Online Casinos Favor NFL Road Teams
This weekend's National Football League playoff matchups find the oddsmakers at Internet sportsbooks looking for a highly unusual outcome. Historically, teams hosting playoff games win and advance better than seventy-five percent of the time. But the bookies predict at least three of this week's first-round games will likely be won by the visitor.
The Arizona Cardinals are the only home favorite on the four-game slate, and they are nearly a pick'em choice, listed by various online casinos as either a point or point and a half favorite over the Atlanta Falcons. The Indianapolis Colts are one and a half to two and a half point favorites to travel to San Diego and beat the Chargers, depending on which online gambling site is consulted.
Tomorrow's games continue the pattern, with the Baltimore Ravens picked by three and a half over the home Miami Dolphins, and the Philadelphia Eagles giving three to their host, the Minnesota Vikings.
Online Casino Advisory sports analyst Edmund Crumley says the lack of respect shown the homefield advantage is due to several reasons. "This was a year that NFL teams played with great streaks of being hot and cold. Without consistency on the part of most teams, certain clubs managed to beat big name teams out of the last playoff spots.
"For instance, if Miami loses one more game along the way, their slot would have gone to the New England Patriots, who would be a fairly strong favorite. Likewise, if the Dallas Cowboys had made the tournament, the numbers might be much different.
"Couple that with unbalanced divisional results, which gave entry to teams in weak divisions, including San Diego and Arizona. Each of these received a seed higher than their overall play earned, because they won division titles without much competition."
Crumley's choices: Atlanta, Indianapolis, Miami, and Minnesota.
