familiar with the stadium. In some sports, like hockey or basketball, this may not be such an important factor as most of them look the same.

If you take a look at other sports, like football or baseball, they’re all different. They comply with the same function, but the facilities have a different layout and that can have an impact on the game.

Another factor to take into account is that football in particular, has huge differences in how teams practice. For instance, some of them may be used to play outdoors with a good climate throughout the whole year, while others may be forced to stay indoors for a season during the winter.

As you may know, climate has a huge impact on football. Therefore, we think these variables should be taken into account.

  1. Crowds

Crowds are often left aside in sports betting, but they can actually affect the outcome of a game. If your team is from that particular city, the crowd will obviously cheer them and they’ll perform with more confidence. This support will encourage them to give the best of them, although some players try not to let external factors affect their mindset during the game.

Still, emotions are part of human nature and it’s inevitable for these emotions to get into your head.

Crowds not only can cheer their team, but can also cause conflict to the opposite team. So, although they do not have a “huge” role in the game, they are still part of it and should be taken into consideration.

  1. Referee

Referees should always keep professionalism and be impartial at all times, but it has been proven that they don’t always act that way. In fact, according to multiple statistics, if the referee is in charge of a game of the home team, they’ll probably be in favor of them.

They may be pressured to do it due to the crowd’s pressure or any other reason, but it still happens and it’s an issue. Home teams are usually favored, and that’s something we cannot deny.

Although these are not official statistics and do not have an impact on the odds, it would be best if you considered them before placing a bet on a particular team.

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