MARCH MADNESS BRACKET

College Final Four Betting -  NCAA First Half  Basketball Betting

There is not much secret in how First Half lines are derived; it is generally just the pointspread for the game cut in half with a half-point to full-point adjustment against the favorite.

It is very easy to find a team's total points for and against for the season as a total. Every newspaper and major sports website provides this readily. What is tougher to find is a team's points for and against broken out by first half and second half. I track this myself every week in a spreadsheet and it helps because interesting mismatches do appear. Remember that a team is playing the same opponent in both half's of every game so even great and horrible teams will have a stronger half.

Some teams get off to a quick start but fade while others start slowly but finish strong. When you compare two teams that are playing each other and see that one plays better in the first half and their opponent plays better in the second half, there may be an opportunity to exploit the weakness of the first half pointspread. This is by no means a system, but it is definitely something you can easily do in a few minutes every week.

For example, you might have a team favored by 6 points with a total of 144. Usually you can divide that number in half for the side but you might need to make a little adjustment on the total when you look at the March Madness bet odds. The second half tends to have more scoring. In this example a first half line might have the favored team laying three points with a total of 71. Usually the side is divided evenly which is why the favorite is laying three points for the first half.

March Madness first Half Betting

March Madness Moneyline Betting

March Madness Betting Online

Bet March Madness 2010