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You have a big four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend and if you are one of the lucky ones working remotely, you checked about noon on Wednesday, knowing nobody wants to work on this day anyway. If you are a sports bettor, it hardly gets any better than this. On Turkey Day, three NFL games for all-day plus an ESPN college football rivalry clash.
Friday, a smorgasbord of college football morning till night to enjoy leftovers with. A massive college football Saturday with important matches and rivalry games everywhere. Followed by a big NFL Sunday, capped with a slice of dessert on Monday night.
With going to the mall on the former Black Friday no longer a thing, that is potentially a lot of time in front of the TV, with not a care in the world, other than looking over the NFL odds at Oddstrader, placing bets at your favorite sportsbook and raiding the refrigerator time and again.
However, give anyone too much time on their hands, crazy things can happen and often do. Here is what we hope is sound advice to not only winning cash but keeping it as well.
When It Comes to Football, Treat it Like You Would Any Other Week
We know this subtitle sounds like coach-speak, yet, the fact of the matter is it is true. Just because you have more time to watch does not mean that you should wager more, especially this week. One reason not to is your typical routine is thrown off because of the holiday.
If Thanksgiving is at your house or like many you always had a little pre-holiday revelry on Wednesday night, that takes away from handicapping time. That is not to say on Friday morning if you are off work you could make up that time, that is sound judgment and keeps you on task.
The biggest area of concern otherwise is all the college football rivalries that over the last few years have all been moved to the Thanksgiving weekend. Though the best teams usually win and cover the spread, we have all been victims of backing the superior team, only to see them not come close to beating the spread, but losing outright.
You should use caution for these types of contests. The most important aspect to remember, have fun, and don’t overextend yourself for football picks having not done your usual handicapping.
Make The Time to Follow College Basketball
The NBA and NHL will go along as usual, but starting the Monday before Thanksgiving is a great week to prepare yourself for college basketball. Here is what we mean and suggest. With over 350 teams in D1 college basketball, only the most accomplished handicappers can stay on top of everything concerning the odds at sportsbooks or Oddstrader.
However, several tournaments will be televised on the ESPN family of networks. They include Maui Invitational (in Las Vegas this year), Battle for Atlantis, Cancun Challenge, NIT Season Tip-Off, and the ESPN Events Invitational.
Whether the fields are four or eight teams, that guarantees two or three games over a few days. Though you won’t have time to watch all the contests, you can find any number of good spots to back or fade teams depending on how they are playing. We’ll refer to this as opportunity money.
If a team gets hot and makes it to the championship game, you’ll have useful, fresh information to play on or against them depending on their opponent. The same will also be true if a Top 25 team has a bad week and that will put you on notice to see if that continues or if it was an anomaly over a few games.
If you are a serious college hoops bettor, the added benefit of following this action is by the week’s end you’ll have significant information on 30-40 teams that played in these tournaments, in a variety of leagues that you cannot otherwise get in a short period of time.
