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In football matches, situational factors often favor the hosts because of familiarity with the field and crowd support. As such, most football bettors choose to back the home team and place their bets in their favor. However, backing the home team isn’t always the best option since other factors may influence the results.
Here’s how home and away performance analysis can help football bettors increase their chances of winning.
Factors influencing Home/ Away advantage in football betting
In football, playing at home or on the road can influence the performance of a team and its probability of winning. The hosts usually have the home-field advantage, which helps them play better than the visiting team. This advantage is brought by several factors, including:
- Fan support
With huge crowds cheering them on, the home team is likely to play confidently over the visitors. That’s commonly known as the 12
th man factor in football. Additionally, playing on home ground creates a positive gaming environment and boosts the players’ morale.
- Psychological advantage
When the players are at home, the familiarity of their field, the comfort of their locker room, and the cheering of their fans all contribute to a slight advantage over the visitors. The away team is usually left hanging when playing in unfamiliar territory and usually doesn’t get a lot of support.
A football prediction site like CheekyPunter will often provide predictions favoring in-form home teams as players are more confident and assertive with their playing styles. The Cheeky Punter will also help you to understand
how to use free bets on betfred when placing bets on football games.
- Familiar surroundings
The home team is more familiar with their field surface, dimensions, and other environmental factors that plague their stadium. That gives them an edge over their opponents.
- Fatigue
When teams are playing on the road, they do it while fighting off the exhaustion and stress of traveling. The fatigue might stem from the difference in time zones, disruption to their daily routines, and changes in their sleep schedule. That might reduce the performance of the players.
In the meanwhile, the home team is relaxed in familiar settings, sleeps at home, and doesn’t have to fight off the fatigue that comes from traveling.
High level of enthusiasm in home/away games
During home games, the hosts are highly likely to play aggressively. Tests also show that the testosterone levels of football players increase considerably when playing games at home. Their aggression helps them to have better ball possession and high-yield dribbles.
As a football bettor, it’s your role to analyze the home-field performance patterns of different teams. However, the home-field advantage isn’t the only factor that matters. Check the team’s motivation levels, the presence of key players, and the management’s relationship with the players.
Trend analysis of home/ away goal scoring
How the football teams have scored goals in home or away games is an interesting metric to analyze. Pay attention to the possibility of both teams scoring goals and in which conditions they score goals. For instance, some teams tend to score more goals while at home, while others play defensively while away.
When analyzing this trend, football bettors should consider the number of goals that every side has scored in different conditions. For instance, a team might have scored few goals, but they might have managed to stand against strong teams.
