Adjusting Regular Season Bets for the Postseason

Learn how to adjust regular season bets for the postseason.

Key Points

– In some ways, regular season bets are very similar to postseason bets.

– Smart bettors adjust their regular season bets for the playoffs.

Adjusting Regular Season Bets for the Postseason

Everyone who takes their professional sports betting seriously in North America is aware that once a regular season ends the playoffs begin. In many ways, placing a wager on a sport's postseason is similar to doing so during the regular season.

However, bettors should be aware that the regular season and the postseason differ significantly from one another. Smart bettors are aware of the differences between the two. Adjustments have to be made in order to maintain profitable betting.

One adjustment could be your online wagering portal. Make sure you have access to all the latest odds, lines, scores, and more. Here are a number of other modifications to regular season bets that should be made by sports bettors in the postseason.

Don’t Look for Mismatches

During the regular season, a significant portion of handicapping involves trying to find mismatches. Mismatches are the foundation of successful handicapping. It might be a team that is really bad playing a team that is a championship contender. It could be a simple player-vs.-player mismatch.

It’s even better when you can identify a mismatch that oddsmakers and the betting public haven't properly taken into account. However, mismatches are much less common in the postseason.

In getting ready for the NFL playoffs, remember that every team is at the top of their game and the bad teams are out of the picture. Mismatches are easy to find in regular season bets, but they aren’t as common in the playoffs. They become even less frequent as the postseason goes on.

Sports bettors should spend less time looking for mismatches during the playoffs.

Change Your Bet Size

The start of the playoffs may be a good time for some bettors to reassess the state of their bankroll and make necessary adjustments. This could be a good time to increase your bet size, especially if you had a successful regular season and made some money.

If the regular season wasn't so great, you might want to reduce your bet size before you blow the rest of your bankroll. Proper money management is a key to profitable sports betting. It doesn’t matter if you are making regular season bets or betting in the postseason.

Regular Season Bets & Patience

When the playoffs begin, there are fewer games per night to bet on than there are during the regular season. As the playoffs progress, the games are even fewer.

This means that more patience is required. If you want to know how to be a smart sports bettor, you should be very selective. Avoid wagering on any games that don't provide you with any genuine value.

When looking for regular season bets, bettors can typically pass on a wide number of games but still find a game or two to bet. In the playoffs, exercising patience may result in you going an entire night, or even several nights, without seeing any action.

In order to give yourself the best chance of long-term success in placing wise bets, you must be at ease with that potential lack of action and be willing to put up with it.

Opponents’ Familiarity

During the regular season, some teams only play each other once a year. Some don't play each other at all. There can be gaps between games frequently lasting weeks or months. All of that obviously changes during the postseason for all sports except football.

The playoffs in MLB, the NBA, and the NHL all feature a series of games. Teams that compete against one another seven times in a row have no secrets from one another. There are no surprises after a couple of games because each team knows the other’s tendencies.

Having this recent evidence of how the teams matchup can make handicapping playoff games a little easier. Bettors should be careful though not to overemphasize the familiarity between the two teams. Sometimes, that can backfire and lead to a loss.

If you’re looking for more betting strategies, learn how to use middling in sports betting.

Playing at Home

The importance of home field or home court advantage cannot be overstated during the playoff season. Playing at home is a huge deal in the postseason, especially when betting on home underdogs.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that the fervor of a home crowd and its potential to influence officials as the biggest factors favoring a home team. The potential to influence the officials is even greater in the postseason.

Playoff crowds are more passionate and they are usually larger than during the regular season. In the postseason, bettors have to take the location of a game into account as it plays a bigger role than when you are making regular season bets.

Overtime & Regular Season Bets

When handicapping a playoff game, you shouldn’t worry all that much about overtime. Postseason overtime games are rare, but they do occur. You should make sure you have a top notch sportsbook though.

Bettors should understand the overtime formats for the different sports. Baseball, of course, plays extra innings until there is a winner. The NBA and NFL play overtime periods until one team wins.

The NHL changes its overtime rules for the playoffs. Instead of a shootout after a five-minute overtime period, the NHL plays 20-minute overtimes until a team scores.

Again, overtime playoff games are rare, but they do happen. Keep that in mind as you handicap postseason games in any sport.