Identifying and capitalizing on against the spread (ATS) trends in sports is a very profitable activity for sports bettors. One of the most common types of trends that are often analyzed by sports handicappers is isolating sports teams’ performances at home and on the road. I intend on revealing the concept on how to identify an opportunity to beat the spread by determining how one can see a clear advantage in sports betting by picking a team that performs consistently either at home or on the road. I will use the results from the past NFL season as a point of reference.

The key to unraveling any kind of profitable streak in sports is to closely follow the sports teams by watching as many games as possible and by analyzing all relevant statistics. This is quite evident when analyzing a sports team’s home or road performance. For example, the New York Giants who ended the season 10-6 were 3-5 at home and 7-1 on the road. Then they went 4-0 on the road in the playoffs, ending by winning the Super Bowl in what many consider to be one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Their road ATS record for last season was 10-2. Historically, the Giants have never had this kind of success on the road. Therefore making this kind of prediction before the season began would have been impossible. Thus, one would have had to follow the Giants very closely in order to capitalize on this trend.

Betting on sports is not an easy task. In fact, there is a myth that 95% of people who bet online are losing their money. This is because people are making the wrong picks and poorly managing their money. Today I will discuss a successful sports picking strategy that is utilized by numerous professional sports handicappers that will help improve your winning percentage for your sports picks, thus helping you make picks that will be much more profitable for you in the long run. The strategy is identifying streaks and using these streaks to your advantage to make high winning percentage picks. I will use last NFL season as a reference, focusing on against the spread (ATS) results. The key here is to identify noticeable ATS trends and understanding the foundation behind these trends.

One of my favorite examples is the New England Patriots. The Patriots were 9-1 ATS during the first 10 games of the season. On November 18, 2007, as a 16 point favorite, they creamed the Buffalo Bills by a score of 56-10. The following week, they were a 24 point favorite against the Philadelphia Eagles. I remember this game quite well. I had a very strong doubt about New England covering this ridiculously huge spread so I didn’t bet on the game. Sure enough, the Eagles gave the Patriots a run for their money, as New England only won by a field goal. This was the big turning point for New England, in terms of their ATS record, because odds makers were overvaluing the New England spreads and the Pats’ opponents began adjusting their strategies to narrow down New England’s margin of victory. After crushing the Bills, the Patriots were 1-9 ATS for the rest of the season. All in all, if one had bet for the Patriots to beat the spread for the first 10 games of the season and then against them for the last 10 games, their record for betting on the Pats would have been 18-2!