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Super Bowl First Half Betting 2020


by Trevor Whenham - 1/25/2020

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce

There are things about sports betting that are a little confusing to figure out the first time you see them. Super Bowl first half betting probably isn't one of those things. If you guessed that this is when you bet on the outcome of the first half, then you are a smart cookie. Books post lines and totals for the first half of games as well as several different types of props that apply just to the first two quarters. These numbers aren't nearly as familiar to casual bettors as the regular lines, totals and props, so they don't get hit nearly as hard. In a game with this much betting volume, that can be attractive.

First half betting can be particularly attractive in a game as tight as this one. The spread in the entire game is only at 1 or 1.5 points right now depending on the book, so the first half line cannot be very big. The Chiefs are currently favored by just 0.5 points in most spots right now, and the first half total of 27 in exactly half of the full game total. When the spread on the game is small, then your job in the first half becomes basically thinking about who will be leading, not how much they will be leading by.

If you are thinking about betting first half lines in this year's Super Bowl there are three questions that you need to keep in mind and some 49ers vs. Chiefs betting tips .

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Will the Chiefs show up on time?: The Chiefs have been wildly impressive in the playoffs, but only if you were late tuning into the games. In the first quarter against Houston, they looked truly awful, ultimately falling behind 24-0 before flipping a switch and rolling to a huge win. And though the first quarter wasn't nearly as bleak against the Titans, they were still down 10-0 before scoring in the final minute of the quarter to close the gap and start the march to what felt like an inevitable win. It's impossible to know for sure why they have been so lethargic early on two games in a row when the stakes were as high as they obviously were, so it is tough to know if things will be different this time around. On one hand, they will have had more time to prepare, and you can be sure that they will have worked on this extensively during these two weeks. But the Niners are also a significantly better team than the Titans or the Texans, so it won't be easy to get off to a good start even if they do show up. What you expect from the Chiefs in the first quarter has to go a long way towards how you bet on the first half.

How about the Chiefs in the second quarter?: As bad as the team has been in first quarters, they have done a remarkable job of shaking that off and getting back on track in a hurry. They scored late in the first quarter against Tennessee and then twice more in the second quarter and had the lead for good by the half. And against Houston, they scored four unanswered touchdowns in one of the most impressive quarters I have ever seen a team play. It has been a case of extremes from quarter to quarter for the Chiefs in these playoffs. If you are going to bet the first half, you have to figure out if that is likely to happen again and what that would mean. While they bombed the first half in both games, they were leading and covering this spread by halftime both times. But San Francisco is a better opponent. However, the Chiefs should be sharper early on. Unless they are nervous and tight instead of loose and relaxed as they have clearly been once they get rolling. There is a lot going on here, and you need to be a bit of an amateur psychologist to figure out what it all means.

Does this bet make sense?: This is a good question to be asking here, but it is also the first question that you should be asking any time you make any bet. You have an educated opinion about how things are going to turn out - if you don't, you shouldn't be betting because you are just guessing. So, you need to ask yourself if this is the best way to leverage that opinion in the pursuit of profit. Is betting this the best chance you have of coming out ahead? Or could you do better by looking at a different prop bet, or a different line? If you are really bullish on the Chiefs, then maybe you could get a better return looking at total touchdown props, or props about Mahomes and his production . Or maybe this is indeed the best spot to balance risk and potential reward. There is no clear and obvious answer here. All you can do is keep looking and exploring in search of the best option available for you.

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