"Must Win" and "Something to Play For" Situations

By Tom Wilkinson

One of the most important sports handicapping ingredients used by sports bettors in the effort to make good football picks, (and picks in other sports for that matter), against the sports odds, is the particular motivation factors that are involved with the game that they are considering to bet against the online sportsbooks or casino sportsbooks.

Motivation is not a hard sports handicapping statistic that can easily be read in black and white numbers. Motivation is something that a sports bettor must analyze and research when sports handicapping a game against the odds and sports betting line. There are several elements of motivation that a sports bettor can analyze and ask himself about when sports handicapping.

The first element of motivation that a sports bettor can consider when sports handicapping is what is a team playing for? Has the team already clinched a playoff spot or division title and therefore have nothing to play for? Does the team still have to win to clinch home field advantage or to stay alive in the playoff race? These questions are important ones for sports bettors to ask when sports handicapping the motivation equation against the odds and sports betting line.

The next sports handicapping motivation tip and trap is the MUST WIN theory. If a team MUST WIN in order to stay alive for a playoff berth, etc. many sports bettors will give that extra sports handicapping weight. Problem is, so do the sports odds makers and what is really fascinating is how many times a team that MUST WIN not only doesn’t beat the sports odds but also fails to bet the team that they are up against straight up. This happens so often that some sports bettors have come to regard MUST WIN sports betting situations as potential traps that must have a lot of additional sports handicapping merits in their favor.

“If a team is in a must win situation they may well have been unreliable throughout the season to begin with and a poor sports betting value,” said Eric, a professional sports bettor in Las Vegas. “When I see a team in a must win situation I have often found that they blew numerous chances against the (sports betting odds) to be in that predicament.”